MFA degree expands creative writing program

The university will begin admitting students to a new two-year Master of Fine Arts program in creative writing in fall 2001.

With the addition of an MFA degree, the university becomes the nation’s only university offering creative writing programs for undergraduates, graduates, and post-graduates. The university currently offers a B.A. in English with Creative Writing Emphasis and, through the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing, awards six annual fellowships to post-graduate writers working on a first book.

“We’ve designed a small, flexible MFA program that allows faculty writers to mentor student writers,” says Kercheval, co-director of UW–Madison’s Creative Writing Program.

Students admitted this fall begin study in fall 2002. Permanent staff will include Quan Barry, Roberta Hill, Jesse Lee Kercheval, Ron Kuka, Judith Claire Mitchell, Lorrie Moore, Rob Nixon and Ron Wallace.

All incoming MFA students will be funded. Two poetry applicants will be awarded Martha Meier Renk Distinguished Graduate Fellowships in Poetry, which provide stipends of approximately $15,000, expense accounts of $1,500, free tuition, and health benefits, during one of their two years in residence.

All other students will receive two-year teaching assistantships that include annual stipends of approximately $8,500 the first year and $9,000 the second year, free tuition, health benefits, and extensive teacher training. In addition, all students (except Renk Fellows) will receive $2,500 Martha Meier Renk, Dorothy D. Bailey, or Anastasia C. Hoffmann Prize Scholarships at the end of their first year in residence.

The program will also permit students to work in multiple genres. “Poets and fiction writers will take one workshop together, and creative non-fiction workshops will be offered,” Kercheval says. “Many members of our faculty work in more than one genre and we’re in an ideal position to help students do the same.”

In fall 2002, the university will admit six fiction writers to the MFA program. The year after, six poets will be admitted. Admissions will continue to alternate between fiction writers and poets. Applications for the first class of fiction writers are due Dec. 15.