UMSL Creative Writing MFA Program

07/09/2024

Friday July 19 6:00 p.m. Left Bank!

Left Bank Books presents St. Louis novelist and historian Minsoo Kang

10/19/2022

UMSL invites applications for a visiting poet, to teach in the MFA program for the spring '23 semester. Apply and share widely!

09/10/2020

The newest member of the MFA faculty, the incomparable Tola Rotimi Abraham, is a finalist for the Kirkus Prize for her debut novel, Black Sunday. https://www.kirkusreviews.com/news-and-features/articles/kirkus-prize-finalists-are-announced/

09/09/2020

Author says she was ‘just a broke student writing to make myself some fictional friends’ in her debut Ace of Spades, about two black students navigating racism at an elite school

06/17/2020

We are thrilled to count Ron Austin as one of our own! That was true yesterday, and it's true today, when we learned that his novel-in-stories, Avery C**t is a Snake, a Thief, a Liar, won gold in the 2019 Foreword INDIES award for fiction! Congratulations, Ron!

These are the best of the best, the cream of the crop, the cherries on top a metaphorical ice cream sundae of indie books. The General winners of the 2019 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Awards.

06/10/2020

We are proud to share the English Department’s statement on its commitment to justice and diversity.

05/12/2020

It's finals week! All the more reason to continue to celebrate some stellar UMSL English graduates.

Today we honor Serenity Dougherty, graduating with her MFA in fiction. Serenity is an incredible writer and scholar with diverse interests, and as she wraps up this degree in creative writing, she's launching into a PhD in English at the University of Nebraska. A longtime stand-up comic, she will focus her work on the intersections of writing, identity, and stand-up comedy as complex rhetorical situation. Three cheers (no, make that THREE MILLION CHEERS!) for Serenity; she has given so much to the department over the last two years, and we'll miss her terribly. But we're also terribly proud of all she has done and will keep doing.

[IMAGE DESCRIPTION: The image is a landscape
graduation announcement. The background is pink and dark grey, with small white triangles pointing upward. A bright red N logo for the Nebraska Huskers is also included to represent Serenity's PhD pathway. In the photo of Serenity, she is holding a microphone, presumably performing stand-up like the BOSS she is. She looks focused and determined.]

[TEXT ON IMAGE: Serenity Dougherty will be pursuing a PhD in Rhetoric and Composition at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She is looking forward to working with UNL and the local stand-up comedy communities in Lincoln and Omaha to continue her research on the intersections between writing and identity through the lens of stand-up comedy as a rhetorical situation. She is also excited to continue her work as a teaching assistant at UNL and credits the steady guidance and mentorship she received from Dr. Suellynn Duffey at UMSL for helping her secure this wonderful opportunity. She would also like to thank all of the other amazing faculty, students, and staff at UMSL, especially Dr. Chris Schott and Dr. Lauren Obermark for going above and beyond to offer guidance and support, Dr. Frank Grady and Blaine Milligan for helping her locate and utilize all the great resources UMSL has to offer, and the Gossip Gremlins for making her time here truly magical.]

04/08/2020

Relief fund will help a wide range of creative workers, says a coalition of arts groups.

04/05/2020

From Hilary Mantel to Kazuo Ishiguro and Marlon James to Sebastian Barry, writers share their favourite literary comforts

04/04/2020

George Saunders always knows the best thing to say...

It’s good for the world for a writer to bear witness, and it’s good for the writer, too. Especially if she can bear witness with love and humor and, despite it all, some fondness for the world.