Program History

Welcome to George Mason University, the MFA program, Watershed Lit, and our robust community of artists, including younger writers in our BFA program, collectively referred to as Mason Creative Writing. 

You selected this program from among the several to which you applied, and we selected you from more than 125 applicants. MFA programs are not for every writer, but their influence is profound for those who choose this path. Let’s take a moment, before we dive into the various requirements and processes, to introduce some of the rich opportunities that are here for you through this brief history of the program.

Ours is one of the older MFAs in the country, started in 1980 near the beginning of a wave of graduate writing programs that grew in popularity. Initially, we started as a two-genre program— fiction and poetry—and added nonfiction in the mid-1990s. The MFA was the first terminal-degree program in the English Department at Mason. As such, it has always received attention and solid support from the English Department and the College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHSS), within which it is housed.

Novelist Susan Richards Shreve and poet Peter Klappert were its original architects and key faculty. The program was patterned on a studio-workshop model that also blended in a significant requirement for major literary study; therefore, the curriculum has always required and still requires workshops, craft courses, and literature courses. Due to this approach, and its location near the nation’s capital, the program found early success. This allowed us to expand the core faculty to include fiction writers Richard Bausch, Stephen Goodwin, and Alan Cheuse, as well as poets C.K. Williams, Carolyn Forche, and Susan Tichy. When, in the mid-1990s, the faculty and administration added nonfiction as its third genre, writer Beverly Lowry was hired to anchor that concentration.

Over the past 40-plus years, some of our faculty have moved to other opportunities, but those who remained have collaborated with the program’s administrators to carefully select from the best contemporary writers to serve as new faculty members. Integrating new voices has allowed us to expand the program's offerings and continue to enrich our aesthetic diversity. (A full list of our current faculty can be found here.) As a result, the Mason program doesn’t teach what might be thought of as the Mason “way to write;” instead, we offer experiences and opportunities in a nourishing environment that encourages students to grow into the writers they want to become. Throughout our history, the Mason program has encouraged students to work with numerous faculty during their time here, including crossing genres to gain from that experience.

Today, you will learn from a core faculty of highly acclaimed, extremely experienced literary artists who bring to each course and workshop our program’s most precious commodity—their love of teaching.

That being said, as writers ourselves, we understand that learning is never just limited to the classroom. Another trademark of the Mason program is the development and expansion of “non-classroom” opportunities, which have been established to encourage the enrichment of individual writers according to their interests and abilities (as well as to add experiences and credentials to their resumes). Students attending the program have the unique opportunity to engage in publishing practice and literary citizenship in a way that distinguishes Mason’s MFA program from other programs. 

Launched in 1999, the Fall for the Book literary festival (https://fallforthebook.org/) has presented multi-day literary experiences that students can—and we think they should—take advantage of during their years at Mason. Working behind the scenes with Fall for the Book can help you gain valuable experience in event production and arts management. Students can participate for academic credit or, in some cases, for financial stipends; however, just attending events gives students the unique opportunity to meet and talk with more than 100 writers, allowing them to participate in the literary citizenship essential in crafting their own writing practice. 

In 2014, some MFA faculty, administration, and alumni came together to found Stillhouse Press (https://stillhousepress.org). As a teaching press, Stillhouse engages Mason students who drive the editorial, design, and marketing decisions and provides them with first-hand "real world" exposure to all facets of book publishing. Soon after its founding, Stillhouse produced its first title: Helen on 86th Street and Other Stories, by Mason alum Wendi Kaufman. Today, Stillhouse offers students experience in manuscript selection, book design and production, effective marketing and business strategies, and much more. In turn, students become well acquainted with skills and strategies necessary in the changing world of publishing. Engagement with the press is formally undertaken through coursework, internships, and Graduate Professional Assistantships; however, interested students are able to gain experience through volunteering as well. 

Writer Alan Cheuse, during almost 30 years of teaching at Mason, encouraged young writers to find their own strengths while looking beyond themselves to the larger world for ideas and inspiration. Through his involvement with the annual Pegasus Prize, he brought an international writer to Mason’s campus whose work had been selected for translation into English and publication in a special Pegasus edition. The event featured the international writer reading from their work in the original language, followed by Alan reading from the translation. In 2014, our administration and faculty began discussing ways for this exchange to be directly embedded into the program, and Alan advocated for a center that would bring writers from around the world to Mason on a consistent basis. Sadly, shortly thereafter, Alan died in the late summer of 2015 after a car accident in California. It seemed only appropriate to name the center for international writing that grew out of those early conversations in his name, in honor of his career and legacy. 

Today, the Alan Cheuse International Writers Center (https://cheusecenter.gmu.edu/) regularly brings literary artists to campus and the Washington, D.C. area as part of its work to facilitate “the exchange of international creative writers and writing to help foster the tolerance and understanding a more connected world requires.” Events on campus and in the community built around those visits offer truly unique experiences for Mason’s students, but the Center also provides MFA students a chance to propose their research-abroad agendas and receive financial support to make them possible. Travel grants generally are $5000 each, depending on funding availability, and are considered on a competitive basis.

In 2019, the MFA program announced a collaboration with the nonprofit Daily Poetry Association and relocated the curation, publication, and administration of Poetry Daily from Charlottesville to Mason’s campus. Launched in 1997, Poetry Daily is a highly esteemed online journal that features poets, their poetry, and poetry publishers. The new collaboration transforms it into a significant learning opportunity for Mason students. Working with Mason's Poetry Faculty, students help select works to be featured each day on the Poetry Daily website (reimagined and redesigned at https://poems.com) and emailed every morning to a burgeoning list of subscribers. Students also work with Poetry Daily’s editorial board of poets and gain experience in design and use of online publications, social media and multi-media platforms, and nonprofit arts administration.

Developed in 1978, the Northern Virginia Writing Project (https://nvwp.gmu.edu/) is one of the National Writing Project’s first sites. Its mission is to inform teachers of the best practices in writing instruction for K-12 instructors.

Finally, while many MFA programs sustain traditional literary journals, Mason is grateful to be home to two highly acclaimed and innovative publications: phoebe journal and So to Speak. In the early 1970s, Mason alums and twin brothers Richard and Robert Bausch launched phoebe, which was later folded it into the new MFA program. phoebe prides itself on supporting up-and-coming writers whose style, form, voice, and subject matter demonstrate a vigorous appeal to the senses, intellect, and emotions of its readers. They publish one print and one online issue per year. Additionally, So to Speak was founded in 1993 by an editorial collective of women—all MFA candidates—and has served as a space for feminist writing and art for more than 25 years. As the journal has evolved over the years, so have its editors’ outlooks on feminism; they believe in an intersectional feminist outlook that includes, advocates for, and amplifies the perspectives and experiences of marginalized women and nonbinary people.

In 2020, to mark the MFA program's 40th anniversary, Mason Creative Writing and the College of Humanities and Social Sciences chartered a new center to house these literary initiatives. Officially known as Watershed Lit: Center for Literary Engagement and Publishing Practice, this resource is a wellspring for significant resume-building professional development opportunities that provide students with meaningful experiences while in the program and tools to market themselves after graduation. This name represents the many watersheds found in our Northern Virginia home, many of which feed the mighty Potomac River, and reflects the fact that your time at Mason will involve watershed moments in your lives as scholars and writers.

In early 2021, Mason Creative Writing and Watershed Lit moved with the English Department into the College of Humanities and Social Science’s new home, Horizon Hall. This building, and the literature you pursue and create within it, are literally and figuratively at the center of the Fairfax campus.

Welcome to Mason Creative Writing. Our next chapters are for you to write! 

— Mason Creative Writing
MFA Faculty and Administrative Team

Thanks to Bill Miller, who served the George Mason University community for 33 years and was Director of Creative Writing from 1992 to 2018, for drafting this program history. Bill is one of the many reasons you are benefiting from the rigorous scholarship, stellar faculty, and exceptional opportunities that Mason Creative Writing offers today. This history was edited and refreshed by Faith Palermo (MFA, '25).