Creative Writing
Take the Next Step
Contact Us
General Admission Contact
The New School for Social Research
Office of Admission
72 Fifth Avenue, 1st floor
New York, NY 10011
212.229.5600 or 800.523.5411
socialresearchadmit@newschool.edu
Program Contact
66 West 12th St.
New York, NY 10011
writingprogram@newschool.edu
212.229.5611
Directors, Chairs, and Coordinators
John Reed, Director, Creative Writing Program
Laura Cronk, Chair of Poetry
J. Mae Barizo,
Chair of the Undergraduate Creative Writing Program
Caron Levis, Writing for Children and Young Adults Coordinator
Helen Schulman, Chair of Fiction
Margaret Rhee, Chair of Arts Writing
Program Staff
Lori Lynn Turner, Associate Director of Administration
The New School invites you to join a community of diverse writers, become part of New York City’s literary world, and build a network of support on campus and beyond. Our prestigious Creative Writing MFA program is designed to help you develop your writing in supportive workshops and close reading seminars led by a faculty of internationally renowned authors.
We also offer a Creative Writing BA degree, along with a number of other programs to channel your passions in creative writing.
MFA in Creative Writing Program
As an MFA student at The New School, you can choose your concentration—Arts Writing, Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, or Writing for Children and Young Adults—and receive personalized faculty mentorship and faculty and peer critiques. Innovative courses in publishing and multimedia storytelling engage you in the development of literature. Popular graduate minors include Impact Entrepreneurship and Transmedia and Digital Storytelling. Or you can apply to WriteOn NYC!, a New School–funded fellowship program providing MFA students with high-quality teaching experience in area middle schools and high schools. All students benefit from evening classes and events, which enable them to work or attend responsibilities during the day while enrolled in a full-time program.
The partnership between the MFA in Creative Writing and the MA in Creative Publishing and Critical Journalism (CPCJ) produces a unique interdisciplinary group of courses that examine writing, reporting, research, publishing, public scholarship, and design.
Writer's Life in NYC
Our West Village campus offers writers the opportunity to live and write in one of the world’s great cultural hubs.
Write Your Book
Many writers in our program go on to get published, with more than 40 books published annually by alumni and faculty.
60+ Annual Events
Our Writer’s Life Colloquium hosts events, readings, and award ceremonies to help students find their future in the literary community and exposure to many voices and genres.
Community of Writers
Your classmates are your community, providing opportunities to build ideas, solicit feedback, and form lasting friendships.
Related Programs
In addition to the renowned MFA in Creative Writing, The New School offers other programs and opportunities for writing students. These include noncredit courses and summer intensives, as well as an undergraduate major in the Bachelor’s Program for Adults and Transfer Students, the Writing and Democracy Honors Program, and undergraduate minors in related fields.
The New School's faculty for writing and literature is a veritable who's who of American writers. Core faculty serve as coordinators and advisors for each genre of study offered by the program. The MFA program's extensive roster of full-time, part-time, and visiting faculty members include award-winning poets, novelists, essayists, and visual artists who also work across and between genres.
The New School Bookshelf
We are proud to feature books recently published by The New School's Creative Writing community.
The Impeachers
Brenda Wineapple, Faculty
Vivid and perceptive" —NEW YORK TIMESThe January Children
Safia Elhillo, MFA '15
Arab American Book AwardGood Talk
Mira Jacob, MFA '01, Faculty
[A] showstopping memoir about race in America" KIRKUS REVIEWS
