Texas State University MFA

Texas State MFA Homepage The Texas State University MFA Program is a three-year graduate-level creative writing program in San Marcos, Texas. Fiction writer Doug Dorst is currently the Director of the program. The faculty includes many award-winning writers. It was cited by The New York Times as having the vision "to build a program that might rival the famed Iowa Writers' Workshop." 

As of Fall, 2018, 90% of Texas State MFA students are receiving full funding through a combination of scholarships and assistantships. 

M.F.A. students staff Porter House Review, the program's literary journal, which features established and emerging writers from around the world.

Faculty 
Cyrus Cassells, Poetry
Doug Dorst, Fiction/Program Director
Jennifer duBois, Fiction
Tom Grimes, Fiction
Roger Jones, Poetry
Debra Monroe, Fiction
Tim O'Brien, Professor of Creative Writing
Cecily Parks, Poetry
Kathleen Peirce, Poetry
Steve Wilson, Poetry
Naomi Shihab Nye, Poetry

Endowed Chair in Creative Writing 
Each year, the Endowed Chair in Creative Writing teaches one graduate MFA workshop. The Chair holder also visits classes and gives two readings. MFA students may take a workshop with only one Endowed Chair holder.

National Book Award Winner Tim O'Brien held the Chair every other year from 1999 through 2012. Now, as our professor of creative writing, he teaches six MFA workshops annually. Every workshop is open to every student. Previous Chair holders include the poet Ai, Barry Hannah, Denis Johnson, Robert Stone and Cristina Garcia. 

Ai, 2002-2003
Tim O'Brien, 2003-2004
Barry Hannah, 2004-2005
Tim O'Brien, 2005-2006
Denis Johnson, 2006-2007
Tim O'Brien, 2007-2008
Li-Young Lee, 2008-2009
Tim O'Brien, 2009-2010
Robert Stone, 2010-2011
Tim O'Brien, 2011-2012
Cristina García, 2012-2014
Ben Fountain, 2014-2016
Karen Russell, 2016-2020
Téa Obreht, 2020-2022

Adjunct Thesis Faculty 
Texas State's adjunct thesis faculty is composed of nationally recognized writers who will read students' entire thesis manuscript and then send written personal comments, offering one-to-one readings of the books students write during their time in the program.

Fiction faculty:

Rick Bass
Kevin Brockmeier
Maxine Chernoff
Catherine Chung
John Dufresne
Fernando Flores
Amy Hempel
Carol Maso
Nina McConigley
David McGlynn
Antonya Nelson
Idra Novey
Karen Olsson
Alberto Rios
Elissa Schappell
Chaitali Sen
Bennett Sims
Natalia Sylvester
Esme Weijun Wang
Kevin Wilson

Poetry faculty:

Hala Alyan
Catherine Barnett
Jennifer Browne
Victoria Chang
Jennifer Chang
Heather Christle
Monica de la Torre
Natalie Diaz
Carolyn Forche
Laurie Ann Guerrero
Joanna Klink
Ada Limón
Alessandra Lynch
Khadijah Queen
Spencer Reece
Sam Sax
Charif Shanahan
Brian Turner
Monica Youn

Visiting Writers and Editors  

The MFA Program hosts more than a dozen visiting writers and editors every academic year. Readings are held at the Wittliff Collections in Alkek Library and at the Katherine Anne Porter Literary Center. The latter is the childhood home of Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winner Katherine Anne Porter, and in 2006, it was added to the National Registry of Historic places.

The program also periodically hosts agents literary agents, who teach classes on the publishing process and meet individually with students for manuscript consultations.

Writer-in-Residence 
Every Spring, a writer in residence joins the MFA program for a series of readings, master classes, workshops, manuscript consultations, and other collaborative events. 

In Spring 2019, Ada Limon was the writer-in-residence. In Spring 2020, Victoria Chang held the position.

Clark Prize 
The L.D. and LaVerne Harrell Clark Fiction Prize is a $25,000 award recognizing an exceptional recently-published book-length work of fiction. The Clarke Fiction Price is awarded annually by the Texas State University English Department. 

Jim Shepard, 2016
Colson Whitehead, 2017
Daniel Alarcon, 2018
Rebecca Makkai, 2019

References

External links
Texas State University MFA webpage

Category:Texas State University