Iowa State University MFA Program in Creative Writing and Environment

Iowa State University MFA Program in Creative Writing and Environment An interdisciplinary MFA program where writers explore the complex influences & experiences of environment through poetry, fiction, nonfiction, & drama.

Iowa State University's three-year MFA Program in Creative Writing and Environment emphasizes study in creative writing—poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and drama—that encourages writers to identify and explore in their stories and lyric impressions the complex influences of place, the natural world, and the environmental imagination. The human story finds its structure in geology and geography, in bi

ology and chemistry—both natural and constructed—and in the complex and rapidly-changing cultural and natural landscape. With more people sharing our planet’s finite space and with our planet and its systems imperiled, an educated attention to place in the broadest sense of the term is vital. From Homer's Odyssey to Melville's Moby Dick, from Black Elk to Black Boy, from Virginia Woolf to Tobias Wolff, the literary arts acknowledge an inherent connection between the imprint of place and environment on the stories and images that shape the work of literary writers. Through a program of study that includes a rigorous combination of creative writing workshops, literature coursework, environmental fieldwork experience, interdisciplinary study in courses other than English, and intensive one-on-one work with a mentor (‘major professor’), our MFA program offers gifted writers an original and intensive opportunity to document, meditate on, mourn, and celebrate the complexities of our transforming natural world. This page is managed by MFA students and faculty.

Food, Poetry and Wine The end of a semester!
05/14/2026

Food, Poetry and Wine

The end of a semester!

Here are a few highlights from 30th anniversary gala. Ooo! Keep sliding through, to see the most amazing professors you...
05/13/2026

Here are a few highlights from 30th anniversary gala.

Ooo! Keep sliding through, to see the most amazing professors you could ever ask for.

Who do you recognize here?

See MFA alum Jessi Brock's new play on Saturday!
04/29/2026

See MFA alum Jessi Brock's new play on Saturday!

IN OUR BACKYARD: A New Eco-Play Festival is May 1st-3rd! Check out our Saturday morning lineup!

Ten-Minute Plays, inspired by the Ames Climate Action Plan
Music by De'An Keys & The Unique Vibrationz
Saturday, May 2nd, 10:30 AM, at Ames Public Library

THE COMPOST PILE by Jessi Brock
On a quiet street in Ames, Iowa, a little compost pile leads to some friendly neighborly bickering and local bureaucracy.

ARTISTIC TEAM
Director: Karen Murphy
Stage Directions: Sophia Strathearn
Jay: Kiernan McReynolds
Corbin: Michele Olsen
Finch: Gabe Buttermore

Free and open to the public. Sign language interpretation will be provided by Kadyn Dimler and Lauren Mills.

Visit www.ecotheatrelab.com/in-our-backyard-festival for more info!

In partnership with Ames Climate Action Team.
Publicity artwork by Natalie Deam.

~~~
Support for this project is provided by the City of Ames Climate Action Grant Program, Discover Ames, Ames Public Library Friends Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts and the Iowa Arts Council, which exists within the Iowa Economic Development Authority.

Labyrinth Coffee Ames Public Library City of Ames - City Government Discover Ames

Snippet of yesterday’s reading by the incredible author .layne on Q***r Taxonomy.Mr Matthew Glasgow is an alumni of the...
04/24/2026

Snippet of yesterday’s reading by the incredible author .layne on Q***r Taxonomy.

Mr Matthew Glasgow is an alumni of the MFA program at . His award winning book, Deciduous Queen was published by Red Hen Press.

We are excited to share one of our MFA graduate students publication in Ejiro Elizabeth Edward is current pursuing her ...
04/19/2026

We are excited to share one of our MFA graduate students publication in

Ejiro Elizabeth Edward is current pursuing her masters degree in creative writing and environment. She has won several awards and has been published in houses such as Hoax magazine, Reckoning, Lolwe amongst many others.

She is also the recipient of the Pearl Hogrefe award, the Obsidian fellowship award, the Social Activist awards amongst many others.

She is currently working on her manuscript which she hopes to get published.

Emerging writer is right around the corner! Ten days from now, come listen to our finest writers in person of jackson ...
04/18/2026

Emerging writer is right around the corner!

Ten days from now, come listen to our finest writers in person of

jackson


Set your reminders! Remember, all attendees will be getting a 15% off discount from the purchase at .

We look forward to seeing you 🫶

Address

203 Ross Hall
Ames, IA
50011

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