Creative Writing M.A.
Creative Writing Ph.D.
- Admission Requirements
- Degree and Graduation Requirements
- Doctoral Dissertation
- Foreign Language Requirement
- Ph.D. Comprehensive Examination
About the Program and Placement Record
One of the first universities in the country to offer a Ph.D. in Creative Writing, Ohio University continues as home to a thriving, widely respected graduate program with concentrations in poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction.
Small by design, our graduate program offers a comprehensive curriculum, an award-winning faculty and the intimacy of small classes.
Placement Record
Over the past three years, seven of our nine graduating creative writing Ph.D. students have landed tenure-track jobs, post-doctorates, or prestigious visiting writer posts. Our MA graduates go on to study in the top MFA and Ph.D. programs.
- English M.A. Placements
- English Ph.D. Placements
Students in the Creative Writing M.A. and Ph.D. programs enjoy:
- Graduate stipends, up to $15,000 per year, with opportunities to teach a wide range of courses, including creative writing workshops
- Generous graduate student travel funding
- Editorial fellowships on New Ohio Review , Quarter after Eight , and Brevity
- Opportunities to interact with distinguished visiting writers
M.A. candidates complete two years of study and write a thesis of creative work in their genre. Doctoral candidates complete five years of study, comprehensive exams, a major critical essay, and a creative dissertation.
Literary Journals
The department and its students publish three literary journals:
- New Ohio Review , a national literary journal
- Quarter After Eight , a prose journal edited by graduate students
- Sphere , an undergraduate journal
Annual Events
The department hosts several annual events including an ambitious Spring Literary Festival that brings five nationally distinguished writers to campus for three-days of readings, craft talks, and student discussion. Recent visitors have included Tony Hoagland, Kathryn Harrison, Barry Lopez, Francine Prose, Peter Ho Davies, Kim Addonizio, David Shields, Robert Hass, Charles Simic, Yusef Komunyakaa, and Marilynne Robinson.
Visiting writers engage with our program year-round as well, appearing in both undergraduate and graduate classes, meeting one-on-one with select students, and offering evening readings in the intimate Galbreath Chapel.
In addition to a regular Dogwood Bloom reading series for our graduate students, the creative writing program hosts an annual Writers' Harvest benefit reading for the Southeastern Ohio Food Bank?s Second Harvest, a food distribution program serving Athens, Hocking, Perry, Vinton, Jackson, Gallia, Meigs, Morgan and Washington counties.