MFA Program
See writers who attended this program
Poetry: Timothy Donnelly, Dorothea Lasky, Shane McCrae, Deborah Paredez, Lynn Xu
Fiction: Diksha Basu, Paul Beatty, Anelise Chen, Nicholas Christopher, Deborah Eisenberg, Richard Ford, Rivka Galchen, Heidi Julavits, Binnie Kirshenbaum, Victor LaValle, Sam Lipsyte, Ben Marcus, Orhan Pamuk, Matthew Salesses, Gary Shteyngart, Alan Ziegler
Nonfiction: Hilton Als, Lis Harris, Leslie Jamison, Margo Jefferson, Richard Locke, Phillip Lopate, Wendy S. Walters
Translation: Susan Bernofsky
Recent Adjunct Faculty: Gila Ashtor, Hannah Assadi, Corinna Barsan, Cris Beam, Keri Bertino, Matthew Burgess, James Cañón, Bonnie Chau, CAConrad, Lilly Dancyger, Carina del Valle Schorske, Jay Deshpande, Katrina Dodson, Thom Donovan, Joshua Edwards, Monica Ferrell, BK Fischer, Ruth Franklin, Josh Furst, Alan Gilbert, Eli Gottlieb, Yardenne Greenspan, Benjamin Hale, Joanna Hershon, Briallen Hopper, Nailini Jones, Madhu Kaza, Nicole Krauss, Daniel Magariel, Erroll McDonald, Lynn Melnick, Lincoln Michel, Alicia Mountain, Michelle Orange, Joseph Osmundson, Nadia Owusu, Saïd Sayrafiezadeh, Leonard Schwartz, Rachel Sherman, Lee Siegel, Ira Silverberg, Hasanthika Sirisena, Emily Skillings, Lynn Steger Strong, Benjamin Taylor, Edwin Torres, Lara Vapnyar, Asiya Wadud, Brenda Wineapple, Mark Wunderlich, Matvei Yankelevich, Kate Zambreno
The program offers partial funding, including administrative and teaching fellowships, research assistantships, scholarships, and internships.
The program includes a joint course of study in literary translation known as Literary Translation at Columbia (LTAC).
There are events, readings, and conversations throughout the year, including the Creative Writing Lectures, Nonfiction Dialogues, Life After the MFA panels, student reading series, and the Columbia Selects MFA Alumni Reading Series at KGB Bar.
Other programs and outlets include:
Columbia Artist/Teachers (CA/T) provides MFA teachers with training and teaching opportunities on and off campus, with students of all ages and levels.
Our Word, a student group promoting diversity within the Writing Program and in the broader literary community.
Columbia Journal, a student-run literary magazine.
Elisa Albert, Mia Alvar, Jonathan Ames, Daphne Palasi Andreades, G'Ra Asim, Hannah Assadi, Jesse Ball, Mary Jo Bang, Mandy Berman, Lucie Brock-Broido, Gabrielle Calvocoressi, Jessamine Chan, Tina Chang, Melissa Clark, Emma Cline, Henri Cole, Kiran Desai, Rebecca Donner, Stephen Dubner, Peter Farrelly, Lexi Freiman, Matt Gallagher, Philip Gourevitch, Eliza Griswold, Marie Howe, Katrine Øgaard Jensen, Mat Johnson, Owen King, Jordan Kisner, Alexandra Kleeman, E.J. Koh, Rachel Kushner, Catherine Lacey, Stephen McCauley, Campbell McGrath, Lynn Melnick, Dinaw Mengestu, Susan Minot, Rick Moody, Diana Khoi Nguyen, Sigrid Nunez, Julie Otsuka, Gregory Pardlo, Martin Pousson, Richard Price, Claudia Rankine, Camille Rankine, Karen Russell, Vijay Seshadri, Brenda Shaughnessy, Mona Simpson, Emily Skillings, Sarah Smarsh, Tracy K. Smith, Lynn Steger Strong, Wells Tower, Mai Der Vang, Adam Wilson, Brian Young