The English Department at Florida State University

In 2006, The Atlantic Monthly ranked the top ten MFA programs and the top five PhD programs in the country. Only one program made both of those lists: Florida State University. The Creative Writing Program is now affiliated with FSU's top-ranked schools of Film and Theatre. Our faculty includes winners of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, as well as professors who are not only dedicated to the craft of writing but who are also widely known as teachers of the craft. We also happen to be located in the heart of Tallahassee: a capital city with Southern charm, where the roads are lined with live oaks and the world's best oysters are shucked fresh from the Gulf.

Visiting Writers Series

Writers Harvest

Erin Belieu and Bob Shacochis

Wednesday, November 7, 2012, 8:00 pm

Alumni Center Grand Ballroom

1030 W Tennessee Street

Tallahassee

Please join Florida State University's English Department as we partner with America's Second Harvest to host our annual Writers Harvest. America's Second Harvest of the Big Bend is the food bank that distributes over three million pounds of food every year, equaling two million meals, for those in need. This year we are privileged to have award-winning writers, Erin Belieu and Bob Shacochis, read for us. Erin Belieu's third collection of poetry, Black Box, was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Poems from this collection have appeared in such places as Ploughshares, Tin House, and the Poetry Daily website. In 2009, she co-founded VIDA: Women In Literary Arts, achieving national recognition for her investigation of gender bias in nationally renowned publications. Erin is also the Artistic Director of the Port Townsend Writer's Conference and an Associate Professor at Florida State University. Our second reader, Bob Shacochis, won the National Book Award for his novel, Easy in the Islands, and has since authored half a dozen works of fiction and non-fiction, including Swimming in the Volcano and The Immaculate Invasion. He is a former columnist for Gentleman's Quarterly and a contributing editor for both Outside and Harper's. Bob, currently Florida State University's Writer-in-Residence, has also received a James Michener Fellowship and a grant from the NEA. The program starts at 8:00pm but come early to bid in our silent auction, or you may also bid early on our website: http://writersharvest2012.wordpress.com. Entry is a $10 donation at the door.

Graduate Student Spotlight

We are extremely proud of our graduate students, the lifeblood of our program. No creative writing program in the country has been included more often in Harcourt's Best New American Voices. Recent graduates have published books with Hyperion, Norton, Viking, MacAdam/Cage, Penguin, Henry Holt, Simon & Schuster, Copper Canyon, Houghton Mifflin, and several university presses. Our students have published in The Atlantic Monthly, Esquire, The Southern Review, Harper's, Ploughshares, and many other distinguished magazines, as well as read on NPR's This American Life. Our poets have gone on to capture major national poetry prizes resulting in book publication, including the Prairie Schooner Book Prize, the Agha Shahid Ali Prize in Poetry, and The Brittingham Poetry Prize.

Click here to see a small sampling of the recent publications and awards from our dynamic graduate students and alumni.

Faculty