• About Hero

    About

  • The New School has been a vital center for creative writing since 1927, when we offered the first academic creative writing workshop. Since then, we have continued to develop creative writing—in the classroom and in the world. To this day, our faculty and alumni include many of contemporary literature’s most acclaimed poets, novelists, and nonfiction writers.


  • History

    History

    The poets, essayists, memoirists, and novelists who have taught and studied at The New School make up a who's who of modern American literature. A brief, incomplete, and somewhat random list includes Berenice Abbott, Joan Acocella, Hannah Arendt, John Ashberry, W. H. Auden, James Baldwin, Amiri Baraka, Teju Cole, Billy Collins, W. E. B. Du Bois, Kay Boyle, André Breton, Jericho Brown, Anatole Broyard, Stephanie Burt, Anne Carson, Peter Caret, Lucille Clifton, Sigrid de Lima, Lydia Davis, Jacques Derrida, Ani DiFranco, Carol Muske Dukes, Jennifer Egan, Jeffrey Eugenides, Betty Friedan, Robert Frost, Louise Glück, William Goyen, Jorie Graham, Horace Gregory, Daniel Halpern, Lorraine Hansberry, Edward Hoagland, bell hooks, David Ignatow, Leslie Jamison, Alfred Kazin, Jack Kerouac, Jamaica Kincaid, Carolyn Kizer, Lisa Ko, Kenneth Koch, Stanley Kunitz, Jhumpa Lahiri, Madeleine L’Engle, Dorothea Lasky, Pearl London, Robert Lowell, Thomas Mann, Jacques Maritain, David Markson, Bernadette Mayer, Joyce Carol Oates, Jenny Offill, Frank O'Hara, Mario Puzo, May Sarton, Robyn Schiff, Tracy K. Smith, Layli Long Soldier, Gilbert Sorrentino, Mark Strand, Sekou Sundiata, John Jeremiah Sullivan, James Tate, Hannah Tinti, Charles Tomlinson, Jean Valentine, John Waters, Eudora Welty, Ruth Westheimer, Tennessee Williams, Colson Whitehead, Kevin Young, and Marguerite Young.

    Since the inception of the MFA Creative Writing Program in 1996, our faculty have comprised a range of extraordinary contemporary authors, including Hilton Als, Catherine Barnett, Shanna Compton, Karen Ellis, Angela Flournoy, John Freeman, Mary Gaitskill, Carol Goodman, Lucy Grealy, David Howe, David Hajdu, Amy Hempel, A. M. Homes, Richard Howard, Fanny Howe, Hettie Jones, James Lasdun, David Levithan, Phillip Lopate, Sarah Manguso, Greil Marcus, Douglas Martin, Patrick McGrath, Maggie Nelson, Sigrid Nunez, Sidney Offit, Danielle Pafunda, Francine Prose, Camille Rankine, Lucy Sante, Jill Santopolo, Sapphire, Tor Seidler, Dani Shapiro, Prageeta Sharma, Benjamin Taylor, Lynne Tillman, Renée Watson, Sarah Weeks, Susan Wheeler, Tiphanie Yanique, and Jenny Zhang.

    Today our teachers are themselves celebrated authors.

     

  • About the University

    Studying at the MFA Program means being part of a progressive, socially engaged, and close-knit community at The New School. Writing students have access to the resources of a renowned university that serves as a hub for groundbreaking ideas and the people that generate them.
    • University Center Exterior

      Campus Information

      Our campus in the heart of New York City's Greenwich Village allows you to study and live in one of the most vibrant and diverse cities in the world. Take advantage of the infinite opportunities to work alongside leading professionals, experience groundbreaking work, and absorb diverse cultural and educational opportunities.

      Learn More
    • Male student in class

      Mission & Vision

      The New School's mission is to prepare students to understand, contribute to, and succeed in a rapidly changing society, thus making the world a better and more just place. As a university where design and social research drive approaches to studying issues of our time, we seek to provide students with the tools needed to grapple with complex problems facing society and to pursue more fluid and flexible career pathways.

      Learn More
    • 100 Years New

      100 Years New

      A century ago, a few progressive scholars and thinkers founded what would become The New School. Discover some of the pioneers, movements, and events that collectively tell our story of creative and intellectual innovation. Explore the university's legacy and learn how 1919 was the start of something new.  

      Learn More

  • Take The Next Step

Submit your application

Undergraduates

To apply to any of our undergraduate programs (except the Bachelor's Program for Adults and Transfer Students and Parsons Associate of Applied Science programs) complete and submit the Common App online.

Undergraduate Adult Learners

To apply to any of our Bachelor's Program for Adults and Transfer Students and Parsons Associate of Applied Science programs, complete and submit the New School Online Application.

Graduates

To apply to any of our Master's, Doctoral, Professional Studies Diploma, and Graduate Certificate programs, complete and submit the New School Online Application.