LSU Creative Writing

LSU Creative Writing The Creative Writing Program at LSU was founded in 1968 by David Madden. Our fully-funded MFA is nearly 40 years old.

At the cross-roads of Louisiana’s vibrant regional culture and a thriving 21st century arts community, LSU’s nationally-ranked MFA program is home to a dynamic group of writers working in traditional, hybrid, and new media genres. We are a three-year, generously funded program, and our students have ample opportunity to work intensively with our award-winning faculty. Our students are encouraged t

o develop a program of study that complements their writing practice and supports the emergence of their unique voice. Through individual and collaborative learning, our program fosters critical discussions about the arts and culture, politics and history, both in and out of the classroom. We emphasize a broad knowledge of contemporary writing and publishing, and we support the development of crucial professional skills: our MFA students edit their own literary journal, curate the MFA reading series, organize the Delta Mouth Literary Festival, and have the opportunity to intern at The Southern Review. With New Orleans nearby and all of southern Louisiana’s rich cultural heritage to explore, there are few places so conducive to leading a thriving, engaged life as a writer as LSU.

Many kudos to graduating MFA Bunny Morris! 🐇 Bunny Morris (he/it) otherwise known as “fujoshi angel,” “lobotomy candidat...
04/23/2026

Many kudos to graduating MFA Bunny Morris! 🐇

Bunny Morris (he/it) otherwise known as “fujoshi angel,” “lobotomy candidate,” and other bu****it is a “poet” and an “artist” advocating for the perverts of society. He could be from somewhere, and has been published both there and also elsewhere but mostly and exactly right here. It hopes you are learning to make out with the most evil parts of yourself. More info on: https://bunnymorris.wixsite.com/poetry

Let's hear it for Bunny!

Thus concludes our grad spotlights... we'll see y'all Sunday for the graduating MFA reading!

Tip your hats to Justin for getting his degree! 🧢 💯 Justin Howerton is a writer from Memphis, TN. Poetry is his first lo...
04/22/2026

Tip your hats to Justin for getting his degree! 🧢 💯

Justin Howerton is a writer from Memphis, TN. Poetry is his first love, but lately he’s been trying to wrangle prose. His first feature-length script, Clearing the Trace, was a finalist in the 2024 Del Shores Foundation Writers Search. Recent poems can be found in Foglifter and Bicoastal Review. He’s won the William Jay Smith MFA Award for Poetry and the Ruth Elizabeth McClain Cassidy MFA Award for Screenwriting. He’s at work on a novel.

Let's give it up for the fiercely talented Brooke Stanish! 🌷 Brooke Stanish is a writer and MFA candidate at Louisiana S...
04/21/2026

Let's give it up for the fiercely talented Brooke Stanish! 🌷

Brooke Stanish is a writer and MFA candidate at Louisiana State University. Her work appears or is forthcoming in Bloodletter, Sans.PRESS, After Dinner Conversation, Josephine Quarterly, Either/Or, and elsewhere. Her work has also been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and a Shirley Jackson Award, and she was a recipient of the David Madden Award for Fiction as well.

Many congratulations, Brooke! 🎈 ❤️

We're sending off our graduating MFAs with an action-packed reading this Sunday!Come thru to hear their outstanding work...
04/20/2026

We're sending off our graduating MFAs with an action-packed reading this Sunday!

Come thru to hear their outstanding work and celebrate their achievements. We'll also have food and refreshments available 🥂

See y'all there!

Everyone's favorite Pittsburgher is graduating!! 🍔 A third-year MFA candidate at LSU, Caldwell Holden is a writer, barte...
04/16/2026

Everyone's favorite Pittsburgher is graduating!! 🍔

A third-year MFA candidate at LSU, Caldwell Holden is a writer, bartender, and social artist from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He received his BA in Literature from Bennington College where he studied “Immersion Based Storytelling.” He has also studied in Siena, Italy, completed a writing residency in Oatmeal Creek, TX, and traveled the US living out of his jeep. His fiction has appeared in SHANTIH Journal and Atticus Review. His journalism has appeared in 90.5 WESA and Stylo24.

Round of applause for Caldwell! 👏

Coming from one LA to another, Jalen Giovanni Jones is graduating! 🎥 💘 Jalen Giovanni Jones is a Black and Filipino writ...
04/16/2026

Coming from one LA to another, Jalen Giovanni Jones is graduating! 🎥 💘

Jalen Giovanni Jones is a Black and Filipino writer from Los Angeles. His work has been supported by the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, the Tin House Workshop, the Lambda Literary Retreat, and the Kenyon Review Workshop, and he will be attending the Kimbilio Retreat this summer. A winner of the David Madden MFA Award for Fiction, his writing can be found/is forthcoming in Callaloo, Electric Literature, Foglifter, and elsewhere. He is the Editorial Assistant for The Southern Review, a former editor for Electric Literature, and this is his third year in the MFA.

Enormous congrats, Jalen! 🌟

Friends, catch a few of our community members this weekend reading at The New Orleans Poetry Festival!Louisiana State Un...
04/14/2026

Friends, catch a few of our community members this weekend reading at The New Orleans Poetry Festival!

Louisiana State University is one of the few MFA programs in the state and one that encourages multi-genre and hybrid writing. To showcase its diversity and robustness of poetic styles, LSU presents a reading by professors, instructors, and graduate students. Contributors Adam Clay, Ariel Francisco, Jesse DeLong, Nuha Fariha, Brooke Stanish and Sarah Brockhaus will read in a range of forms, from traditional to experimental techniques. While reading from new and recently published work, each writer will explore the broader sense of place, both in Baton Rouge and beyond.

Floridians, satirists, awake! We're shouting out Brett Hymel Jr. 🐊 Brett Hymel Jr. writes stories for bugs. His short fi...
04/07/2026

Floridians, satirists, awake! We're shouting out Brett Hymel Jr. 🐊

Brett Hymel Jr. writes stories for bugs. His short fiction has appeared in The Cincinnati Review, Split Lip Magazine, Subtropics, Black Warrior Review, Prime Number Magazine, and elsewhere. He was a finalist for the 2026 Cecilia Joyce Johnson Short Story Award and the 2026 WICW Fellowship Program. His stories have been twice nominated for the Blair anthology series, New Stories from the South. Bang his line: www.bretthymeljr.com

Three (or four, or five) cheers for Brett! 🏆️

To close out this week, we present to you the always-kind, ever-insightful, and part-time birder Sarah Brockhaus! 🪶 💌 Sa...
04/03/2026

To close out this week, we present to you the always-kind, ever-insightful, and part-time birder Sarah Brockhaus! 🪶 💌

Sarah is a third-year MFA student at Louisiana State University and has a bachelor’s degree in English from Salisbury University. She is a co-editor of The Shore Poetry. Her work has been nominated for the Best of the Net and Pushcart Prize. Her poems are published or forthcoming in American Literary Review, North American Review, The Greensboro Review, Permafrost, and elsewhere.

Huzzah for Sarah! 🎉 💐

Biggest congrats to another 2026 grad: the multi-hyphenate Xavier Hawkins! 🎺 Xavier Hawkins is a MFA candidate hailing f...
04/01/2026

Biggest congrats to another 2026 grad: the multi-hyphenate Xavier Hawkins! 🎺

Xavier Hawkins is a MFA candidate hailing from Hampton University, born in Memphis, TN. He is a poet with an affinity for flash fiction who focuses on relatability and capturing moments. He is a recipient of the United Negro College Fund’s Mellon-Mays Research Fellowship and studies the relationship between music and literature (particularly within August Wilson’s Pittsburgh Cycle plays). As a trombonist and melody enthusiast, he enjoys making music and playing with words. A few of his poems can be found in the Hampton Renaissance Literary Journal, and much more remains to come!

Congrats, Xavier! 🐯

We're comin in hot with another grad spotlight! Round of applause for our Pisces queen, Šari Dale!Šari Dale is a third-y...
03/27/2026

We're comin in hot with another grad spotlight! Round of applause for our Pisces queen, Šari Dale!

Šari Dale is a third-year MFA candidate from a resource town in Northern Canada. She received her BA in English & Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia Okanagan and has been copywriting + creating websites since. Her interests include moose, monster trucks, and reality TV. Šari's work has been published in Event, The Malahat Review, and Grain among others. Her first collection of poetry, PARA-SOCIAL BUTTERFLY, was released with Metatron Press in 2022.

Congrats, Šari! ♓️ ✨️

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