The Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers is the oldest low-residency creative writing

Creative writing

Creative writing is considered to be any writing, fiction, poetry, or non-fiction, that goes outside the bounds of normal professional, journalistic, academic, and technical forms of literature. Works which fall into this category include novels, epics, short stories, and poems...

 Master of Fine Arts

Master of Fine Arts

A Master of Fine Arts is a graduate degree typically requiring 2–3 years of postgraduate study beyond the bachelor's degree , although the term of study will vary by country or by university. The MFA is usually awarded in visual arts, creative writing, filmmaking, dance, or theatre/performing arts...

 program in the United States. Prior to the founding of this program, an MFA in creative writing was earned via standard residential graduate programs that required students to be in residence at an academic institution for the majority of the academic year.

Students in the program earn an MFA degree in creative writing over 4-8 semesters. The low-residency model at Warren Wilson requires attendance twice a year (January and July) for ten days of lectures, classes, workshops and readings by both faculty and students. Students are paired with a faculty member who directs the creative and critical

Criticism

Criticism is the judgement of the merits and faults of the work or actions of an individual or group by another . To criticize does not necessarily imply to find fault, but the word is often taken to mean the simple expression of an objection against prejudice, or a disapproval.Another meaning of...

 work for the student over the following semester. This model of short residencies followed by a semester of one-on-one work with a faculty member has been that adopted by most low-residency MFA programs.

History

The Warren Wilson MFA program was founded in 1976 by Ellen Bryant Voigt

Ellen Bryant Voigt

Ellen Bryant Voigt is an American poet. She has published six collections of poetry and a collection of craft essays. Her poetry collection Shadow of Heaven was a finalist for the National Book Award and Kyrie was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Her poetry has been...

 at Goddard College

Goddard College

Goddard College is a private, liberal arts college located in Plainfield, Vermont, offering undergraduate and graduate degree programs. Goddard College currently operates on an intensive low-residency model...

. In 1981, Goddard College became fiscally unstable and the program relocated to Warren Wilson College

Warren Wilson College

Warren Wilson College is a private four-year work college in the Swannanoa Valley, North Carolina, United States near Asheville. It is known for its curriculum of work, academics, and service, called "the Triad," which requires every student to work an on-campus job, perform at least one hundred...

 near Asheville, North Carolina

Asheville, North Carolina

Asheville is a city in and the county seat of Buncombe County, North Carolina, United States. It is the largest city in Western North Carolina, and the 11th largest city in North Carolina. The City is home to the United States National Climatic Data Center , which is the world's largest active...

.

The program's faculty and alumni have won the Pulitzer Prize

Pulitzer Prize

The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...

 and the National Book Award

National Book Award

The National Book Awards are a set of American literary awards. Started in 1950, the Awards are presented annually to American authors for literature published in the current year. In 1989 the National Book Foundation, a nonprofit organization which now oversees and manages the National Book...

, as well as fellowships from the MacArthur Foundation

MacArthur Foundation

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is one of the largest private foundations in the United States. Based in Chicago but supporting non-profit organizations that work in 60 countries, MacArthur has awarded more than US$4 billion since its inception in 1978...

, the Guggenheim Foundation

Guggenheim Fellowship

Guggenheim Fellowships are American grants that have been awarded annually since 1925 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts." Each year, the foundation makes...

, and the National Endowment for the Arts

National Endowment for the Arts

The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...

. The alumni of the program have published hundreds of books and won many awards. The program is currently directed by Debra Allbery

Debra Allbery

-Life:She is an Ohio native. She graduated from College of Wooster, University of Virginia, and University of Iowa.She taught at Dickinson College, Randolph College, the University of Michigan.She teaches at the Warren Wilson College....

.

Faculty

The Warren Wilson MFA program faculty change, thus giving students exposure to many writers. Recent faculty of the program include: Betty Adcock

Betty Adcock

Elizabeth "Betty" Sharp Adcock is an American poet and a 2002–2003 Guggenheim Fellow. Author of six poetry collections, she has served as a faculty member in the Warren Wilson College MFA Program for Writers in Asheville, NC and in the Writer-in-Residence program at Meredith College in...

, Rick Barot, Andrea Barrett

Andrea Barrett

Andrea Barrett is an American novelist, and short story writer. Her Ship Fever collection of novella and short stories won the National Book Award in 1996...

, Charles Baxter

Charles Baxter

Charles Baxter is an American author of fiction, nonfiction and poetry.-Life:Baxter was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to John and Mary Barber Baxter. He graduated from Macalester College in Saint Paul, and taught high school in Pinconning, Michigan, for a year. In 1974 he received his Ph.D...

, Marianne Boruch, Robert Boswell, Lan Samantha Chang

Lan Samantha Chang

Lan Samantha Chang , born 1965, is an American writer of novels and short stories. She is Professor of English at the University of Iowa and Director of the Iowa Writers' Workshop- Life and career :...

, Michael Collier

Michael Collier (poet)

Michael Robert Collier is an American poet, teacher, creative writing program administrator and editor. He has published five books of original poetry, a translation of Euripedes' Medea, a book of prose pieces about poetry, and has edited three anthologies of poetry. From 2001 to 2004 he was the...

, Stephen Dobyns

Stephen Dobyns

Stephen J. Dobyns is an American poet and novelist born in Orange, New Jersey, and residing in Westerly, RI.-Life:Was born on February 19, 1941 in Orange, New Jersey to Lester L., a minister, and Barbara Johnston...

, Jennifer Grotz

Jennifer Grotz

Jennifer Grotz is an American poet and translator who teaches English and creative writing at the Warren Wilson College MFA Program for Writers and at the University of Rochester, where she is Assistant Professor...

, Brooks Haxton, David Haynes, Tony Hoagland

Tony Hoagland

Anthony Dey Hoagland is an American poet and writer. His poetry collection 2003, What Narcissism Means to Me, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Other honors include two grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, a 2000 Guggenheim Fellowship in Poetry, and a...

, C.J. Hribal, A. Van Jordan

A. Van Jordan

-Life:He graduated from Wittenberg University, Springfield, Ohio, 1987, with a BA. He graduated from Howard University, 1990, with an MA. He graduated from Warren Wilson College, 1998, with an MFA. He lived in Washington, D.C....

, Victor LaValle, Thomas Mallon

Thomas Mallon

Thomas Mallon is a novelist and critic. He was born in Glen Cove, New York. He attended Brown University as an undergraduate and earned a Master of Arts and a Ph.D. from Harvard. He received the Ingram Merrill Foundation Award in 1994 and won a Rockefeller Fellowship in 1987...

, Maurice Manning

Maurice Manning (poet)

Maurice Manning is an American poet. His first collection of poems, Lawrence Booth's Book of Visions was awarded the Yale Younger Poets Award, chosen by W.S. Merwin....

, Heather McHugh

Heather McHugh

-Life:Heather McHugh, a poet, translator, and educator, was born in San Diego, California, to Canadian parents, John Laurence, a marine biologist, and Eileen Francesca . They raised McHugh in Gloucester Point, Virginia. There, her father directed the marine biological laboratory on the York River...

, Steve Orlen, Frederick Reiken

Frederick Reiken

Frederick Reiken is an American author from Livingston, New Jersey known for his novels and short stories.Reiken attended the Pingry School, Princeton University and the University of California, Irvine. His first novel, The Odd Sea, won the Hackney Literary award and was selected one of the best...

, Martha Rhodes

Martha Rhodes

Martha Rhodes is an American poet, teacher, and publisher. She is author of four poetry collections, most recently The Beds and Mother Quiet...

, Danzy Senna

Danzy Senna

-Biography:Danzy Senna was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the middle child of three children. Her mother is the Anglo-American poet and novelist Fanny Howe. Her father is the African-American writer and journalist, Carl Senna, author of The Black Press and the Struggle for Civil Rights and The...

, David Shields

David Shields

David Shields is an American author of non-fiction, fiction, and works that resist generic classification. His latest book is Reality Hunger: A Manifesto...

, Megan Staffel, Daniel Tobin

Daniel Tobin

Daniel Tobin is an American poet.He graduated from Iona College with a B.A., from Harvard University with a M.T.S., from Warren Wilson College with an M.F.A., and from University of Virginia with a Ph.D...

, Ellen Bryant Voigt

Ellen Bryant Voigt

Ellen Bryant Voigt is an American poet. She has published six collections of poetry and a collection of craft essays. Her poetry collection Shadow of Heaven was a finalist for the National Book Award and Kyrie was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Her poetry has been...

, C. Dale Young

C. Dale Young

C. Dale Young is an American poet and writer, physician, editor and educator.-Life:Young writes and publishes poetry and short stories, practices medicine full-time, edits poetry for New England Review, and teaches in the Warren Wilson College MFA Program for Writers...

, Dean Young

Dean Young

Dean Young may refer to:*Dean Young *Dean Young , Australian professional rugby league footballer*Dean Young , scripter for the Blondie comic strip...

, and others. The list of the faculty over the entire 30-year history of the program numbers above 150 writers.

Course of Study

All semesters in the Program begin and end with a 10-day residency. Students completing the program without break will attend five residencies and complete four semesters. The residencies include lectures, classes, workshops, and seminars. Some students opt to do one or more extra semesters, and some opt to take a semester off at times.

• Semester 1: Students generate new writing under supervision of their Faculty Adviser, revise work, write 12-15 annotations (examining a work from the perspective of single element of craft), and read 20 books related to their genre.

• Semester 2: Students generate new writing under supervision of their Faculty Adviser, revise work, write 12-15 annotations (examining a work from the perspective of single element of craft), and read 20 books related to their genre, as well as beginning to formulate the topic for their Degree Essay.

• Semester 3: Students write a 30-50 page degree essay examining one or more works with regard to elements of craft, which is required in order to advance toward graduation.

• Semester 4: Students generate a thesis of work of publishable quality be writing new poetry or fiction as well as revising work previously generated in the program, write 12-15 annotations, read 20 or more books toward their bibliography, and prepare a Class to be given at their final residency.

External Links

Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers Web Page