Creative Writing has been a vital part of the Vanderbilt English Department for nearly a century, since the poet and critic John Crowe Ransom’s famous class which he called “a practical course in writing various types of prose, including the short story.” Notable students who studied with Ransom at Vanderbilt include Robert Penn Warren, Randall Jarrell, and Peter Taylor. Vanderbilt’s writing tradition continues today with the English Department’s new Master of Fine Arts Program.

The M.F.A. at Vanderbilt is a two-year program involving four semesters of graduate work in writing workshops and seminars. Students enrolled will take a workshop and two seminars each semester, until their final semester, when work on the thesis will take the place of the seminars. The thesis will be a substantial piece of creative writing: a novel, a collection of short stories or creative non-fiction, or a collection of poems.

Venues for creative writers to share their work at Vanderbilt include an annual, The Vanderbilt Review. Another yearly event is the competition for the Academy of American Poets Prize, given for the best poem submitted by a student enrolled in Vanderbilt. Each semester the Gertrude Vanderbilt and Harold S. Vanderbilt Visiting Writers Series brings writers to campus to read from their work and visit classes. In the spring, the literary symposium gathers writers around a theme for two days of readings and panel discussions. Every other year a distinguished writer in residence visits for a semester and teachers a workshop in his or her genre. Vanderbilt's literary life is an ongoing resource for creative writers.