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

Kate Sweeney

Welcoming Hanif Abdurraqib, Denning Visiting Artist for 2025-26 academic year

The Creative Writing Program and Public Humanities Initiative are pleased to announce a series of events showcasing lauded cultural critic and poet Hanif Abdurraqib in 2025-26 thanks to a Denning Visiting Artist Grant.

Explore article

Chelsey Arellano Awarded the Tom Ford Fellowship in Philanthropy

We are excited to share that Chelsey Arellano has been awarded a 2025 Tom Ford Fellowship in Philanthropy. The Tom Ford Fellowship in Philanthropy provided graduating seniors and coterms with intensive, mentored experiences in domestic foundations to educate them about the role of philanthropy in society and to encourage them to enter the field.

Learn more

LiPo Ching

Nicholas Jenkins Wins Warren-Brooks Award

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. The award honors the "the innovative, critical interpretation of literature."

Awards

Professor Karen Russell’s novel "The Antidote" has been selected as a finalist for The National Book Critics Circle Award in Fiction

Congratulations to Professor Karen Russell for being a finalist for The 2025 National Book Critics Circle Awards. The NBCC honors outstanding writing, fosters conversation about reading, criticism, and literature, and gives annual awards in six categories.

In the News

Watch Hanif Abdurraqib at Stanford | On Art, Survival, and the Heart’s Work

Poet, essayist, and cultural critic Hanif Abdurraqib joined Matthew D. Morrison, Associate Professor of African and African American Studies at Stanford, for an expansive conversation on art, feeling, and the everyday work of care. This event was presented by Stanford Public Humanities and the Creative Writing Program and supported by the Denning Visiting Artist Fund, with partnership from the Office of the Vice President for the Arts.

Yekaterina Gyadu

Awards

Professor Aracelis Girmay awarded the Academy of American Poets Fellowship

Congratulations to Professor Aracelis Girmay, the recipient of the Academy of American Poets Fellowship, which recognizes poetic achievement and carries with it a stipend and a residency at the T. S. Eliot House.