Whether an MFA student or an undergraduate minoring in creative writing, you’ll be challenged to grow and mature as a writer as you pursue your literary and academic goals. You will study with established as well as emerging authors and scholars and be part of a thriving artistic and intellectual community.
Graduate Program
The MFA program in creative writing at the University of Alabama is among the most renowned in the nation, with an 80-year tradition of distinction that counts among its alumni generations of working writers. Since its inception, scores of award-winning writers have called the MFA at UA home, with our renowned faculty at their backs.
Set on the banks of the Black Warrior River, The University of Alabama houses an MFA program in which students can take workshops in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, as well as a wide range of special topics courses. Our offerings allow writers to explore multiple ways to approach the writing process as well as sub-genres such as memoir, the lyric essay, and flash fiction. Our courses allow you to investigate genres and ways of writing you haven’t yet tried.
As a training ground for the aspiring writer, it’s tough to beat what we offer in Tuscaloosa: a foundational depth of literary study and an expansive interdisciplinary practice in writing across genres.
The faculty in creative writing each have specialties and interests that they bring with them into the classroom, from collaboration and screenwriting to criticism and multimedia. Our curriculum is built for and around students, giving them unique opportunities found in few other programs—especially, to bend and cross genres. Furthermore, many world-recognized visiting writers stop through Tuscaloosa each year, providing professional advice, artistic exposure, and short workshops to our students.
Beyond being a fully funded program with research and teaching assistantships, UA’s MFA program provides students with the choice to explore professional and educational opportunities outside the English department and to involve themselves in institutions with deep import for the culture and for justice in the state of Alabama, like the Alabama Prison Arts & Education Project and Black Warrior Review.
Undergraduate Program
The Department of English also offers an undergraduate minor in creative writing aimed at producing creative writers who can carry their craft to graduate school or any kind of job, be it publishing books, media, teaching, arts administration, or the professions.