SLC.edu / Graduate Studies / Graduate Programs / Writing

Application Deadline

The preferential deadline with rolling admissions thereafter for application is January 15. Applications submitted after this date will be considered on a case-by-case basis; for inquiries, please contact Graduate Studies.

Master of Fine Arts in Writing

Put writing at the center of your life.

If you're ready to put your writing at the center of your life, Sarah Lawrence's MFA Writing Program may be the place for you.

When you participate in a writing workshop at Sarah Lawrence, you not only discuss your work in class with the instructor and your peers, you also meet one-on-one with your instructor every other week, in tutorials devoted exclusively to you and focused exclusively on your work. It’s a remarkable, and unique, commitment of faculty time and energy, and it means that our renowned faculty—practitioners all—will engage with your work on a remarkably deep and detailed level, accompanying you every step of the way as you develop your craft.

No other writing program offers this degree of collaboration between teacher and student; no other writing program offers this degree of mentorship. And the results are truly remarkable.

Faculty member Marie Howe was recently named New York State Poet by Governor Andrew Cuomo. A teacher at SLC since 1993, Howe is the author of titles including The Good Thief and What the Living Do.

Learn more about the Writing faculty»

The Sarah Lawrence faculty was ranked #1 in the country in The Princeton Review's 2013 edition of The Best 377 Colleges.

Spring 2013 Writing Events

Surprise in Fiction: A Craft Talk with Joan Silber (January 30)

Literary agent Katherine Fausset’s talk & Query Letter workshop (February 5 & 6)

Fiction Residency with Lorrie Moore (Craft Talk and Reading) (February 13)

A Reading with David Shields (February 27)

One-on-one meetings with literary agents (March 1)

A Craft Talk with faculty member Stephen O'Connor (March 13)

UnCanny Valley: A Performance by poets Oni Buchanan and Jon Woodward (March 13)

A Reading and Celebration of New Faculty Publications (including Heather Christle, Cynthia Cruz, Dennis Nurkse, Kevin Pilkington, and Martha Southgate. (April 2)

Fiction 6x6, with special guest novelist Amber Dermont (April 3)

MFA Alums: a reading and celebration featuring Jonathan Callahan, Alex Dimitrov, Maya Pindyck and Lev AC Rosen. (April 10)

Poetry Residency with Mary Jo Bang (April 30-May 1)

MFA thesis readings (May 18 and May 23)

Student/Faculty readings throughout the semester

Alex Dimitrov '09 is the author of Begging for It and the founder of Wilde Boys, a queer poetry salon in New York City. Dimitrov's poems have been published in The Yale Review, Kenyon Review, Slate, Poetry Daily, Tin House, Boston Review, and the American Poetry Review, which awarded him the Stanley Kunitz Prize in 2011. Learn more about Alex and some of our other alums.