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 intense, two-year master’s of fine arts program at Hollins offers an individualized approach in an atmosphere of cooperation and encouragement.
   Each year Hollins accepts approximately 12 people into this program who have a strong interest in and aptitude for writing and literary study. Students have successfully worked in every genre, among them poetry, short fiction, novels, plays, creative nonfiction, and children’s literature.
   The Hollins program has one of the highest publishing records of any graduate school in the country. Over the past 10 years, graduates have published some 200 books. Among the many publishing writers who have graduated from the program are Pulitzer Prize winners Annie Dillard and Henry Taylor, novelists Madison Smartt Bell, Kiran Desai, Garrett Epps, Tama Janowitz, Jill McCorkle, and Sylvia Wilkinson, poets Wyn Cooper, David Huddle, Edward Kleinschmidt Mayes, Natasha Trethewey, and Mary Ruefle, 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 spring, Hollins sponsors a literary festival, bringing talented writers of many backgrounds to campus for readings, talks, and contact with students. A distinguished poet or writer of fiction will be in residence at Hollins each spring semester. Throughout the year, too, writers and scholars come to Hollins; in recent years, Kathy Acker, Richard Bausch, Fred Chappell, Kelly Cherry, Carolyn Chute, Ellen Douglas, Cornelius Eady, Edward P. Jones, William Gass, Brendan Galvin, Molly Peacock, Valerie Martin, Sheri Reynolds, and Paul Zimmer have been among them.

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