Iowa University hosts the Writers' Workshop MFA program, the best known creative writing graduate program in the United States, according to the article "Best of the Best" by Edward J. Delaney in The Atlantic magazine. The Writer's Workshop offers only 25 openings per year in fiction and poetry, yet receives thousands of applications. Those who are accepted study for two years under some of the most skilled professors in America. Iowa's reputation is such that it is a standard school on the lists of most Creative Writing MFA applicants.
The University of Iowa
Graduate Program in Creative Writing
102 Dey House
Iowa City, IA 52242-1408
319-335-0416
uiowa.edu/~iww/
The University of California in Irvine hosts another one of the top graduate programs in creative writing, according to Delaney. This school boasts alumni such as Richard Ford, Michael Chabon, and Alice Sebold, who are all published authors with renowned and bestselling works of fiction. Creative writing programs are dependent on the success of their alumni to establish a good name for their school.
University of California, Irvine
MFA Programs in Writing
Irvine, CA 92697-2650
949-824-6718
humanities.uci.edu/english/programs/cw_mfa.php
Boston University has a very successful Creative Writing MFA degree program. The school rates a 3.8 in the U.S. News & World Report rankings, according to the University of Ohio's compilation of master's level creative writing programs. BU's alumni Ha Jin, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Peter Ho Davies received almost immediate success upon graduation from the creative writing program. The school also boasts such notable faculty as playwright Kate Snodgrass, novelist Leslie Epstein, and bestselling author Allegra Goodman.
Boston University
College of Arts and Sciences
Department of English
236 Bay State Road
Boston, MA 02215
617-353-2509
bu.edu/english/graduate.html