This writing program is consistently ranked among top-tier programs in poetry and fiction. It is taught by professors who have earned national and international attention. In the Master of Fine Arts in creative writing, students gain foundational knowledge of literary craft, developing a deep capacity to read as writers read --- for pleasure and surprise, and also for strategy, technical dexterity, and how language works on the page. Students take two workshops in their primary genre (fiction or poetry) as well as one workshop in another genre. The department offers courses in creative nonfiction, translation and creative methods, designed each year in alignment with student curiosity, faculty interests and pressing questions in the field at large. Mentorship at ASU includes artistic vision and practice, as well as framing career goals and planning for a writer's life --- potentially within, and often outside --- the academy. Three years of study allow students to grow as writers, immersing themselves in multiple genres and cross-genre innovations, collaborative artistic or community projects, and the deep engagement of their own work, often a book-length manuscript.
