OXFORD, Miss. – The Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing
program at the University of Mississippi has been
recognized by The Atlantic Monthly magazine as one of five
“Up-and-Coming Programs” in the nation.
Other institutions on the list, printed in the periodical’s
Fiction 2007 issue, are Brooklyn College, Ohio State
University, Rutgers University at Newark and the University
of Wisconsin.
“To be named in The Atlantic this way is recognition of a
lot of hard work on the part of our students, faculty and
administration,” said David Galef, professor of English and
administrator of the MFA program.
In his Atlantic essay “Where Great Writers Are Made,”
journalist and fiction author Edward J. Delaney writes,
“Some programs, such as Mississippi’s and Brooklyn’s, seem
to form around a dynamic teacher – Barry Hannah and Michael
Cunningham, respectively.”
Hannah, an acclaimed author who has won numerous awards and
other recognition, is a long-standing writer-in-residence
at the university. He serves as director of the MFA
program, which remains the only one of its kind in the
state.
In making selections for the Atlantic list, Delaney
personally visited some 30 of the nation’s 300 colleges
with creative writing programs and contacted many others
long distance to interview program directors, faculty,
students and graduates. He discovered that aspiring writers
consider several factors – including funding, size,
selectivity and location – when choosing an MFA program.
Since UM’s program began in 2000, it has stayed small and
selective, attracted outstanding students, retained its
exceptional faculty and been supported with private
funding.
“We are thriving because of great students, an excellent
faculty and generous financial support from John and Renee
Grisham,” Galef said.
For three years straight, UM students in the program have
garnered inclusion in Best New American Voices, an
anthology of the best of fiction workshops across the
country. Other student recognition includes the Association
of Writing Programs Intro Award for Non-Fiction, the Iron
Horse Discovery Award for Poetry, the Best American Poetry
2007 award and publication in a number of national
magazines.
“This result is due to the efforts of an innovative
teaching staff and a department dedicated to keeping the
spirit of creative writing alive and well in Mississippi,”
said Patrick Quinn, chair and professor of English.
“The news comes as verification of what we’ve already
suspected – that our program is doing everything right,”
said Beth Ann Fennelly, associate professor of English.
“We’re wildly proud of our students’ successes, and the
notice our program has received is particularly remarkable
in that our program is relatively young and underfunded.”
For more information about the Department of English, visit