MFA Program
See writers who attended this program
Poetry: Timothy Donnelly, Dorothea Lasky, Shane McCrae, Deborah Paredez, Lynn Xu
Fiction: Paul Beatty, Anelise Chen, Nicholas Christopher, Rivka Galchen, Heidi Julavits, Victor LaValle, Hilary Leichter, Sam Lipsyte, Ben Marcus, Gary Shteyngart, Alan Ziegler
Nonfiction: Chloé Cooper Jones, Jaquira Díaz, Leslie Jamison, Margo Jefferson, Wendy S. Walters
Translation: Susan Bernofsky
Recent Adjunct Faculty: Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Hannah Lillith Assadi, Chris Beam, Keri Bertino, Sam Bett, Mark Bibbins, Lisa Brennan-Jobs, Matthew Burgess, Halle Butler, Eliza Callahan, James Cañon, Maisy Card, Frances Cha, Bonnie Chau, Josh Cohen, Lilly Dancyger, Matty Davis, Alex Dimitrov, Katrina Dodson, Geoff Dyer, Emma Golden, David Gordon, Benjamin Hale, Susan Hartman, Nathan Heller, Joanna Hershon, Lars Horn, Brigid Hughes, Evan James, Katrine Jensen, Nalini Jones, Madhu Kaza, John Gideon Lewis-Kraus, Anika Jade Levy, Tan Lin, Amy Grace Loyd, Jack Lowry, Susan Luo, Erroll McDonald, Lynn Melnick, Elizabeth Metzger, Lincoln Michel, Michael F. Moore, Michelle Orange, Nadia Owusu, Ed Park, Alice Quinn, Heather Radke, Emma Ramadan, Chase Rhys, Sarah Rothenberg, Leonard Schwartz, Mina Seçkin, Yasmine Seale, Vijay Seshadri, Jesse Sheidlower, Ira Silverberg, Emily Skillings, Dinitia Smith, Jessi Jezewska Stevens, Lynn Steger Strong, Benjamin Taylor, Justin Taylor, Jeremy Tiang, Edwin Torres, Lara Vapnyar, Asiya Wadud, Adelle Waldman, Alyson Waters, Sasha Weiss, Adam Wilson, James Wood, Matvei Yankelevich, James Yeh, Kate Zambreno
The program offers partial funding, including administrative and teaching assistantships, 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.
Daphne Palasi Andreades ’19, Hannah Lillith Assadi ’13, Carlos Barragán ’24, Mary Jo Bang ’98, Sasha Bonét ’16, Cat Bohannon ’09, Lucie Brock-Broido ’82, Woody Brown ’24, Eliza Barry Callahan ’22, Jessamine Chan ’12, Jinwoo Chong ’21, Emmeline Clein ’22, Zinzi Clemmons ’13, Emma Cline ’13, Melissa Clark ’94, Henri Cole ’82, Madeleine Cravens ’22, Naima Coster ’15, Kiran Desai ’99, Rebecca Donner ’01, Patrick James Errington ’15, Peter Farrelly ’86, Jennifer Franklin ’96, Jean Kyoung Frazier ’18, Forsyth Harmon ’13, Carlie Hoffman ’16, Marie Howe ’83, Jakob Guanzon ’17, Katrine Øgaard Jensen ’17, Cyrée Jarelle Johnson ’19, Diane Josefowicz ’08, Crystal Hana Kim ’14, Sophie Kemp ’23, Jordan Kisner ’16, Lin King ’22, Alexandra Kleeman ’12, E.J. Koh ’13, Rachel Kushner ’01, Catherine Lacey ’10, Joseph Lee ’17, Anika Jade Levy ’23, Adam Levy ’12, Ashley Nelson Levy ’12, Daniel Lefferts ’19, Sanaë Lemoine ’15, Hilary Leichter ’12, Rodney Terich Leonard ’18, Madelaine Lucas ’19, Alistair Mackay ’18, E.J. McAdams ’98, Kayla Maiuri ’15, Molly McGhee ’19, Lynn Melnick ’97, Elizabeth Metzger ’15, Susan Minot ’83, Sofia Montrone ’23, Rick Moody ’86, Diana Khoi Nguyen ’12, Sigrid Nunez ’75, Gregory Orr ’72, Dinaw Mengestu ’05, Julie Otsuka ’94, Gregory Pardlo ’16, Kimberly King Parsons ’10, Leila Philip ’91, Camille Rankine ’09, Claudia Rankine ’93, Karen Russell ’06, Vijay Seshadri ’88, Brenda Shaughnessy ’98, Mina Seçkin ’18, Emily Skillings ’17, Tracy K. Smith ’97, Mary South ’14, Jessi Jezewska Stevens ’18, Lynn Steger Strong ’14, Terese Svoboda ’78, Adam Wilson ’09, Stephanie Wambugu ’24, Alice Evelyn Yang ’22, Kao Kalia Yang ’05