In 1983, William O’Rourke submitted a ten-page proposal for a “Master of Fine Arts in Writing program” to the Notre Dame Department of English. It wouldn’t be until 1989 that faculty members would vote unanimously in support of creating an MA in creative writing degree, and by 1991, the Notre Dame Creative Writing Program had become a reality. When Valerie Sayers was hired in 1993, she secured the first official program budget. In 1996, the graduate council approved changing the MA degree to what O’Rourke first envisioned in 1983: an MFA in creative writing. Today, thirty-three years since its inception, the growth and success of Notre Dame’s MFA in Creative Writing Program continues under the direction of Roy Scranton. Awarding eight to ten MFA degrees to bold and inventive writers every year, Notre Dame boasts a program that “combines generous, attentive focus on student work with active pedagogy in a cooperative process of growth, learning, professionalization, and exploration.” Despite the severe impact of COVID-19, Notre Dame’s MFA program has re-emerged stronger than ever, encouraging its students to “TRANSMUTE, EXPERIMENT, and EXPLORE.”

From serving South Bend’s various literary communities to teaching undergraduate creative writing courses during their second year, Notre Dame’s MFA students receive a variety of opportunities for gaining real-world experience. To prepare students for a range of career options, the Nicholas Sparks Summer Internship program now offers two students paid internships with two major New York City book publishers each year: Park & Fine and, more recently, Ballantine Books. First-year students also have opportunities to apply for editorial fellowships with Notre Dame Review (founded by Valerie Sayers) and transnational press Action Books (co-founded by Joyelle McSweeney and Johannes Göransson). Action Books’ titles have received honors including the 2020 National Translation Award (Hysteria), the 2018 National Translation Award (Third-Millennium Heart), the 2013 PEN Poetry in Translation Award (The Shock of the Lenders), and the 2012 Lucien Stryk Asian Translation Prize (All the Garbage of the World Unite!), among others.

Notre Dame’s creative writing faculty continues to be recognized for their significant contributions to the field. Dionne Irving’s short story collection The Islands (Catapult Books) was a finalist for the 2023 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. In May, Harvard University's Radcliffe Institute announced Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi as one of this year's Carl and Lily Pforzheimer Foundation Fellows. Additionally, Van der Vliet Oloomi's short story "It Is What It Is" was selected by editors Min Jin Lee and Heidi Pitlor for Best American Short Stories 2023 (forthcoming from Mariner Books). Xavier Navarro Aquino’s debut novel Velorio (HarperCollins) received many favorable reviews in venues like The New York Times. Orlando Menes’ new essay “Testarudo” appears in Latinx Poetics: The Art of Poetry (University of New Mexico Press). Johannes Göransson published two new books: the book-length elegy Summer (Tarpaulin Sky Press) and The New Quarantine (Inside the Castle), a collaboration with Swedish writer and performance artist Sara Tuss Efrik. In 2022, Joyelle McSweeney was recognized with the Shelley Memorial Prize from the Poetry Society of America, the Literature Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Guggenheim fellowship. McSweeney is readying her tenth book, Death Styles, for publication next spring. The program also recently re-established the position of a dedicated Creative Writing Program Manager by hiring translator, poet, and Notre Dame MFA alum Paul Cunningham.

Notre Dame is a very exciting place to be a writer right now. Thanks to a generous $1.5 million endowment, 2023 will mark the exciting launch of the John and Patrice Kelly Reading Series, with Sofia Samatar as the inaugural reader. MFA alumni Joseph Earl Thomas (Sink: A Memoir) and Nazli Koca (The Applicant) both have debut books recently reviewed in The New York Times. Ae Hee Lee won the 2022 Dorset Prize for her book Asterism and was named one of twelve finalists for 2022 Ruth Lilly & Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowship. Gwendolyn Oxenham, now a regular contributor to ESPN and Sports Illustrated, will be the head of creative content for the broadcasting company producing the 2023 Women’s World Cup. Tess Gunty, whose undergraduate thesis was advised by McSweeney, won the 2022 National Book Award for her debut novel The Rabbit Hutch. Current student Arman Chowdhury was a finalist for the 2023 Commonwealth Short Story Prize; Kalie Pead received Folio Magazine’s Editor’s Prize for Poetry; Jacob Moniz was awarded a Fulbright to study in Portugal; and “Lovely” Raju Kalam graduated with two forthcoming full-length books of poetry: Hope (Finishing Line Press, 2023) and inside violence violence inside (Flower Song Press, 2024).

In fall 2023, Notre Dame will welcome its next cohort of groundbreaking writers: Ivy Braxton Harrington, Isabel Boutiette, Makella Brems, Samuel Ekanem, Camille Lendor, Noah Loveless, Oli Peters, Ryan Phung, Kyla D. Walker, and Sachie Weber.