UC Irvine ranks No. 2 in MFA programs
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UC Irvine has been ranked second nationwide in this week’s Writer Wednesday, the Huffington Post article that compiled what its editors consider the best master’s of fine arts writing programs.
The university received the high rankings due to its notable alumni — who include Alice Sebold (“The Lovely Bones”) and Michael Chabon (“The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay”) — as well as an extensive focus on creative writing, which includes MFA readings and a writer’s workshop with faculty. UCI ranked behind No. 1 Boston University and ahead of No. 3 Cornell.
UCI was listed in the Top 10 Graduate Programs in Creative Writing, Five Highly Selective Programs, and Five Programs with Notable Alumni in The Atlantic’s 2007 Best of the Best article.
The list was largely derived from a 2007 article in The Atlantic Monthly, which listed a multitude of programs in five different categories, such as Five Highly Selective Programs to Five Programs with Notable Alumni.
— Joanna Clay
- Chancellor’s Message
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2024-25 edition, english, m.f.a..
The aim of the MFA Programs in Writing at the University of California, Irvine is the training of accomplished writers who intend to make writing their life. What the program expects of its students is passionate precision, character, and stamina. What the program wants most for its students is that each will sooner or later write something that lasts. To facilitate such writing, the faculty keeps the program small in order to ensure the high quality of the students, as well as to permit teaching on a one-to-one basis and to allow students to consult frequently with the faculty and staff for assistance with their work. Workshops in fiction and poetry are at the core of this two-to-three-year program. From over five hundred applicants, a maximum of twelve new students are enrolled each year. Graduates of the Programs in Writing receive a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree in English.
Each quarter the candidate will be enrolled in either the poetry or fiction section of the Graduate Writers’ Workshop, which will constitute two-thirds of a course load, the other course to be selected in consultation with the student’s advisor. It is expected that M.F.A. candidates will complete at least one supervised teaching seminar.
In addition to course work, the candidate is required to present as a thesis an acceptable book-length manuscript of poetry or short stories or a novel. The normative time for completion of the M.F.A. is three years, and the maximum time permitted is four years.
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2024-2025 Catalogue
A PDF of the entire 2024-2025 catalogue.
University of California Irvine
Irvine , CA
http://www.humanities.uci.edu/english/programs/mfa.php
Degrees Offered
Fiction, Poetry
Residency type
Program length, financial aid.
Financial assistance for students in the Program is available in the form of Tuition Fellowships (for out-of-state students) and Teaching Assistantships. All students are supported equally, to foster an atmosphere of community not competition.
Teaching opportunities
Teaching is part of the program
- Andrew Altschul MFA (Fiction) 1997
- Ramona Ausubel MFA (Fiction) 2008
- Jen Beagin MFA
- Aimee Bender MFA 1997
- Abbie J. Bergdale MFA
- L. Annette Binder MFA 2011
- Belle Boggs MFA (Fiction) 2002
- Michael Chabon MFA (Fiction) 1987
- Joshua Ferris MFA (Fiction) 2003
- Richard Ford MFA (Fiction) 1970
- Elton Glaser MFA (Poetry) 1972
- Glen David Gold MFA
- Barbara Haas MFA (Fiction)
- David Hernandez MFA (Poetry) 2009
- Karen Holmberg MFA (Poetry) 1995
- Garrett Hongo MFA (Poetry) 1980
- Michael Jaime-Becerra MFA (Fiction) 2001
- Louis B. Jones MFA (Fiction) 1989
- Elizabeth Kadetsky MFA
- Tim Keppel MFA (Fiction) 1981
- Yusef Komunyakaa MFA (Poetry) 1980
- Michelle Latiolais MFA (Fiction/Poetry) 1988
- Leila Mansouri MFA (Fiction)
- Maile Meloy MFA (Fiction) 2000
- Aaron Steven Miller MFA 2006
- Janice Obuchowski MFA (Fiction) 2010
- Ismet Prcic MFA
- Doug Ramspeck MFA (Fiction) 1978
- Amanda Rea MFA
- Sherod Santos MFA
- Patty Seyburn MFA (Poetry)
- Matt Sumell MFA
- Grace Talusan MFA
- Héctor Tobar MFA (Fiction)
- Katherine Vaz MFA (Fiction)
- Connie Voisine MFA
- Allison Benis White MFA (Poetry) 1999
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 .