uc davis creative writing major

UC Davis Graduate Studies

UC Davis Creative Writing Program to Begin Offering MFA Degree

• by Jeffrey Day, College of Letters and Science
• July 09, 2018

The creative writing program, part of the College of Letters and Science’s English department , will offer a Master of Fine Arts degree in creative writing starting in the 2019–2020 academic year.

“Our graduate program in English is ranked among the top 20 in the country by U.S. News and World Report ,” said J.P. Delplanque, Interim Vice Provost of Graduate Education and Dean of Graduate Studies at UC Davis. “Transitioning our creative writing program to an MFA will raise its profile and attract more talented writers from across the country to come to Davis.”

“The most important thing is the MFA is the highest degree in creative writing,” said Katie Peterson , English professor and head of the creative writing program. “But it will also make our community more connected to the larger world of creative writers. You don’t need a degree to be a writer, but you need a community in what is often an isolated art form. The MFA attaches you to that community and also attaches UC Davis to that community.

“We expect to get students who would have applied for the M.A., along with those with more direct creative writing experience,” she said. “It will expand the pool of students who are poised to enter the writing community.”

Along with creative writing, the M.A. program includes literary studies and that will continue under the MFA.

“This mix is unusual and innovative for the MFA,” Peterson said. “It is what some MFA programs are moving towards, but it's still fairly rare. It provides graduates who enter the academic world with the ability to teach a wider range of courses enhancing their career possibilities."

In the M.A. program , students teach undergraduate creative writing classes and MFA students will continue to do that. That teaching experience is also valuable to them in their careers, Peterson added.

The M.A. program has produced many writers who have received widespread notice and publication along with awards. Austin Smith (M.A. ’13) was named Wallace Stegner Fellow in fiction at Stanford University and won a 2018 National Endowment for the Arts fellowship ; Becky Mandelbaum (M.A. ’16), Melinda Moustakis (M.A. ’11) and Kirsten Lunstrum (M.A. ’03) have all won the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction in recent years; and Jamil Kochai (M.A. ’17) received the 2018 O’Henry Prize for his story “Nights in Logar” and his novel of the same name will be published in January by Penguin

Along with a graduate degree in creative writing, the department offers a doctorate in literature , and bachelor’s degrees with an emphasis in literary theory and criticism and creative writing.

The program will begin accepting applications for admission this fall. For more information about the MFA program and its admission requirements, please email Katie Peterson, Graduate Program Chair and Associate Professor of English at [email protected]  or visit the creative writing program website .

About Graduate Studies

Graduate Studies at UC Davis includes  99 dynamic degree programs  and a diverse and interactive student body from around the world. Known for our state-of-the-art research facilities, productive laboratories and progressive spirit – UC Davis offers collaborative and interdisciplinary curricula through graduate groups and designated emphasis options, bringing students and faculty of different academic disciplines together to address real-world challenges. UC Davis graduate students and postdoctoral scholars become leaders in their fields: researchers, teachers, politicians, mentors and entrepreneurs. They go on to guide, define and impact change within our global community. For information on Graduate Studies’ current strategic initiatives, visit the  Graduate Studies strategic plan page .

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University of California - Davis MA in Creative Writing

Creative Writing is a concentration offered under the writing studies major at University of California - Davis. Here, you’ll find out more about the major master’s degree program in creative writing, including such details as the number of graduates, diversity of students, and more.

You can jump to any section of this page using the links below:

• Graduate Cost
• Online Learning
• Student Diversity

Featured Programs

Learn about start dates, transferring credits, availability of financial aid, and more by contacting the universities below.

MFA in Creative Writing - Online

Embrace your passion for storytelling and learn the professional writing skills you'll need to succeed with our online MFA in Creative Writing. Write your novel or short story collection while earning a certificate in the Online Teaching of Writing or Professional Writing, with no residency requirement.

MA in English & Creative Writing

Refine your writing skills and take a step toward furthering your career with this online master's from Southern New Hampshire University.

Low-Residency MFA in Fiction and Nonfiction

Harness your passion for storytelling with SNHU's Mountainview Low-Residency MFA in Fiction and Nonfiction. In this small, two-year creative writing program, students work one-on-one with our distinguished faculty remotely for most of the semester but convene for weeklong intensive residencies in June and January. At residencies, students critique each other's work face-to-face, meet with major authors, agents and editors and learn how to teach at the college level.

How Much Does a Master’s in Creative Writing from UC Davis Cost?

Uc davis graduate tuition and fees.

The average full-time tuition and fees for graduate students are shown in the table below.

Does UC Davis Offer an Online MA in Creative Writing?

UC Davis does not offer an online option for its creative writing master’s degree program at this time. To see if the school offers distance learning options in other areas, visit the UC Davis Online Learning page.

UC Davis Master’s Student Diversity for Creative Writing

Male-to-female ratio.

About 62.5% of the students who received their MA in creative writing in 2019-2020 were women. This is less than the nationwide number of 66.6%.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

Around 37.5% of creative writing master’s degree recipients at UC Davis in 2019-2020 were awarded to racial-ethnic minorities*. This is higher than the nationwide number of 24%.

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

• National Center for Education Statistics
• O*NET Online

More about our data sources and methodologies .

Popular Reports

Compare your school options.

Maurice Prize Winner’s Novel Produced During Pandemic

• by Jeffrey Day
• November 09, 2023
• Alumni News

Jessica Guerrieri (B.A., English, ’07) is this year’s winner of the Maurice Prize for Fiction. The prize, which includes a $10,000 award, is given to a UC Davis graduate who has not yet published a novel.

Guerrieri wrote the novel she submitted, Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, during the COVID pandemic lockdown. The book chronicles the highs and lows of a large family living in Half Moon Bay, California. It is about coming to terms with family, addiction, recovery, children and, not the least, motherhood.

Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize Comes to UC Davis

• October 17, 2023

Maurice Prize for Fiction of $10K Accepting Submissions

• by Jeffrey A Day
• June 14, 2023

Submissions are being accepted for the 2023 Maurice Prize for Fiction, a $10,000 award for the best novel written by a UC Davis graduate who has not yet published or been accepted for publication by the contest deadline. Submissions are limited to novels; no short story collections.

The deadline for submission is Aug. 14.

UC Davis Arts and Humanities Graduate Students’ Wide-Ranging Work Takes Center Stage With Annual Exhibition  

• May 24, 2023
• Student News

Creative Writing Professor Awarded Guggenheim

• April 11, 2023

Lucy Corin , a UC Davis Department of English professor of creative writing, has received a Guggenheim Fellowship. She plans to use the fellowship to work on her next novel, tentatively titled Les and Rae. She is one of eight fiction writers to receive a Guggenheim Fellowship this year.

“(The book) is about a couple who respond to current cultural pressures differently — one joins an underground gun group and one sneaks away into the woods at the edge of their neighborhood,” she said.

Book Informed by Alum’s Experience in Haiti Wins Maurice Prize

• November 16, 2022

Book Fiction Submission Period Opens for Maurice Prize

• by Kathleen Holder
• June 01, 2022
• College News

Uncharted Territory

• May 24, 2022

Readings by Award-Winning Writer, Alumni with New Books, and a Poetry Panel Coming Up

• February 24, 2021

The UC Davis Creative Writing Program in the Department of English will present online readings March 2 and 3 — one by a star of the literary world, and another by three UC Davis alumni with newly published books. In April, three lyric and narrative poets who create long-form works will take part in a conversation and give readings. All the readings are co-sponsored by the UC Davis Library.

Three graduates of the Creative Writing Program will return to campus virtually March 2 at 4:30 p.m. to read from their books published last year.

Words and More for Creative Writing Series

• December 18, 2020

The UC Davis Creative Writing Series kicks off 2021 with readings by acclaimed visiting writers Jess Arndt and Carmen Maria Machado, a collaboration between music and writing students, and a showcase of new works by faculty members. All events are at 4:30 p.m., free and accessible on Zoom unless otherwise noted.

The Creative Writing Program is part of the English department in the College of Letters and Science.

Department of English

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Honors program - creative writing.

Applications to the Honors Program are due Thursday, FEBRUARY 1 st at NOON

Admission to the Honors Program in Creative Writing is selective. In order to apply, you will need to have taken at least one 100 level workshop in Creative Writing, or you must be planning to take one in Winter Quarter. Students admitted to the Honors Program will need to take 100FA or 100PA in the Spring of this year. Other students can apply to, and take, 100FA and 100PA – we encourage all interested students to apply for these courses.

THE APPLICATION

Your application to the Honors Program will consist of a statement of purpose and a writing sample in your chosen genre. We will admit you to the program based on these materials. Please submit a well-written, interesting statement of purpose that tells us who you are as a writer and what you wish to do with your thesis. Submit your best work, in the genre you wish to practice, in your writing sample. statement of purpose should be 1-2 pages long. The writing sample should be 10 pages. 

Students admitted to the program are required to take two courses to complete Honors in Creative Writing. This academic year, you’ll complete English 100FA or 100PA. Next academic year, your graduation year, you’ll take English 195H, an independent study, during one quarter . English 195H. English 100FA and 100PA are scheduled courses with instructors. These courses should give you the time and space to explore your writing practice in anticipation of your thesis project. English 195H is a tutorial style course, which matches you with a Senate Faculty member. Sometimes you meet one on one; sometimes you meet in a group with that advisor.

FINDING AN ADVISOR

In Spring 2024, you should find an advisor. This faculty member will be your official instructor for English 195H, and the mentor for your thesis project.  To register for ENL 195H, you need to email [email protected] to get the CRN at the time of registration for the quarter in which you wish to take the class. 

The Honors Thesis is a creative work that reflects each student's development as a writer. The completed thesis should be at least 35 pages in length, and might include a critical or reflective introduction. As a course, English 195H has no scheduled class meetings; instead each student is required to schedule regular meetings with his or her faculty advisor during the term that the thesis is completed. Students should plan to meet at least six times the course of a ten week quarter, and should plan to treat 195H like a class, with at least the same time commitment as an upper-division course in English. Most of this time will be spent independently, writing your project. The thesis should be completed to the faculty advisor's satisfaction at the conclusion of the quarter in which 195H is taken. Students receive four units of credit for working on their creative thesis projects under the direction of the faculty advisor.

SUBMITTING FOR PRIZES

A prize is awarded at the end of Spring Quarter for the Best Honors Creative Writing Honors Project. The deadline date for submission of the thesis is normally prior to the Memorial Day holiday weekend. Students are encouraged, but not required, to complete their thesis in Fall or Winter quarters, however, this is also at the discretion of your faculty advisor.

WHO TO TALK TO

CW Honors Director Lucy Corin: [email protected]

Undergraduate Advisor: [email protected]  

Eligibility: To be eligible to participate in the Honors Program in English (Creative), students must have earned, by the end of Fall quarter 2023 a GPA of 3.5 in English courses. Students must also have taken at least one upper division creative writing workshop course at UCD (or enrolled in one Winter quarter 2024). Advanced-standing juniors who expect to graduate in mid-year may also apply for admission.

Click here for Honors Program Application  (Deadline date: February 1, 2024 , NOON)

Creative Writing

Graduate Studies

• Master of Fine Arts

The UC Davis graduate creative writing program is a two-year master of fine arts degree rooted in the study and creation of literature that reaches toward the other arts with the goal of presenting students with a wide range of aesthetic approaches and models for being a writer. Students may specialize in fiction, poetry, nonfiction, as well as multi‐genre, multi‐media, or hybrid forms of literary art. 

Graduate Program Requirements

Contact information.

How a Professional Writing Minor Can Benefit Any Major

• by Alexa Carter
• March 17, 2023

If you’ve ever scrolled through the list of UC Davis minors and made it to the very bottom, you may have come across the professional writing minor. It doesn’t matter if you stopped to read the description. This blog provides something that the description does not. This is a collection of honest experiences from current students and alumni ranging from STEM to liberal arts backgrounds.

No matter what field you go into, there will always be a need for writing and literacy. Just because we have been learning how to write since our first day of preschool doesn’t mean we’re experts in it. Writing is more than just the foundation of novels. Science journalists, sportscasters and every single person who will need to write a professional email at some point in their life (that’s you) needs to know how to write effectively.

UC Davis’ professional writing minor is customizable

One of my favorite aspects of the professional writing minor? You get to choose from a broad range of courses . Specializations include academic writing, writing in the professions, and theory, history and design. This is an incredible opportunity to build your academic plan around courses that interest you or complement your major. I chose to take courses that align with my interest in a communication career, such as:

• University Writing Program (UWP) 112: Introduction to Professional Editing : One of the most interesting courses I’ve taken. We learned how to edit writing for consistency and accuracy.
• UWP 104A: Writing in the Professions: Business Writing : The first class I took at UC Davis that taught me marketable business skills. We learned how to effectively write business reports, resumes, cover letters and memorandums.
• UWP 110: Specialized Genres in Professional Writing: Designing the User Experience : My favorite UWP course. Students worked on a quarter-long group project where we pitched, built and presented a prototype of a mobile phone application.

Lilly Ackerman is a fourth-year evolution, ecology and biodiversity major. She's also minoring in professional writing. Her favorite minor courses were UWP 102B: Writing in the Disciples: Biology and UWP 104E: Writing in the Professions: Science .  They combined her passions for science and writing. She shares, “I’m glad that they have courses that relate to specific disciplines. It allows you to see if it’s something that you like and how you can apply writing to something that matters to you.”

Writing skills make you stand out in a STEM world

While professional writing is typically associated with the arts, it can be a crucial skill to have in STEM fields. Writing in plain language helps to make complex topics more easily digestible. The skills to effectively communicate are always in demand. These skills can make you stand out in the STEM field among those who may not be as comfortable with writing.

The amount of writing careers in scientific disciplines may surprise you. “I didn't realize that there were so many types of science writing and various ways to make it my career,” says Sofie Bates ‘18 in an Alumni Spotlight . Bates was introduced to science writing after taking UWP111C: Specialized Topics in Journalism: Science Journalism . The minor provided her opportunities that has led to her current title as Senior Science Writer at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. “ All of that never would have happened without the professional writing minor and the wonderful mentors I met from it.”

Professional writing allows you to express your creativity

I declared the professional writing minor for two reasons. The first was because the communication major has a relatively small amount of units and pairing it with another major or minor is common. The second was because I wanted to strengthen my skills in professional writing and similar disciplines.

Along the way, a third motive arose: it allowed me to be creative. My major classes were filled with lengthy terms and theories. My minor courses had me building apps, editing documents for a client and writing this very blog. Brynton Lemar ‘17 was also inspired to express his creativity through the minor. He’s now a professional basketball player for Le Mans Sarthe Basket in France. Lemar still uses the skills the professional writing minor provided when creating content for his podcast. In an Alumni Spotlight , he shares, “Being an athlete, I’m seen as just a ball player or someone good at sports. Writing gives me a chance to show everyone I have different depths to myself. It helped me show everyone the real me.” 

Gain job experience through required writing internships

While you can choose the 16 units of minor classes you take, all minor candidates must complete 4 units of an internship . Students must find an internship in a professional setting. Then, they log the hours spent working on writing-related assignments. “ I actually think the minor was a really good incentive for me to take the plunge and write for The Aggie ,” says Lilly Ackerman. “I had never really had journalism experience before, but knowing that it would count towards my minor and contribute to my learning, I just felt that I had to do it.”

You can also spread your units out over multiple quarters. Katie Rodger, Internship Coordinator for the minor, shares, “ I’ve worked with a lot of students on deliberately looking to do more than one internship for that requirement so that they’re ultimately not padding but rather packing their resume with lots of different experiences.” Many students have made connections and gotten job offers after their internship.

The professional writing minor has by far been the best part of my academic journey. Not only have I grown, I have had fun along the way. Whether you’re in STEM or liberal arts, we all have to use our writing brains. Use the professional writing minor to discover the types of writing you are not only talented in, but also passionate about.

Primary Category

Writing Center

Undergraduate

Writing support for undergraduates.

The UC Davis Writing Center helps undergraduate students — across all majors, skill levels and during any stage of the writing process — establish and improve their understanding of academic writing.  We also help with personal statements, graduate school and other applications, poster or other oral presentations. In fact, we can help with just about any project you are working on!

We provide undergraduate students with: 

• One-on-one consulting
• Workshops and seminars
• Writing groups
• Group and individual study space

UC Davis Majors

Agricultural and environmental education, agricultural and environmental technology, animal biology, animal science, animal science and management, atmospheric science, biotechnology, clinical nutrition, community and regional development, ecological management and restoration, environmental horticulture and urban forestry, environmental policy analysis and planning, environmental science and management, environmental toxicology, food science, global disease biology, international agricultural development, landscape architecture, managerial economics, marine and coastal science — coastal environmental processes or marine environmental chemistry, plant sciences, sustainable agriculture and food systems, sustainable environmental design, undeclared/exploratory program, viticulture and enology, wildlife, fish and conservation biology.

2023-2024 General Catalog

Professional Writing, Minor College of Letters & Science

Office & Contact Information

The Program

The University Writing Program (UWP) offers writing courses and seeks to improve writing instruction across campus through a variety of programs. The UWP coordinates first year, intermediate, and advanced writing courses that satisfy college composition requirements and offers courses in writing across the curriculum, writing in specific disciplines, and writing in the professions. The Professional Writing Minor serves students from all majors who are planning careers as professional writers or editors, as well as those whose academic and professional careers demand advanced writing skills. The Program offers graduate courses in the teaching of writing and in composition theory, history, and research. The Designated Emphasis in Writing, Rhetoric, & Composition Studies offers Ph.D. students in affiliated programs the opportunity to prepare for leadership roles in writing research, teaching, and program administration. The UWP also administers the English Composition Examination, an alternative way to satisfy the advanced writing requirement. The UWP publishes an annual anthology of exemplary student writing, Prized Writing, and a journal for writing instructors, Writing on the Edge. The Writing in the Disciplines Workshop Program presents workshops on teaching writing for faculty and TAs and workshops on writing for students. The Writing Ambassadors Program trains advanced undergraduates and places them as interns in K-12 classrooms to improve writing instruction.

• by UC Davis News Service
• March 14, 2024

UC Davis will welcome its first cohort of students to a new business major in the fall of 2025, bringing to fruition a degree program that was decades in the making and in partnership with the College of Letters and Science.

“We look forward to deepening connections with our business community and sparking new relationships that will support the experiential learning of undergraduate students in this new academic degree program,” said UC Davis Chancellor Gary S. May. “Our alumni and industry partners already support us in many meaningful ways, and we look forward to further engaging with them in opportunities to advance the success of our students.”

In 2021, a working group composed of faculty in the Graduate School of Management, the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, and the College of Letters and Science was tasked with continuing previous work to make the business major a reality. With a solid foundation from prior committees’ work, members of the Joint Working Group for the Creation of a Business Major —  Stephen Boucher ,  Joseph Chen ,  Giovanni Peri ,  Hollis Skaife ,  Derek Stimel  and  Jeffrey Williams  — collaborated across departments and dedicated countless hours toward review, deliberation and thoughtful discussion with colleagues across campus. The result is a major built on pillars of math, statistics and economics, which draws from courses in the Departments of  Agricultural and Resource Economics ,   Economics  and  GSM . The rigorous academic program was approved by the  Davis Division of the Academic Senate  this year.

Details on the new major will be released in the coming months on a dedicated website and published in admissions materials in the fall.

“This new major directly responds to student and industry requests for a business major at UC Davis,” said Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Mary Croughan. “It enhances our significant role in preparing tomorrow’s leaders, innovators, and entrepreneurs by drawing on areas of significant strength across the campus, with outstanding expert faculty who will offer students an exceptional educational experience.”

Primary Category

College of Letters and Science

• Bachelor of Arts

Do the challenges and pleasures of reading appeal to you? Do you want to master the craft of interpreting and analyzing texts? The English major prepares students for any field that values critical thinking, clear and effective writing, research skills, and the ability to interpret and analyze textual data. From medieval epics to twenty-first-century films, graphic novels, and sound poetry, our courses cast a wide net in order to expand and deepen our understanding of what counts as “English literature.”

Major Requirements

As an English major, you will spend time learning about different forms of literature before shifting to a focus on historical periods and contexts. The flexibility of the major accommodates individual interests, and you may focus on critical histories and methods, major authors, ethnic and multicultural literatures or the relation of literature to complementary disciplines such as environmental studies or film criticism. You may also choose a course of study emphasizing teaching, creative writing or general literature.

Contact Information

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Graduate Study

• English literature
• Creative writing
• Public policy

Alumni Employers

• DreamWorks Animation

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