This intense two-year master of fine arts program offers an individualized approach in an atmosphere of cooperation and encouragement for the college graduate writer who wants to concentrate on his or her craft in a helpful community of writers and who seeks to expand his or her knowledge of literary criticism and contemporary literature.
   The 24 students enrolled in this highly regarded program have a strong interest in and aptitude for writing and literary study. They work successfully in every genre, including poetry, short fiction, novels, and creative nonfiction.
   The Hollins program has one of the highest publishing records of any graduate school in the country. Among the many renowned writers who have graduated from the program are Pulitzer Prize winners Annie Dillard, Henry Taylor, and Natasha Trethewey; novelists and story writers Madison Smartt Bell, Kiran Desai, Tony D'Souza, David Huddle, Tama Janowitz, and Jill McCorkle; poets and essayists Adrian Blevins, Jenny Boully, Scott Cairns, Wyn Cooper, Kevin Prufer, and Mary Ruefle; novelists and memoirist Richard McCann and Karen Salyer McElmurray; photographer Sally Mann; and filmmaker George Butler.
   At Hollins, faculty members take considerable time to work with students, both in and out of the classroom. R.H.W. Dillard, the program’s former director, and a novelist and poet, notes, “We do not really teach creative writing. We do not produce writers who write a certain way. We do provide the guidance of professionals, and we do everything we can to make the program what the students here need.” The graduates echo Dillard’s words, saying that the criticism and guidance of Hollins professors and visiting writers help shape and discipline their writing without squeezing them into a mold.
   In addition to NEA, Guggenheim, and Fulbright awards, graduates of the creative writing program have won prestigious fellowships and residencies, including:

• Will Schutt (M.F.A. '09) was awarded the 2009-10 Stadler Fellowship at Bucknell University.
• Luke Johnson (M.F.A. '09) Tennessee Williams Scholarship to the Sewanee Writers' Conference, 2009.
• Scott Loring Sanders (M.F.A. '05) writing fellowship, the Camargo Foundation in Cassis, France.
• Lisa Bower (M.F.A. '07), Vermont Studio Center residency.
• Matthew Klam (M.A. '92) writing fellowship, Fine Arts Work Center, Provincetown.
• Leslee Becker (M.A. '80), Stegner Fellowship, Stanford University.  

   Each academic year, Hollins sponsors a reading series and a literary festival, bringing talented writers of many backgrounds to campus for readings, talks, and contact with students. In recent years visitors have included: Kelly Cherry, Carolyn Chute, Carl Dennis, Mark Doty, Claudia Emerson, Brendan Galvin, Elizabeth Forsythe Hailey, John Hollander, Edward P. Jones, Patricia Spears Jones, Allison Joseph, Jamaica Kincaid, Valerie Miner, Elizabeth Seydel Morgan, David Payne, Ron Rash, Sheri Reynolds, David Adams Richards, John Russell, Elissa Schappell, Christine Schutt, Sue William Silverman, Darcy Steinke, Stephanie Strickland, James Tate, Richard Tillinghast, Dara Wier, and Charles Wright.
   A distinguished poet or writer of fiction is in residence at Hollins each spring semester as the Louis D. Rubin, Jr. Writer-in-Residence.

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