UIUC Creative Writing Program

About Our Graduate Program

The Masters of Fine Arts degree at the University of Illinois provides students with the opportunity for graduate study and professional training in the writing of fiction and poetry. It also trains writers to become teachers of writing, supplying them with the terminal degree appropriate for university teaching and gives them experience in literary editing and publishing.

All students admitted to the graduate program are automatically considered for fellowships and teaching assistantships. All are granted financial aid, both in the first year and throughout the program, as long as they remain in good standing and make reasonable progress toward their degree. Most awards are in the form of teaching assistantships, but some fellowships are available. All awards include tuition and partial fee waivers, although students must pay some fees. Entering MFA candidates receive three years of support. The first year of support is set at 33% (teaching one class a semester) and earns the graduate student $9,031; fellowship funds in the amount of $2,500 are given to first-year students to augment the stipend. In their second and third years, students receive 67% appointments (teaching two courses a semester) and earn $18,337. These are 2008-2009 dollars, a number that usually goes up every year.

Assistants holding appointments ranging from 25 percent through 67 percent time are exempt from payment of tuition and the service fee, but may pay the insurance, health service, and other non-waivable fees. Assistantship stipends are taxable and taxes are withheld from monthly paychecks. The associated tuition waivers are not taxable.

Students with a Teaching Assistantship or Fellowship receive a waiver of tuition and a portion of other fees. Current fees for students with financial aid are approximately $1,032 a year.

Information about health care is available at the university's Graduate College website.

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is a world-class research and teaching institution. The University Library, with over eight million volumes, ranks as the third largest in the country. The MFA program is affiliated with an English Department routinely ranked among the highest in the nation. The creative writing faculty features several distinguished poets and fiction writers with national and international reputations, and the program’s Carr reading series brings in writers and poets of high caliber and international renown.

The primary goal of the MFA in Creative Writing is to give literary artists time and space to work on perfecting their art. Financial support, in the form of scholarships, fellowships, or teaching assistantships, is available to each student in the program. Upon completion of the program, students will have the pedagogical skills necessary to teach writing and will produce a book-length, publishable manuscript. Students will also have the opportunity to gain extensive experience in literary editing and publishing while enrolled in the program. Ninth Letter, the University of Illinois's innovative literature and arts magazine, is published by the M.F.A. in Creative Writing Program in collaboration with the School of Art and Design. The semi-annual publication features emerging and established writers of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and other genres undefined, as well as visual artists working in a variety of mediums. All of this collaborative energy comes together in a highly designed format, both in print and on the web. Ninth Letter is dedicated to providing educational opportunities to all interested MFA candidates. Students may enroll in the Ninth Letter-based literary publishing course and are eligible to apply for a range of semester-long and annual assistantships.

Applications for the M.F.A. in Creative Writing Program must be submitted, complete with supporting materials, to the Graduate Admissions Office by 12 noon (CST), December 17. For more information about the application process, go to the Graduate Studies in English website.

If you have questions about the MFA in Creative Writing program that can be best answered from a student perspective, please feel free to email our graduate students who have included their contact information here.