MFA Creative Writing Program at FIU

Last night's beautiful celebration featuring the winners of FIUs annual Student Literary Awards!

Current MFA student, Amanda Johnson (AJ), has been named a winner of the 2026 AWP Intro Journals Project in poetry! AJ's work was selected from other entries submitted by MFA programs across the country. Her winning poem, "Persephone," will appear in a future issue of the COLORADO REVIEW.

Just announced: winners of the 2026 FIU Student Literary Awards! See them live and in person on April 9.

It's tonight! Can't make it in person? We'll be live streaming it right here.

Congrats to Voqab Bholai for his successful thesis defense! More to come . . .

Alumna Jennifer Mariza MaCauley's latest sounds like a banger!

NEON STEEL — Jennifer Maritza McCauley Coming February 2026 from Cornerstone Press (University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point)NEON STEEL Speculative fiction set in Pittsburgh, PA in the 90s/early 2000s. Exploration of Black fandom and imagination. Robots. Rap shows. Shojo & josei -styled romance. Blerds (Black Nerds). Anime. Comic cons. Vamp...

We are so proud of Rani Ruado, a graduate of the FIU MFA program and also an exceptional member of our creative writing team at the FIU Biscayne Bay Campus English Department office.

Congratulations, Ran, on winning RHINO Poetry's Ralph Hamilton Editors' Prize for this haunting poem, "To Serve the Philippines."

POEMS — RHINO — To Serve the Philippines by Rani Ruado there is no such thing as excess in this archipelago.

Congratulations to our faculty members who've received 2025 Florida Book Awards: John Dufresne (Gold Medal, General Fiction) and Julie Wade (Silver Medal, Poetry)!

We're excited to announce and congratulate the 2025 Florida Book Awards winners! This year's competition was filled with amazing works! The winners for the Spanish Language and Ensley Award will be announced at a later date, and more information on the winners will be announced on our social media accounts and our website. Join us in congratulating this year's award winners! Thank you to all authors, publishers, and members of the public who submitted to the book awards. We’re looking forward to seeing you in April🎉

Congratulations to alumnus Jordan Hill for receiving the Leonard Cohen Poetry Prize, which honors poems echoing Cohen’s obsessions: love & loss, faith & flesh, devotion & doubt. Here is his winning entry:

Reliquary by Jordan St. Hill | ONLY POEMS Read Reliquary, a poem by Jordan St. Hill. Explore poetry that moves, inspires, and connects. Part of ONLY POEMS' curated collection.

Congratulations to MFA faculty members John Dufresne and Julie Marie Wade!

John’s novel My Darling Boy has received the gold medal for general fiction in this year’s Florida Book Awards, and Julie’s poetry collection Quick Change Artist has received the silver medal for poetry.

Campbell McGrath did us a solid when he invited Catherine Bowman to last night's Writers on the Bay Reading Series. Great turnout, reading, and Q&A!