Schools Offering the Best Master’s Programs in Creative Writing
Higher Education Articles August 24, 2015Students seeking to advance their writing skills should look into master’s degree programs in creative writing. These programs are practical degrees. Students will be able to focus on their writing in a professional and academic environment.
Overview of Schools Offering Creative Writing Master’s Programs
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Columbia University offer two of the best master’s degree programs in creative writing in the United States. Both schools enjoy national recognition for their superiority in fine arts education. Students enrolled in the programs are offered numerous options for the exploration of a variety of aspects of creative writing. In this article, we take a look at these schools:
School of the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago, IL)
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) was 3rd on the U.S. News & World Report’s 2008 list of the best graduate programs in fine arts. A Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.) in Writing is available at SAIC. The degree can be customized by students in accordance with a creative writing genre of their choice, including poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction or screenwriting. Coursework may cover satirical writing, young adult fiction, and plot structure. Students enrolled in the 2-year program are encouraged to choose coursework from outside their genre as well as from other art forms, such as performance or visual art.
Columbia University (City of New York)
The Columbia University in the City of New York was ranked 11th on its 2008 list of best fine arts graduate programs by the U.S. News & World Report. An intimate, workshop format is the setting for the school’s MFA in Creative Writing program whose emphasis is on their students’ artistic development. A choice of concentrations in poetry, literary nonfiction, or fiction is available to students. Courses focus on narrative, plot, publication and editing.
List of Schools Offering Master’s Programs in Creative Writing
| Name of School | Distinction | Campus Location |
| Arizona State University | The Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing at Arizona State University offers an eighteen months Your Novel Year program that provide students with support and mentoring in writing a novel; students in the program will be able to network with publishers, editors, and agents. | Tempe, AZ |
| Indiana University – Bloomington | Students in Master of Fine Arts program will receive funding for three years for teaching first-year composition and nine courses in creative writing. | Bloomington, IN |
| New York University | There is a low-residency Master of Fine Arts program in Creative Writing at New York University where students take intensive study through five, ten days writing workshops in Paris. | New York, NY |
| Temple University | Students enrolled in Creative Writing master’s program will be able to gain experience as an editor while working on TINGE Magazine, which is Temple University’s online literary journal. | Philadelphia, PA |
| University of Georgia | The Master of Fine Arts program in Creative Writing includes a study of creative non-fiction, along with poetry and fiction. | Athens, GA |
| University of Illinois – Urbana-Champaign | Students in the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program publish the school’s literature and arts magazine (Ninth Letter), twice a year. | Champaign, IL |
| University of Michigan – Ann Arbor | Helen Zell Writer’s Program | Ann Arbor, MI |
| University of Southern California | The Master of Professional Writing program at University of Southern California offers screen and stage writing and new media writing studies, along with non-fiction, poetry, and fiction. | Los Angeles, CA |
| University of Washington – Seattle Campus | Students in the creative writing program will be able to get hands-on training in publishing through the school’s literary journal (Seattle Review). | Seattle, WA |
| University of Wisconsin – Madison | Each year, six students are admitted into the Master of Fine Arts program in Creative Writing at the University of Wisconsin – Madison; fiction students will be admitted in odd numbered years, and poetry students will be admitted in even numbered years. | Madison, WI |
