In June of last year, the Litowitz MFA+MA at Northwestern University graduated just its third cohort since the program’s inception in 2018. Yet alums of “The Lit” have already achieved remarkable success with their writing, their professional lives, and their critical acumen.

Some of this success can be attributed to the generous resources provided by Jennifer Litowitz, a Northwestern English alum, as well as Northwestern’s belief in the project of the program. The Lit boasts the highest creative writing graduate stipend in the country—$37,000 for the 2023–24 academic year—with free tuition and health coverage, research and travel funds, guaranteed opportunities to teach genre-specific creative writing courses, and editorial experience at TriQuarterly. The faculty includes Natasha Trethewey, Sarah Schulman, Daisy Hernández, Juan Martinez, Charif Shanahan, and Chris Abani. Upon completing the three-year program, students receive two individual degrees from Northwestern: a master’s in English and an MFA.

The other portion of the program’s success comes as a result of the incredible students The Lit has attracted. Recent alumni have published highly regarded books, won prestigious awards, and found professional success. I asked a few of these students what their time in the Litowitz MFA+MA meant for their accomplishments:

E. Hughes

Since graduating with an MFA+MA from the Litowitz Creative Writing Program, I have signed my first book contract with Haymarket Books, which will publish Ankle-Deep in Pacific Water in the fall of 2024. Ankle-Deep in Pacific Water started as my MFA thesis, which received hands-on guidance from the world-renowned poetry professors who started and still sustain the creative writing program. I have also published in literary journals like Guernica and The Rumpus, and I have been nominated for a myriad of literary, fellowship, and book prizes. The Litowitz Creative Writing Program changed my life both as an artist and as a poet. With the practical and creative mentorship I received in the program, I was able to turn my talent as a poet into a career, as well as learn to live the life of an artist.

—E. Hughes, ’21, Cave Canem fellow and PhD student in philosophy at Emory University, author of the poetry collection Ankle-Deep in Pacific Water, forthcoming from Haymarket Books in 2024. Learn more at ehughespoetry.com.

George Abraham

Among the biggest strengths of this program is its dual critical-creative spirit. The ability to be in a rigorous, sustained conversation with MENA studies faculty, alongside cross-genre creative writing mentorship from faculty as brilliant as they are caring and compassionate, has been invaluable to my journey as a writer, editor, and educator. This really is a choose-your-own-adventure situation: students in the program have gone on to explore a diverse range of research interests in many fields as they relate to their writing. Throughout some of the most difficult years of my life thus far, I am grateful to have creative writing and MENA as small pockets of genuine community and connection. This is a truly rare and unique experience relative to the state of affairs in MFA programs at a national level, and I feel nothing but gratitude for my brilliant cohort and amazing mentors here. 

—George Abraham, ’24, Palestinian American poet, winner of the Arab American Book Award for Birthright, writer-in-residence at Amherst College, and executive editor of the Whiting Award–winning journal Mizna. Learn more at gabrahampoet.com.

Kira Tucker

Since beginning the Litowitz MFA+MA Program in fall 2020, life-changing experiences have led me to my current work as an associate agent for the Shipman Agency and assistant managing editor for TriQuarterly.

The breadth of creative writing workshops and the depth of mentorship I’ve received from my outstanding advisor, Dr. Natasha Trethewey, have developed the critical, artistic acumen which fuels my work as a professional editor. Teaching introductory poetry courses and tutoring students in the Northwestern Prison Education Program solidified my skills as an educator, a literary liaison, and a writer sustaining a deep commitment to community.

Amid the challenges of completing graduate study during a global pandemic, the fellowships and funding I’ve received from Northwestern—as well as the Mellon Foundation, the Hurston/Wright Foundation, Tin House, and the Sewanee Writers’ Conference—have contributed immeasurably to my success as an emerging writer. Above all, I have forged lasting bonds with a cohort of writers who nurture my humanity and make me proud that we are contemporaries. I owe my unending gratitude to them, the path that brought us here, and the dreams that continue to carry us forward.

—Kira Tucker, ’23, associate agent at the Leslie Shipman Agency and associate managing editor of TriQuarterly.  Learn more at kira-tucker.com.

Suzanne Scanlon

Northwestern’s Litowitz MFA+MA provided me with the time and resources to develop, write, and revise my memoir. In a very basic way, the program provided me with money and (very good) health insurance for three years. It’s rare to have that kind of time solely devoted to writing. But it also provided me with a community of brilliant writers and thinkers, grad students and faculty. Being a writer is so often sold as a solitary act— and of course it is—but at Northwestern I learned or remembered how much writing can be shaped by community. It is a communal act. I wrote many of the early pages of my memoir in a workshop with Natasha Trethewey. There is something about writing for an immediate present audience, having readers there responding and asking questions—this changes the work. And of course, Natasha is such an inspiring and talented writer, even to be around her talent is motivating. This is true of all the Litowitz faculty. Sarah Schulman read the book in an early draft and asked key questions that led to rewrites, revisions, development. Because of the program, I feel like the book was a collaboration. I was writing, getting feedback, and then writing again in a way to respond to those questions or to incorporate that feedback. If anyone wants to know the value of an MFA, that’s one way to gauge it. Northwestern and the Litowitz family gave me a great gift. 

—Suzanne Scanlon, ’23, author of Promising Young Women (2012), Her 37th Year: An Index (2015), and Committed: On Meaning and Madwomen, forthcoming from Vintage in 2024. Learn more at suzannescanlon.com.