MFA Program
See writers who attended this programPoetry: Timothy Donnelly, Dorothea Lasky, Shane McCrae, Deborah Paredez, Lynn Xu
Fiction: Paul Beatty, Anelise Chen, Nicholas Christopher, Rivka Galchen, Heidi Julavits, Binnie Kirshenbaum, Victor LaValle, Sam Lipsyte, Ben Marcus, Orhan Pamuk, Matthew Salesses, Gary Shteyngart, Alan Ziegler
Nonfiction: Hilton Als, Jaquira Díaz, Lis Harris, Leslie Jamison, Margo Jefferson, Wendy S. Walters
Translation: Susan Bernofsky
Recent Adjunct Faculty: Mark Bibbins, CAConrad, Cynthia Cruz, Mark Doten, Joshua Furst, Alan Gilbert, Xiaolu Guo, Madhu Kaza, John Keene, Nicole Krauss, Gideon Lewis-Kraus, Lynn Melnick, Daphne Merkin, Ben Metcalf, Erroll McDonald, Jen Percy, Rowan Ricardo Phillips, Alice Quinn, Camille Rankine, Leanne Shapton, Benjamin Taylor, Jia Tolentino, Lara Vapnyar, Natasha Wimmer, Brenda Wineapple, Phillip B. Williams, James Wood, Monica Youn, Jenny Zhang
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