Welcome to Creative Writing at Miami
The Creative Writing Program at Miami University consists of an undergraduate major and an M.A. offering concentrations in poetry, fiction and creative non-fiction. Students at both levels work closely with our award-winning faculty and have the opportunity to attend frequent readings by visiting writers and to edit our undergraduate and graduate literary journals.
Use the menu on the left to learn more about our program.
Academy of American Poets Award
Again this year Miami University offers two Academy of American Poets awards of $100 each for an undergraduate and a graduate student; these students do not have to be English majors. The deadline for submissions is March 12, 2008.
The Academy’s Harris S. Abrahams Poetry Prize will go to an undergraduate, and the Betty Jane Abrahams Memorial Poetry Prize will go to a graduate student.
The prize is highly regarded, and a number of winners’ poems will be included in a handsome booklet which the Academy publishes every five years or so. For Miami’s contest, this year’s judge will be Brenda Iijima, a New York City poet and author of several books and chapbooks, who will read at Miami on April 3, 2008.
Submission Instructions
A stapled, typed packet of no more than three (3) poems—with a total of no more than 5 pages—should be placed in Dr. Cathy Wagner’s mailbox in 356 Bachelor Hall by 5 p.m. on March 12, 2008. Students should type or print their names and e-mail addresses in the upper right-hand corner of every page. For more information, contact Cathy Wagner (wagnerc6@muohio.edu).
Pulitzer Prize-winner coming to Miami
Natasha Tretheway, the 2007 Pulitzer Prize winner for poetry will read from her work Thursday, April 24 at 8 p.m. in the Shriver Center Heritage Room.
Miami graduate wins PEN/Robert Bingham Fellowship for Writers
Christopher Coake, who received his M.A. in Fiction from Miami, received the 2006 PEN/Robert Bingham Fellowship for Writers for his collection of stories We’re in Trouble (Harcourt, 2005). Chris is an assistant professor at the University of Nevada, Reno.
The judges (Thomas Beller, Heidi Julavits, and Victoria Redel) wrote in their citation:
In all of these stories, and in practically every sentence that composes them, there is a germ of bland familiarity that, in Coake’s hands, has been twisted into the strange, the new, and the alarming. The gesture of this twist is the book’s connecting theme. We’re in Trouble takes its cues from the anxious world of cable news, the endless amber alerts and horrific car crashes, the adventure stories gone awry. Beneath the dramatic surface of these stories are all sorts of questions and reflections about our own voyeurism, about our own need for stories.”
The PEN/Robert Bingham Fellowship for Writers honors an exceptionally talented fiction writer whose debut work a novel or collection of short stories represents distinguished literary achievement and suggests great promise. The winner receives a cash award of $35,000, a stipend intended to permit a significant degree of leisure in which to pursue a second work of literary fiction. The Robert Bingham Fellow is also encouraged to become an active participant in the PEN community and its programs advancing literature, free expression, and the worldwide PEN community of writers.
The fellowships were established in memory of Robert Bingham, who died in 1999 at the age of 33, to commemorate his love of literature and his contribution to literary fiction. Bingham was the author of two well-received books (a novel and short story collection, both published by Doubleday) and served as the editor of the avant-garde magazine Open City. Carolyn Cooke, Jonathan Safran Foer, Will Heinrich, Matthew Klam, Manil Suri, and Monique Truong have all been Bingham fellows.
New 5-year B.A./M.A.
The Creative Writing Program now offers a five-year combined B.A./M.A. program. This highly selective program allows students to complete both degrees in five years. Juniors (from any major) must apply by April 1 spring semester to be considered for admission to the program and enrollment in graduate writing workshops in fall semester.