UNCW's Department of Creative Writing unites a community of passionate, dedicated writers who believe that the creation of art is a pursuit valuable to self and culture. Our faculty fosters a rigorous yet supportive environment in which writers can grow as artists and individuals. The department devotes itself to the pursuit of excellence in writing through an informed application of craft. We value versatility, and we encourage writers to explore aesthetics and methods across genre lines.
A writing community's spirit begins with the individual's commitment to other visions—the desire to help others fulfill their aspirations, too. Our MFA program—an intensive, three-year studio-academic experience in the writing of fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction—joins students who share a common passion and faculty members who provide critical support of their work.
The faculty of the Department of Creative Writing view MFA students as colleagues-in-the-making. To help initiate them into the profession, we offer a series of panels and workshops designed to address practical issues that lie outside the scope of the writing workshop.
Our faculty members consider it a privilege to teach in such a community, and our invitation to successful candidates to join our MFA community is an equal privilege and should be regarded as such. We do all that we can to mentor our MFA students to successful lives as writers; in return we ask that they contribute something of value to our writing community.
The MFA at UNCW is a 48-hour apprenticeship, requiring a total of 21 hours of writing workshops, 21 hours of literature or other elective courses, and 6 thesis hours, leading to completion and defense of a substantial book-length manuscript of literary merit and publishable quality. While students apply in and focus primarily on one genre, cross-genre study is encouraged. Coursework in editing and publishing is offered through our book publishing imprint, The Publishing Laboratory. Coursework in magazine production is also offered in conjunction with Ecotone, our department's national literary magazine.
Our MFA students and alumni have published books with major commercial and university presses (Crown, Random House, Algonquin, St. Martin's, University of Nebraska Press), and have contributed dozens of poems, stories, articles and essays to many of the nation's finest periodicals, including Boulevard, Oxford American, Virginia Quarterly Review, Ms., GQ, Minnesota Review, Ontario Review, Cimarron Review, Mississippi Review, Puerto del Sol, The Vermont Literary Review, Princeton Arts Review, and many others.
The Nov./Dec. 2009 issue of Poets & Writers named UNCW’s MFA in Creative Writing program as one of the nation’s top 25 writing programs. "It is astounding that a program created in 1996 has risen to challenge some of the most highly regarded creative writing programs in the country," said Chancellor Rosemary DePaolo in a press release. UNCW ranked no. 24, ahead of such well-funded programs as Boston University, Penn State, and Sarah Lawrence College. Additionally, the MFA program ranked no. 5 in creative nonfiction, no. 22 in poetry, and no. 25 in fiction.
To learn more about the MFA in Creative Writing, see the link for Prospective Students in the menu at the left. There you'll find FAQs with helpful, detailed information about the Program. For instructions on how to apply to the Program, please see the Apply page.
Department of Creative Writing
University of North Carolina Wilmington
601 South College Road
Wilmington, NC 28403–5938
