Linda A. Cicero | Stanford News Service

Cultivating the power of individual expression within a vibrant community of writers

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Announcement from the Stanford Creative Writing Program

Creative Writing Program

Creative Writing Minor

Discover your writing prowess and push the imaginative bounds of prose, poetry, and screenwriting with our undergraduate minor.

Micaela Go

Stegner Fellowship

An opportunity for promising writers to develop their craft in the company of peers and under the guidance of Stanford faculty.

Stanford University

Our Community

Meet the faces of Creative Writing--the faculty, lecturers, staff, and visiting writers who guide and support our students and fellows.

It’s here that I fell deeper and deeper in love with writing, and I can say without a shadow of doubt that I met mentors, peers, and friends for life. The generosity with which the Creative Writing Program has shaped me will sustain—it’s truly been life-changing.
Katherine Ho
Peer Advisor, Class of 2023

In the Spotlight

For writer Molly Antopol, silences create room for fiction

The Creative Writing Program’s newest fiction writer tells wide-ranging stories about individual lives shaped by the forces of history.

Stanford Creative Writing Program revitalizes its vision amid growing demand

By returning to its foundational principles and adapting to contemporary needs, Stanford’s Creative Writing Program reaffirms its dedication to nurturing the next generation of writers.

For poet Aracelis Girmay, poetry is a way of thinking through complexity

For Aracelis Girmay, a poet who joined the Stanford School of Humanities and Sciences as a professor in the English Department and member of the Creative Writing Program in September 2023, poetry offers one way to work through these questions. Girmay maintains that poetry doesn’t just describe human experience but rather crystallizes it.

Recent News

  • Awards
We are excited to share that Chelsey Arellano has been awarded a 2025 Tom Ford Fellowship in Philanthropy.

LiPo Ching via Stanford University

  • Awards
Nicholas Jenkins, associate professor in the Department of English and director of the Creative Writing Program, has won the 2024 Warren-Brooks Award for his latest book, The Island, which reassesses W. H. Auden’s early life and poetry.
  • Announcements
We are absolutely delighted to share the news that Professor Chang-rae Lee has been elected to the 2025 cohort of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Upcoming Events

Date
Wednesday, May 21, 2025. 6:30pm
Location
Humanities Center
424 Santa Teresa Street, Stanford, CA 94305
Levinthal Hall

The Creative Writing Program is pleased to announce a reading with Stegner Fellows in Poetry and Fiction: Dāshaun Washington, Bernardo…

Date
Thursday, May 29, 2025. 4:00pm - 6:00pm
Location
Building 460, Margaret Jacks Hall
450 Jane Stanford Way, Building 460, Stanford, CA 94305
Room 426, Terrace Room

The Creative Writing Program is pleased to announce this year's Undergraduate Prize Reading.

Join us as we honor the recipients of the…

Bookshelf

Keith Ekiss
2025
Madeleine Cravens
2024
Zach Williams
2024
Weijia Pan
2024
Jackson Holbert
2023