mfa creative writing virginia tech

• Creative Writing

The  Creative Writing  major prepares you to be a writer of poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction, drama, or to go into editing or publishing. At Virginia Tech, you will create your own literary events, publish your writing in on-campus journals and professional magazines, and interact with famous writers. In addition to your creative writing classes you will complete courses in literature, digital media, and critical frameworks. Under the guidance of published writers, you’ll develop a portfolio showcasing your range and versatility as a writer.

Career Options

• Creative manager
• Literary agent
• Grant writer
• Video game developer
• Editor and copywriter
• Web designer
• Television writer
• Journalist and reporter

Matthew Vollmer

540-231-8322

[email protected]

403 Shanks Hall 180 Turner Street, NW Blacksburg, VA 24061

Want to become a Hokie?

• Available to Fall Transfer Applicants
• Available to First-Year Applicants
• Available to Spring Transfer Applicants
• Available to Summer Transfer Applicants
• College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences

Degree Types

• Bachelor of Arts
• Master of Fine Arts
• Autobiography
• Children's Literature
• Creative Non-Fiction
• Electronic Literature
• Experimental
• Fantasy Fiction
• Flash Fiction
• Graphic Novel
• Kid's Literature
• Literary Mag
• Literary Magazine
• Literary Realism
• Mystery Writing
• New Media Creative Writing
• Novel Writing
• Playwriting
• Post-Modernism
• Prose Poems
• Prose Poetry
• Reading Series
• Science Fiction
• Screenwriting
• Short Shorts
• Short Stories
• Short Story
• Speculative Fiction
• Visiting Writer
• Young Adult Fiction

Undergraduate Major

Undergraduate advising.

• Law and Justice

Related Programs

• Multimedia Journalism
• Communication

Related URLs

• Undergraduate Course Catalog and Academic Policies
• Transfer Guide

Creative Technologies (MFA)

Creative technologies.

The Master in Fine Arts (MFA) in Creative Technologies is the flagship visual arts graduate program at Virginia Tech. Our program is a terminal graduate degree that prepares students to leverage digital and new media technologies to develop original creative research.

The Creative Technologies MFA program is a diverse and dynamic community exploring complex issues in art, design, and technology. Our students create practice-based arts and human-centered design employing interdisciplinary methods within a top research university. Our graduates leave with the conceptual and technical skills needed to work in emerging fields of creative technologies.

MFA students are supported by faculty across all areas of the School of Visual Arts, who help students develop unique practices across wide-ranging subjects that reflect their research interests and passions. Our  award-winning faculty  are artists with ongoing professional practices. Faculty research is presented at a range of academic symposia and conferences internationally, and their artworks are regularly exhibited at galleries, museums, and film festivals around the world.

Areas of Emphasis

• Art History + Theory
• Code-Enabled Art
• Graphic Design
• Digital Fabrication
• Drawing + Painting
• Interactive Installation
• Laser Scanning
• Printmaking
• Photography
• Projection Mapping
• Virtual Environments

What TOEFL score do I need to have?

90 or above.

Do I have to take the GRE exam?

Do i have to have a visual arts portfolio to apply.

Yes, we require a portfolio/website in order for our MFA applicant review committee to best assess whether you could succeed in our program.

Is there Graduate Assistant funding?

Yes, we have competitive GTA funding. The 9-month GTA funding for MFA students is contingent upon their appropriate and continued academic, artistic, and assigned job-specific effort and merit. Funding may be revoked at any time if MFA students fail to achieve expected milestones or do not meet their outlined GTA duties. We do not provide funded GTA support to MFAs beyond the four semesters allocated for normal degree completion.

What are your labs, studios, and workspaces like?

Facilities where MFA students may work are located in several different buildings on the Virginia Tech Blacksburg Campus. The spaces that support MFA courses and student work include the following:

The Armory Building (203 Draper Rd. NW) is home to the school's main office, exhibition venue, and classrooms utilized for undergraduate programs. Located downtown, the Armory provides a lively intersection of the town and campus, and also holds some SOVA faculty offices. 

The Armory Art Gallery is operated as an educational and outreach service of the University. Its exhibition calendar includes work by visiting artists, faculty, BFA senior exhibitions, and sometimes MFA students. 

The Media Annex, adjacent to the Armory Building downtown, is the primary location for MFA student working space, providing important room for research, studio exploration, and community. 

The Media Building, located centrally downtown, is occasionally utilized for School of Visual Arts classrooms, as well as some SOVA faculty offices.   

The Creativity and Innovation District LLC Building is centrally located and adjacent to numerous other School of Visual Arts spaces. This building offers state-of-the-art seminar and studio classrooms for studio art courses (such as painting, drawing, and sculpture) as well as graduate critique events, and unique opportunities for performances and screenings in its large venues. 

The Digital Arts and Animation Lab (DAAS) is located on the first floor of the Newman Library. The lab contains a render farm as well as 21 Mac computers configured with professional software (including Autodesk Maya, ZBrush, Adobe Suite) to facilitate creative production across digital arts and media technologies. 

ICAT Box, (CTBOX) located immediately adjacent to DAAS on the first floor of the Newman Library, contains 18 PC computers and software (such as Unity and Unreal Engine) as well as VR headsets and tracking systems, and other equipment for immersive and interactive media development. 

Henderson Hall houses the offices of numerous SOVA faculty, classrooms for the Graphic Design program (undergraduate), Art History (serving undergraduate and graduate students), as well as classrooms utilized by the Creative Technologies program. Our equipment check-out storage space is additionally located in this building.

A dedicated studio space for BFA students in their senior year

• Our students additionally have access to fantastic public digital laboratories facilitated by the University Libraries, including the various Media Design Studios, which are spaces for all members of the Virginia Tech campus community to create various types of media, including video, audio, and other multimedia, and access or check out high-end technology. This suite of options includes:

The Prototyping Studio (3D printing, laser cutting, and more)

The Virtual Environments Studio (VR production)

The 3D Scanning Studio (digitization of real world objects)

The Media Recording Studio (recording videos, audio, and music)

Students can also request access to immersive video and audio environments such as the Cube , an immersive video and audio black box theater, and the Perform Studio .

• Equipment and Tools accessible to MFAs who have received permission and requisite training include items such as the following: 

Digital Production

VR Headsets and Tracking Systems 

VR-Ready Computers

Plasma, HD and 4K Monitors 

Wacom Tablets

Capturing and Recording

3D Laser Scanner

Flatbed Scanners

Azure Kinect depth-sensor cameras

DSLR and Digital Video Cameras

Multiplane Camera

Digital Audio Recorders

6mm Cameras, 16mm editing 

Tripods, Lighting Kits, Projector Stands 

Multimedia Installation

Benq Projectors, Short Throw, 4K and HD 

Media Players 

PA System and other audio equipment

Water Vapor Fog Machine

Arduino boards, Raspberry Pi’s, sensors

Fabrication

3D Printers 

Plasma Cutters

Laser Cutters

Vinyl Cutters

Soldering Stations

HAAS 6 Axis Milling Machine

ABB 6 Axis Robotic Arms

Metal Cutters and Curling Rollers

Metal Lathe Machine

Laser and Inkjet Printers

Comprehensive woodshop tools

Ceramic 3D printer 

Pottery Wheels 

Soldering supplies

Outside of the School of Visual Arts, all of our students are welcome to use tech studios in the University Library such as the motion capture system and the prototyping studio. And they also have access to an incredible array of media equipment through the Library’s lending desk . 

College-level facilities include the Art + Architecture Library located in Cowgill Hall. Additionally, MFA students may be able to undertake research projects through the Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology (ICAT), which can facilitate access to specialized equipment and production spaces. These include labs equipped and dedicated to innovative and experimental arts and technology research projects.

What are the MFA degree requirements?

The MFA in Creative Technologies requires the accumulation of a minimum of 60 graduate-level (5000-level) credit hours, including successful passing, presentation, and completion of the original MFA thesis project (artwork(s) and research effort), and written Electronic Thesis Document. Below is a summary of the degree requirements.

15 credit hours in primary Studio courses (5000- level course credits, specifically within SOVA)

14 credits in additional Studio courses (many of these may be fulfilled by SOVA’s studio courses, by the semesterly Graduate Studio course offering(s), and/or supplemented by applied graduate-level credits outside of SOVA. Up to 9 of these credits may be taken outside of the ART department if approved on the Plan of Study by the Graduate Program Director and Thesis Committee)

1 credit of Ethics and Integrity content (required by Graduate School)

1 credit of Diversity and Inclusion content (required by Graduate School) 

1 credit of GTA Training (required by Graduate School)

9 credits in Art History/Theory courses, 3 of which must be ART 5854G (ART 5854G IS New Media Art Theory/Advanced Theories and Processes of Contemporary Art). Note that there are certain courses across the university that will not count towards these credits, please discuss with the Graduate Program Director before enrolling in any graduate art history/theory courses outside of SOVA.

9 credits in ART 5534 Graduate Art Critique (to be taken for the first 3 semesters the graduate student is enrolled in the MFA program, except for the MFA’s final Thesis Semester, at which point Graduate Art Critique enrollment is optional. Graduate Art Critique enrollment in the Thesis Semester, if pursued by the MFA student, may count as MFA studio credits in the final semester if the requisite 9 credits are complete)

12 credits in ART 5594 Research and Thesis (as noted above, the MFA Thesis culminates in a public presentation, exhibition of artwork(s), and submission of a written Electronic Thesis Dissertation document.)

A Note on Supplemental Courses In addition to the required 60 credit hours, students may be required to take certain courses to strengthen their background in specific areas, as determined by the MFA faculty.  Supplemental courses do not count toward the 60 hour Plan of Study, but do count toward full time status and graduate assistantships.

Is the MFA CT Program a STEM related field?

Yes, our program is considered a STEM related degree. This designation for a program of our kind is unique to the state of Virginia. Our program grants international students the ability to work within the field after graduation for up to 3 years. Please learn more about this opportunity through the VT OPT-Link .

When is the application deadline?

January 31 for Fall admission.

Where do I apply?

Start your application   here .

What do I include in my application?

A resume/CV; a 1-2 page personal statement; a portfolio of your relevant artwork, scholarship, or other research; and 3 letters of recommendation (submitted directly by the recommender).

In your personal statement, it's important to describe why you want to pursue an MFA degree and the artistic and/or interdisciplinary research you intend to conduct while you're here.  Connect that research to your past experiences, both in and outside your previous education.  What other projects have you done in the past that are relevant?  What other traits, experiences, or skills do you have that will prepare you to undertake MFA research?  And finally, what do you think you might do after graduating?

In your portfolio (which might take the form of a website, or a PDF with a series of links to video hosted on google drive or vimeo, for example), you'll want to include images and/or video of the strongest artwork and/or scholarship you have created thus far.  I suggest organizing your portfolio to make it easy for the committee to see first whatever you consider to be your strongest, most relevant work.  You should also make sure to write a paragraph describing what you hoped to accomplish with each work and what you used to create it.

In our review of your application, we will be looking for evidence that you are prepared, that you can contribute positively, and that you will be able to conduct self-driven artistic and/or interdisciplinary research.

Where are our alumni?

CT MFA program graduates have gone on to many accomplishments professionally and academically beyond the program. Our alumni work across numerous fields, including but certainly not limited to the following examples: 

• professional visual artists working at national and international levels
• higher education (visiting faculty, tenured, and tenure-track faculty)
• work in technology and information science fields (i.e., Google, Microsoft, etc.) 
• professional media fields and creative positions in studios centering a wide range of areas, e.g., design, animation, game design/development, motion graphics, art direction, visualization, filmmaking, storyboarding, illustration, etc.
• roles with regional and nationally-acclaimed museums and galleries
• research positions at universities and government institutions
• roles at nonprofit organizations
• numerous transdisciplinary fields 
• Additionally, some of our MFAs go on to pursue PhDs.

2024-2025 Academic Catalog

2024-2025 course catalog.

Welcome to Virginia Tech! We are excited that you are here planning your time as a Hokie.

Explore Programs

Search courses, creative writing major, program curriculum.

In accordance with university guidelines, courses satisfying degree core requirements may not be double counted to satisfy other areas of a degree (e.g. Pathways).

Note: All English courses above the 1000-level have as a pre-requisite completion of the First-Year Writing Requirement—i.e., completion of ENGL 1106 First-Year Writing or COMM 1016 Communication Skills .

Satisfactory Progress toward the B.A. in English, Major in Creative Writing

Satisfactory progress toward the B.A. in English, Major in Creative Writing, requires that upon having attempted 72 credits (including transfer, advanced placement, advanced standing, credit by examination, and course withdrawal), students must have passed 12 of the required credits in the English Core (Section I) and have attained a GPA of 2.0 or better both within the major and overall.

Graduation Requirements

The B.A. in English with a Major in Creative Writing requires 39 hours in English, distributed as follows, and 120 hours overall. In accordance with university guidelines, courses satisfying degree core requirements may not be double counted to satisfy other areas of a degree (e.g. Pathways).

Note: All English courses above the 1000-level have as a pre-requisite completion of the First-Year Writing Requirement — i.e., completion of 1106 or COMM 1016. Some courses required for this major have other pre-requisites/co-requisites and/or enrollment requirements. Please refer to the Undergraduate Catalog or consult your advisor for information about the specific pre-req/co-req or enrollment requirements for a specific course.

In order to graduate, students must complete the degree with a GPA of 2.0 or better both within the Creative   Writing Major and overall. All English courses above the 1000-level are factored into the in-major GPA.

Foreign Language Requirements

Foreign Language Requirement

• 3 years in high school  or
• 2 years in high school +  an 1106 foreign language (e.g., FR, GR, SPAN)  or
• L ess than 2 years in high school + an 1105-1106 foreign language (e.g., FR, GR, SPAN) grouping.

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Virginia Tech Fully Funded MFA in Creative Writing

Virginia tech.

Virginia Tech based in Blacksburg, VA offers a three-year fully funded MFA in creative writing. The MFA program offers tracks in Poetry and Fiction. Encouraged cross-genre experimentation, offer additional courses in creative nonfiction, playwriting, new media creative writing, and literary editing, and all students have the opportunity to teach creative writing and composition, as well as serve as editors of one of our two literary journals. All students are fully and equally funded via GTA-ships of more than $20,000 per year.

• Deadline: Jan 15, 2025 (Confirmed)*
• Work Experience: Any
• Location: North America
• Citizenship: Any
• Residency: United States

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Virginia Tech

MFA in Creative Writing

Get to know our remarkable faculty, as well as some of our staff!

Click here for more information.

Ed Falco’s most recent books are the poetry collection,  Wolf Moon Blood Moon  (LSU, 2017) and the novel,  Transcendent Gardening  (C&R Press, 2021). Earlier books include the novels  Saint John of the Five Boroughs  and  Wolf Point ; the short story collections,  Burning Man  and  Sabbath Night in the Church of the Piranha: New and Selected Stories ; a collection of literary and experimental short fictions,  In the Park of Culture ; one of the earliest hypertext novels,  A Dream with Demons ; and two crime novels,  The Family Corleone  (based in part on pages from unproduced screenplays by Mario Puzo), and  Toughs , a historical novel that revolves around the life of Irish gangster, Vince Coll. Ed’s plays include  Possum Dreams , which was produced by None Too Fragile Theatre in Akron, Ohio, and had an Off Off Broadway run at Shetler Studio Theatre 54, and  The Cretans , which was produced as a radio play by the Virginia Tech School of the Arts. His awards include The Robert Penn Warren Prize in Poetry from  The Southern Review , The Emily Clark Balch Prize in fiction from  The Virginia Quarterly Review,  multiple Virginia Commission of the Arts fellowships, a Yaddo residency, and an NEA Award in fiction. You can find Ed’s personal web pages here:  edfalco.us .

JANINE JOSEPH

I am a poet, librettist, and essayist who endeavors to build a meaningful life and career informed by the insights I have gained as a woman, a person of color, an immigrant from the Philippines born under the Marcos dictatorship, and as a naturalized U.S. citizen who lived undocumented in this country for nearly two decades. I am the author of  Driving without a License , winner of the Kundiman Prize, and  Decade of the Brain , which is forthcoming in January 2023. My practice is largely guided by linked poems, composite novels, and concept albums I grew up listening to—projects whose individual parts work toward a much larger, unified whole. As a librettist, my commissions for the Houston Grand Opera/HGOco and Washington Master Chorale include  The Art of Our Healers ,  What Wings They Were ,  “On This Muddy Water”: Voices from the Houston Ship Channel , and  From My Mother’s Mother . My poems have also been adapted by the acclaimed composers Melissa Dunphy (“American DREAMers: Stories of Immigration”) and Reinaldo Moya (“DREAM Song”). I am also co-editing an anthology of poetry and poetics under contract with HarperCollins/Harper Perennial. I also co-lead Undocupoets, a national nonprofit organization that advocate for poets who are currently or who were formerly undocumented and raise awareness about the structural barriers they face in the literary community. In 2021, Undocupoets was featured in the Scholastic children’s book,  In the Spirit of a Dream: 13 Stories of American Immigrants of Color .

I teach with a student-centered approach, one deeply informed by my early experiences as an academic advisor who got to know students outside of the context of the classroom, and as someone who taught creative writing in the community through organizations like Writers in the Schools and Community-Word Project. I aim to cultivate environments of dialogue, exchange, collaboration, creativity, and innovation and carry with me the following credo from Toni Morrison: “I tell my students, ‘When you get these jobs that you have been so brilliantly trained for, just remember that your real job is that if you are free, you need to free somebody else. If you have some power, then your job is to empower somebody else.’”

EVAN LAVENDER-SMITH

Evan Lavender-Smith’s first book, From Old Notebooks , a cross-genre work combining elements of fiction, nonfiction, memoir, poetry, and philosophy, was listed on “Readers’ Favorite Books from Independent Presses” at Huffington Post , “Your Favorite Poets’ Favorite Books of Poetry” at Flavorwire , and several best-of-the-year lists. His second book, Avatar , an unpunctuated monologue delivered by a character floating in outer space, was a Small Press Distribution Bestseller. Lavender-Smith’s stories and essays have been noted in Best American Nonrequired Reading and Best American Essays , adapted for stage and radio, and translated into several languages. His writing has been praised in national and international media outlets, including Bookforum , The Guardian , Harper’s , The Irish Times , The Times Literary Supplement , and Vice . 

As founding editor of Noemi Press and former editor-in-chief of  Puerto del Sol , Lavender-Smith has published and edited writing by Sherman Alexie, Frédéric Boyer, Éric Chevillard, Helen DeWitt, Rikki Ducornet, Michael Martone, Rick Moody, Antoine Volodine, and many others. With Carmen Giménez Smith, he performed the first complete English translation of  “Canto del macho anciano” [“The Old Man’s Song”], a 6,500-word poem by Pablo de Rokha, recipient of Chile’s National Literature Prize. Lavender-Smith has served as a juror for the National Endowment for the Arts, Creative Capital, the Heinz Foundation, Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, the North Carolina Arts Council, the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, and he was recently elected to the Creative Writing Studies Organization’s Board of Directors. At Virginia Tech, he serves as a member of the advisory board to the Studio 72 Living–Learning Community, as a member of the University Faculty Senate, as Co-Director of the Glossolalia Literary Festival, and as President of Phi Beta Kappa’s Mu of Virginia Chapter.

A graduate of the University of California at Berkeley and New Mexico State University, Lavender-Smith lives with his two children in Blacksburg, 12.7 miles away from the gravesite of his great-great-great-great grandmother, Rosanna Caldwell, whose nephew, Addison, was the first student to enroll at Virginia Tech.

KHADIJAH QUEEN

Khadijah Queen is the author of six books of innovative poetry and hybrid prose, most recently Anodyne (Tin House 2020), winner of the William Carlos Williams award from the Poetry Society of America. Her verse play Non-Sequitur (Litmus Press) won the Leslie Scalapino Award for Innovative Women’s Performance Writing, which included a full staged production at Theaterlab NYC in 2015, directed by Fiona Templeton and performed by The Relationship theater company. Individual poems and prose appear in American Poetry Review, Fence, Ploughshares, Gulf Coast, Poets & Writers Magazine, The Poetry Review (UK) and widely elsewhere. A zuihitsu about the pandemic, “False Dawn,” appeared in Harper’s Magazine and was selected as a Notable Essay by Best American in 2020. Ekphrastic works include a poem commissioned by the Philadelphia Art Museum in honor of Jasper Johns’ Mind/Mirror exhibition in January 2022, and portions of her fourth book, Fearful Beloved (Argos Books 2015), were written during Queen’s participation in artist Ann Hamilton’s event of a thread installation at the Park Avenue Armory in New York City. In 2022, she was awarded a $50,000 Disability Futures grant from United States Artists, and in 2023 will complete a residency fellowship in Italy, awarded by the Civitella Ranieri Foundation. A Cave Canem alum, she holds a PhD in English and Literary Arts from University of Denver.

LUCINDA ROY

I am a novelist, poet, and creative nonfiction writer currently at work on a speculative slave narrative novel trilogy and a collection of ekphrastic poems. ( The Freedom Race , the first book in the novel trilogy, will be published in 2021.) I want to explore race and racism inside a literary sci-fi genre because it allows me to break free from the confines of contemporary politics and re-envision African Diasporic myth in ways I felt unable to do inside conventional mainstream literature. My six previous books include  Lady Moses , a novel,  The Humming Birds , a collection of poetry, and  No Right to Remain Silent: What We’ve Learned from the Tragedy at Virginia Tech , a memoir-critique.

My Jamaican and British heritage, as well as my experience working in various regions around the world (these include Sierra Leone, Arkansas, London, Massachusetts, and, of course, Virginia) have had a profound impact on my aesthetic and my craft. I enjoy working with dedicated, socially-conscious writers on their novels, short stories, poetry collections, and creative nonfiction, but I work best with those who are attuned to the demands of their chosen genre, and deeply curious about themselves, their assumptions, and the world around them. 

My approach to working with student-writers is partly modeled on the collaborations I’ve been fortunate enough to have with some outstanding editors. I am fascinated by prosody in poetry and technique in fiction, which is why I encourage writers to appreciate the complexity of form and the demands of perspective. I have experience working as a guest columnist/commentator for newspapers and journals like  USA Today, The Guardian  and the  Chronicle of Higher Education , so I am accustomed to meeting tight deadlines, collaborating with shrewd editors, exploring controversial topics, and fielding responses from demanding readers. I believe that the selection of genre is one of the most underappreciated aspects of the writing process. When I have time, I also paint with oils. In my paintings, I often find myself, once again, drawn to an exploration of slavery and the Middle Passage.

SOPHIA TERAZAWA

I work with ancestors, historical reckoning, and the limits of language through poetry. My books (so far) include two collections with Deep Vellum,  Winter Phoenix  and  Anon.  As a performance artist, I tend to resist documentation of live events, but here is one: in Ljubljana, the audience circled my body in interlocking rings. They sang, at my request, a song by Elvis Presley. After some time, the AV technician flashed pink and red lights on the floor. I’ve been told pairs of men tend to walk out first, usually when the screaming begins. 

Conversely, in the classroom, my persona as a teacher is tightly contained. I make space for silence, empathetic conversations that fold into justice, a decolonized heart, and the somatic knowledge writers can bring to the page. I want to live and love. I want freedom for the artist against all death machines. This is the core of my pedagogical practice alongside a lineage of poetry in exile. What is this war? What blood is on our hands? We have so much to do.

MATTHEW VOLLMER

I am the author of two story collections, Future Missionaries of America and Gateway to Paradise , as well as Inscriptions for Headstones , a collection of essays (each of which is crafted as an epitaph unfolding in a single sentence), and Permanent Exhibit , a collection of lyric essays. With David Shields,I am co-editor of Fakes: An Anthology of Pseudo-Interviews, Faux Lectures, Quasi Letters, “Found” Texts, and Other Fraudulent Artifacts . As a teacher and writer, I seek to cultivate—in myself and my students—an appetite for the countless ways that human consciousness can be represented, and thus the different forms that language—and story—can take. I’ve become increasingly interested in genre: how genre dictates the shape, sound and appearance of our information; how genre defines boundaries and sets limitations. It seems to me that if we acknowledge that the rules of the game are often dictated by our genres—categories in which particular types of communication-events take place, according to whatever prescripted patterns the genre in question demands—then the experience of inhabiting a particular genre, of understanding its conventions in order to discover ways to expand it, to break it apart and make something new, can be an incredibly liberating—if not essential—exercise for writers to engage in. It is, therefore, an activity I am committed to exploring further, both in the classroom and in my own writing.

MARIE TRIMMER

Graduate Programs Coordinator

Shanks 323A

(540) 231-4659

[email protected]

My name is Marie Trimmer (she, her, hers), and I am the Graduate Programs Coordinator for the English Department. My hometown is Virginia Beach, and I am a ’93 Hokie. I handle all GTA paperwork – like independent study and force add requests, plans of study, and change of committee forms. I also generate contracts, enter job appointments and I-9 documentation, as well as tuition remission. I will set up your A/V access to classrooms when you are an instructor. If you have an issue or concern, I can coordinate between other offices on campus. I am your general guru, and my office is always filled with wisdom and snacks to share. 

Technical Support

(540) 231-6566

[email protected]

Eve Trager is the Tech Support Coordinator in the English department. She provides help interfacing with the IT systems and infrastructure at Virginia Tech for faculty, staff, and GTAs. She will be working remotely most of the semester, so the best way to reach her is by email:  [email protected] . 

SANDRA ROSS

Fiscal Technician/Travel Coordinator

Shanks 329B

(540) 231-6983

[email protected]

BRIDGET SZERSZYNSKI

Administrative Assistant

(540) 231-6501

[email protected]

I work in the Main Office.  Assist faculty, students and visitors.  Maintain room calendar, keys, maintenance requests, copying. 

Moved to Blacksburg in 2010 and starting working in the English Department in 2011.  Thought it would be for six weeks and I am still here 11 years later!  And loving it!

MFA Bookshelf

8 Lessons From Nikki Giovanni

Virginia Tech

Blacksburg , VA

https://liberalarts.vt.edu/departments-and-schools/department-of-english/academic-programs/master-of-fine-arts-in-creative-writing.html

Degrees Offered

Fiction, Poetry

Residency type

Financial aid.

All students fully funded through Graduate Teaching Assistantships with annual stipends of $21,000

Teaching opportunities

TAships are available

Editorial opportunities

Students are given the opportunity to help edit two literary journals– The Minnesota Review and The New River: A Journal of Digital Writing and Art .

Cross-genre study

Workshops available in playwriting, creative nonfiction and new media.

• Anuradha Bhowmik MFA (Poetry) 2018
• Weston Cutter MFA (Poetry) 2009
• Mirri Glasson-Darling MFA (Fiction) 2019
• Alison Hazle MFA (Poetry) 2024
• Lauren Jensen-Deegan MFA (Poetry) 2010
• Kate Kimball MFA 2010
• Amy Long MFA (CNF) 2016

Send questions, comments and corrections to [email protected] .

Disclaimer: No endorsement of these ratings should be implied by the writers and writing programs listed on this site, or by the editors and publishers of Best American Short Stories , Best American Essays , Best American Poetry , The O. Henry Prize Stories and The Pushcart Prize Anthology .

At a Glance

The University of Virginia's Creative Writing Program offers a master of fine arts in poetry and fiction writing, undergraduate English concentrations in poetry and literary prose, and elective coursework at the undergraduate and graduate levels. If you are just beginning, we have 2000-level classes in our undergraduate curriculum that are open enrollment (though some sections are restricted to first- and second-year students). Intermediate and advanced writers can take courses from our full-time faculty by instructor permission, and citizen scholars can also apply. See our undergraduate page for more information. 

At the graduate level, we offer one of the best MFA programs in the country with award-winning faculty and alumni whose poetry and prose is in print or forthcoming from some of the top houses and prizes.

In the News

Meridian Short Prose Prize

The Meridian Short Prose Prize is now taking submissions at meridian.submittable.com . The deadline is August 15. For more details, see the prize entry page, or the Meridian contests page . Meridian is an MFA-student-edited literary journal started in 1998. Its main website is at readmeridian.org .

MFA Support Increases

In 2024–25, our MFA students will receive an increase of three percent to their fellowship income and teaching wages, which means students will receive up to $31,518 in their first and second years, and up to $25,214 in their third year. The first- and second-year amounts are higher because those

Tolbert Wins Frontier Open

Congratulations to MFA student MaKshya Tolbert, winner of the 2023 Frontier Open . 

Brian Teare's Poem Bitten by a Man

Congratulations to poetry faculty member Brian Teare on his new book, Poem Bitten by a Man , and this review on The Poetry Foundation website .

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Creative Writing Major

What is a major in creative writing.

Participate in a wide range of courses reflective of your creative interests. You'll learn about major writers, literary traditions, and contemporary innovations. Under the guidance of published writers, you'll also develop a portfolio of material showcasing your range and versatility as a creative writer.

Why Study Creative Writing at Virginia Tech?

Here, you will study with distinguished authors including Matthew Vollmer, Lucinda Roy, Jeff Mann, Evan Lavender-Smith, Sophia Terazawa, and Khadijah Queen. We also host a variety of campus readings for you to attend by renowned poets, playwrights, essayists, and fiction writers. Some of our past visiting writers have included:

• Viet Than Ngyuen
• George Saunders
• Carrie Fountain
• Douglas Kearney
• Matthew Salesses
• Jenny Boully
• Zadie Smith
• Terry Tempest Williams
• Kevin Young
• Terrance Hayes
• Cheryl Strayed
• Ocean Vuong

The major offers workshops that allow you to share your poems, stories, and essays with peer's to help you grow as a writer. With this opportunity, you can improve your writing skills while building your portfolio.

  3 Study Abroad Programs

  24 Average Class Size

  100+ English Courses Offered

Caty Gordon, '10

Caty graduated from Virginia Tech in 2010 with degrees in creative writing and professional and technical writing. After graduating from Columbia University with her M.F.A. in creative nonfiction, she moved on to serve as an editorial assistant for Simon and Schuster and Penguin Group USA, where she is presently employed.

Orlando Dos Reis, '10

Orlando graduated from Virginia Tech with a degree in creative writing in 2010. Post-graduation, he moved on to Kansas State University to continue his education, earning his M.A. in English language and literature in 2013. He presently serves as an editorial assistant for Abrams in the New York City area.

Erica Corder, '16

Erica graduated from Virginia Tech in 2016 with degrees in creative writing and political science. After starting up an independent journalism publication called The Pylon, Erica accepted a job in the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech, where she currently works as a communications manager who tells the story of the college and its students and faculty in Blacksburg and beyond through writing, photos, and videos.

Shalini Rana, '18

Shalini graduated with double majors in creative writing and professional and technical writing. During her time at Virginia Tech, her poetry was published in undergraduate publications, Silhouette and Philologia, and received third place in the Steger Poetry Prize. Shalini works as a consultant for CollabraLink Technologies and continues writing. In the future, she plans to complete a poetry M.F.A. program.

Jessica Mardian, '20

In her creative writing courses, Jessica developed strong writing skills and found the space to express herself. She was published in the Silhouette literary magazine, was a finalist for the Steger Poetry Prize at Virginia Tech, and served as a speaker at the Creative Writing Showcase. Jessica plans to pursue a career a journalism and a MFA in Creative Writing, with a focus on poetry.

Careers and Further Study

What can you do with a major in Creative Writing?

Jobs Held by Our Graduates

• Creative manager
• Literary agent
• Grant writer
• Video game developer
• Editor and copywriter
• Web designer
• Television writer
• Journalist and reporter

Creative Writing Major at Virginia Tech

Beyond the Classroom

Experiential Learning

• INTERNSHIPS
• UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH AND INDEPENDENT STUDY
• STUDY ABROAD
• STRONG COMMUNITY
• WRITING WORKSHOPS

Engage in your profession by writing, researching, editing, and making connections with employers across the country. Apply the knowledge and skills you learn in the classroom to the workplace. Internships earn academic credit and provide valuable real-world experience. 

You will work with a faculty mentor to experiment with language, find inspiration, grow as an artist, and share your work with peers and mentors. Learn how to brainstorm and experiment, gain experience performing your work for audiences, learn how to critique stories, poems, and plays in a workshop setting, and submit your work to literary magazines.

We host a faculty-led trip to London, an exchange program with Loughborough University, and a Wintermester Experience that visits different locations each year .  These experiences enrich your understanding of the history and culture of the English language and its literature.

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Our diverse faculty is made up of published authors and poets, accomplished playwrights and essayists, and recipients of fellowships from the National Endowment of the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation. We love mentoring our students and take great pride in watching them grow as writers.

During our Creative Writing major workshops, you will have the opportunity to share your stories, poems, and essays with your classmates. You'll offer critiques, compliments, suggestions, and interpretations of your peers work; you'll receive the same in return. No two workshops will ever be the same. Our goal is to help you improve your writing skills.

What You'll Study

Bachelor of Arts in English Degree

• Including Virginia Tech's Pathways

Creative Writing Major Requirements

• Introduction to Critical Reading
• Introduction to Critical Writing
• Literary History
• Acts of Interpretation
• Writing and Digital Media
• Capstone Experience 

Minor and Elective Hours

Our program gives you the opportunity to build knowledge in another area by pursuing a minor, double major, or cognate.

120 hrs B.A. English

45 hrs General Education

39 hrs Major Requirements

36 hrs Elective

Campus Life

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Explore the university through either a guided or self-guided virtual tour

Discover all that Virginia Tech has to offer inside and outside of the classroom. Our campus life aims to build communities, promote holistic education, and cultivate environments that offer opportunities for leadership, innovation, and service.

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