The Randolph Difference

Building on Randolph College’s notable literary tradition, which includes a Nobel Prize winner, Pulitzer Prize winners, New York Times Bestsellers, and much more, our M.F.A. program is committed to providing two years of exceptional and individualized mentorship and a lifetime of meaningful support.

The Randolph MFA strives to: 

 --create an anti-racist, inclusive MFA experience and literary community. 

 --build a safer environment for writers from systematically disenfranchised communities to create freely and without fear of judgment or reprisal. 

 --affirm intersectionality and respect the profound ways each person's identity, culture, background, experience, status, abilities, and opinions enrich our community. 

 --take seriously our art and its sources, influences, and inspirations, recognizing that language has history, density, and integrity. 

--value individual artistry and community engagement, including experimentation across literary genres, artistic mediums, and social practice. 

 --nurture intellectual and artistic rigor through collaboration, celebration, and abundance over competition, envy, and scarcity. 

--encourage the holistic well-being of writers, acknowledging that art and life are informed by physical, mental, emotional, social, spiritual, and intellectual health.  

Two Years of Mentorship

Your MFA years should be among the most engaging, rigorous, and affirming experiences of your life. Our faculty are dedicated to continually building and refining the learning experience of our community to prepare writers to contribute meaningfully in our world. We challenge ourselves to do this work as well or better than any other creative writing program.  

Exceptional Faculty

We provide our students with a diverse faculty of award-winning writers who have demonstrated a talent and love for teaching.

Our faculty are committed to mentoring students with a spirit of rigorous compassion. In residency workshops and during the semester, their goal is to establish an environment which challenges students on the level of craft and critical analysis, while also challenging students to engage contexts of inclusion, of history, and of diverse perspectives.

Our faculty are actively shaping literature and culture. Their work appears regularly in magazines, newspapers, television, radio, and books—they are at the forefront of contemporary publishing and well-equipped to prepare you for the evolving landscape of publishing.

Individualized Education

Before arriving for the first residency session, we begin working with you to form a personalized, strategic, writing plan, in order to provide some initial direction to your journey as literary artist.

The goal is for us to learn more about your artistic needs and passions, and then see how we can provide the most useful academic/artistic experience. We can work to help you build a novel or collection, or we can encourage you to push against the boundaries of form and genre. We welcome experimentation!

In our program, you will grow and evolve as a writer, and we will regularly work with you to assess your goals and assure that your writing plan serves you. We regularly shape our residencies and opportunities to help our current students acheive their specific goals--we strive to provide meaningful access, education, advice, support, and opportunities for you. Our literary magazine, REVOLUTE, is an example of one of the exciting ways students can build editing and marketing experience.

A Lifetime of Support

The standard demands that we consider the experience of our graduates and continue to serve them as lifelong learners and literary artists. This engagement will take different forms from year to year, but it will remain a vital part of our community’s mission and contribution. 

The Randolph College Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing will continue to provide resources and support to our graduates by committing to the following:

Your Community

Our program will provide connection opportunities with our MFA community and the greater literary community. This begins with representative alums who communicate with both the MFA program and graduates about their experience, needs, ideas, and opportunities.

Your Craft

Our program will provide learning experiences for our graduates. This begins with opportunities for alumnae to attend or access in-person lectures, panels, and other educational events.

Your Contribution

Our program will provide support resources for the work of being a writer This begins with meaningful advice, assistance, and opportunities to stay informed about the evolving publishing industry and literary community.

Contact us now to learn more about our lifetime of support commitment.