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Our M.F.A. in writing offers the contemporary writer tools and support to cultivate a practice that is responsive to our rapidly evolving environmental and political times.
A diverse group of people sit on stage as they each read from papers they are holding in their hands. They all have microphones in front of them.
Type
Graduate, MFA
Start Term
Fall Only
Credits
39
Duration
2 Years
Courses
Plan of Study

Prospective candidates: RSVP for the MFA in Writing’s Fall 2025 informational sessions!

Here are the dates and corresponding registration links:

October 16, 5 PMRegister here

November 20, 5 PMRegister here

Writing at Pratt

Through weekly Writing Studio sessions with peers, faculty, and guest artists, writing practices seminars, unique electives, guided fieldwork residencies, and personalized faculty mentorships, you’ll join a community of writers invested in transdisciplinary experimentation and a rigorous study of literary arts.

Our program supports your development of a writing process that takes into account the material and technological aspects of writing, the human body that produces it, and the larger social, sexual, historical, economic, racial, and cultural contexts in which and through which all imaginative writing takes place.

The Experience

Transdisciplinary, socially engaged, and deeply personalized, our tight-knit writing community values a plurality of voices and approaches to writing, both on and off the page.

The program resides on Pratt’s Brooklyn campus, where Writing students enjoy dedicated 24/7 work spaces with desks, comfortable furniture, computers, free printing, art supplies, and a library of faculty, student, and alumni publications.

Pratt’s M.F.A. in Writing can be completed in four semesters of full-time study. We fund our students equally: for more information about student funding resources, please contact the program.

The Writing Studio

The Writing Studio lives at the center of our curriculum. Meeting weekly and co-led by collaborative faculty, studio is a scene for collective reading, study, inquiry, and critique. Breaking from traditional workshop norms, studio is a space of cross-genre, multimodal practice and experiments in pedagogy. Studio also includes our revision lab, in which a faculty member meets one-to-one with each student for post-critique reflection and manuscript review.

Mentored Studies

Through our Mentored Studies sequence, you and a faculty mentor will engage in regular, deep conversations throughout your time in the program. Your mentor will support the expansion of your writing practice and facilitate your thesis project. Past mentors include Anna Moschovakis, Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts, Mirene Arsanios, Ellery Washington, and James Hannaham.

Electives

You’ll participate in fascinating, small-sized seminars with our faculty in subjects such as multilingualisms, small press, ecopoetics, and experimental prose. You can also take advantage of space in our curriculum to pursue courses in Pratt’s celebrated art, design, and media studies programs, or to design your own custom independent study. Browse the full list of Writing MFA elective courses.

Publishing Collective

Each year, under the guidance of a faculty advisor, a self-selecting group of MFA students collaborates to solicit, edit, design and publish chapbooks by students enrolled in the program. These publications are celebrated in a culminating event, and are also distributed at local Brooklyn bookstores.

Fieldwork Residencies and Research Opportunities

Through the fieldwork course sequence you’ll study social practice methodologies and carry out a self-designed creative residency in collaboration with a literary institution, community organization, archive, or activist group of your choice. Past fieldwork sites include Wendy’s Subway, Nuyorican Poets Cafe, and The Poetry Project.

MFA Writing students also frequently pursue individual research projects supported by the program and by Pratt’s Graduate Student Engagement Fund. With GSEF support our students have mounted gallery exhibitions, shot films, and traveled internationally to develop research archives for their creative projects.

The Thesis

Supported by your mentor, thesis advisor, and other faculty readers, your studies will culminate in the creation of a full-length manuscript, with the freedom to incorporate multimedia, performance-based, or collaborative elements.

Our Faculty

The Writing MFA faculty work as a pedagogical collective to support your writing process and goals. Distinguished and daring writers, artists, researchers, translators, and editors, they bring diverse views, methods, and perspectives to creating the environment in which you’ll study and create. See all Writing faculty and administrators.

  1. Christian Hawkey

    Professor

  2. Christopher Perez

    Visiting Professor

  3. Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts

    Associate Professor

  4. Laura Elrick

    Associate Professor

  5. Anna Moschovakis

    Adjunct Associate Professor – CCE

  6. James Hannaham

    Professor

  7. Youmna Chlala

    Professor

  8. Mirene Arsanios

    Adjunct Assistant Professor

  9. Rachel Levitsky

    Professor

  10. Ellery Washington

    Associate Professor

  11. Hannah Assadi

    Visiting Instructor

A group of people stand in front of a projector screen as they attentively look at book being held by the person in the middle.

Our Alumni

Pratt’s distinguished alumni are leaders in an array of fields. They publish widely and have been awarded prestigious literary prizes. Their innovative work addresses critical social and political questions that reimagine our world.

Where They Work

  • Jive Poetic, Friday Night Curator, Nuyorican Poets Café 
  • Erika Hodges, Law Clerk, Orleans Public Defender’s Office
  • Alysia Slocum Laferriere, Editorial Fellow, Litmus Press
  • Ahana Ganguly, Assistant Editor, Futurepoem Books
  • Mahogany L. Browne, Executive Director, JustMedia
  • Irene Lee, Co-Founder, Boar Hair Books and Oreades Press 
  • a.Monti, Editor at Litmus Press
  • Angela Abiodun, Program Manager, The Octavia Project
  • Zora Iman Crew, actor in The Daphne Project (2021), Planet X (2018)  and The Legends of Sleepy Hollow (2021)

Publications and Awards

  • Alisha Mascarenhas, author of A Catalogue of Risk (Wendy’s Subway, 2024), winner of the Carlyn Bush Award
  • Stephon Lawrence, author of u know how much i hate being in social situations (Futurepoem, 2023)
  • Hamid Roslan, author of parsetreeforestfire (Ethos Books, 2019), Shortlisted for the Singapore Literature Prize for Poetry 2020 
  • Mahogany L. Browne, author of Woke Baby (2018, Macmillan) Chrome Valley: Poems (National Geographic Books, 2023), Vinyl Moon (Penguin, 2022), and others
  • a.Monti, author of Mycelial Person (Vegetarian Alcoholic Press, 2021)
  • Jive Poetic, showcased on TVONE’s Lexus Verses and Flow, PBS News Hour, and BET
  • Irene Lee, co-author of Six Endings and Some Beginnings (Ordeas Press, 2022)

Our Stories

Ready for More?

HERE’S HOW TO APPLYOUR CAMPUS & BEYOND
Join us at Pratt. Learn more about admissions requirements, plan your visit, talk to a counselor, and start your application. Take the next step.You’ll find yourself at home at Pratt. Learn more about our residence halls, student organizations, athletics, gallery exhibitions, events, the amazing City of New York and our Brooklyn neighborhood communities. Check us out.
@prattwriting
Writing at Pratt

@prattwriting

  • Happy Tuesday Takeover everyone!🤗🙌🏻 

This Tuesday, we wanted to share with you some of our ‘Writing Resources’ which include an array of things we use to help inspire us during our writing process/practice.

We hope everyone has a wonderful and productive week ahead!✍️
  • Welcome to our studios in Cannoneer court! A 24/7 community space for working, meeting, reading, writing, and (if you happen to catch them before they run out) snacks.
  • Have you stopped by our internships and opportunities board in cannoneer? @laura.henriksen has been updating it with some great programs!
  • Happy Tuesday Takeover!! This week we will be discussing what books we’re currently reading as well as give insight into how we go about annotating while we read. 

Anna: I am reading ‘The Rachel Incident’ by Caroline O’Donoghue! This book is turning out to be probably one of my favorite books of all time. It follows our protagonist Rachel as she navigates her life as a twenty something in Ireland in the early 2000s. If I love anything, it’s a messy twenty something woman figuring stuff out. As for annotating, I am no scholar. My annotations are incredibly selfish. I underline things I find funny or want to remember or relate to. As pictured, I underlined a moment the character sends a text message about the incredibly distinct smell of Subway sandwiches. I have been cursing the name of Subway and their smelly sandwiches for years and it really feels incredible to be seen, finally. Anyways, happy Tuesday, go read and eat something delicious (not a Subway sandwich).

Hadley: I’m currently reading Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery. I read the first ten chapters for my Young Adult Literature class (which I am loving!!) but enjoyed it so much that I decided to keep on reading. It’s incredibly fun and relatable, but I also found myself drawn to the balance of dialogue and beautiful description. While reading, I like to have my many sticky tabs and a pen ready to go. Each color tab represents a different type of annotation: a question, a particularly beautiful line or image, a writing technique I admire, a plot point I want to remember, etc. I usually prefer to write in the book if I own it, but the sticky tabs help me keep track of my annotations and allow me to stay organized and engaged in my reading!
  • Organized by Andi Gunther: “‘Into Autumn’s Arms’ is a poetry and prose reading (+ open mic!) on autumn, resistance, and feeling as truth, in honor of Audre Lorde. 

By sensing our internal experiences—like a leaf crumbling between our fingers—then transmuting them into words, we ask for fear’s disintegration. May we incant a world with light, before tyranny and war. Soul to mulch, burrowing insects, reddening, tumbling leaves; back into our bodies, then into autumn’s arms. 

Join me for an evening of poetry, music, and stories to bring in the new season—plus an open mic! Optional prompt is autumn and intuition.”
  • Hear from @prattler EIC Sarina Greene @sarina.writes about our longstanding literary magazine and newspaper! Submissions are open now, and staff positions open in November.
  • First Writing Department faculty meeting of the year in the beautiful @prattdyegarden. Thanks to @ginaginaginaginagina for photographing this sweet moment from the second floor of Cannoneer! 💜
  • Get some info on pratt’s study abroad programs in Seoul and Puerto Rico at this meeting on October 3rd! Check out @prattstudyabroad for more info.
  • Interested in studying in Berlin this spring? Check out one of the two upcoming info sessions for sophomores and juniors who’ve applied or are interested in applying! Zoom link in our bio.
Happy Tuesday Takeover everyone!🤗🙌🏻 

This Tuesday, we wanted to share with you some of our ‘Writing Resources’ which include an array of things we use to help inspire us during our writing process/practice.

We hope everyone has a wonderful and productive week ahead!✍️
Happy Tuesday Takeover everyone!🤗🙌🏻 

This Tuesday, we wanted to share with you some of our ‘Writing Resources’ which include an array of things we use to help inspire us during our writing process/practice.

We hope everyone has a wonderful and productive week ahead!✍️
Happy Tuesday Takeover everyone!🤗🙌🏻 This Tuesday, we wanted to share with you some of our ‘Writing Resources’ which include an array of things we use to help inspire us during our writing process/practice. We hope everyone has a wonderful and productive week ahead!✍️
1 week ago
View on Instagram |
1/9
Welcome to our studios in Cannoneer court! A 24/7 community space for working, meeting, reading, writing, and (if you happen to catch them before they run out) snacks.
2 weeks ago
View on Instagram |
2/9
Have you stopped by our internships and opportunities board in cannoneer? @laura.henriksen has been updating it with some great programs!
Have you stopped by our internships and opportunities board in cannoneer? @laura.henriksen has been updating it with some great programs!
2 weeks ago
View on Instagram |
3/9
Happy Tuesday Takeover!! This week we will be discussing what books we’re currently reading as well as give insight into how we go about annotating while we read. 

Anna: I am reading ‘The Rachel Incident’ by Caroline O’Donoghue! This book is turning out to be probably one of my favorite books of all time. It follows our protagonist Rachel as she navigates her life as a twenty something in Ireland in the early 2000s. If I love anything, it’s a messy twenty something woman figuring stuff out. As for annotating, I am no scholar. My annotations are incredibly selfish. I underline things I find funny or want to remember or relate to. As pictured, I underlined a moment the character sends a text message about the incredibly distinct smell of Subway sandwiches. I have been cursing the name of Subway and their smelly sandwiches for years and it really feels incredible to be seen, finally. Anyways, happy Tuesday, go read and eat something delicious (not a Subway sandwich).

Hadley: I’m currently reading Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery. I read the first ten chapters for my Young Adult Literature class (which I am loving!!) but enjoyed it so much that I decided to keep on reading. It’s incredibly fun and relatable, but I also found myself drawn to the balance of dialogue and beautiful description. While reading, I like to have my many sticky tabs and a pen ready to go. Each color tab represents a different type of annotation: a question, a particularly beautiful line or image, a writing technique I admire, a plot point I want to remember, etc. I usually prefer to write in the book if I own it, but the sticky tabs help me keep track of my annotations and allow me to stay organized and engaged in my reading!
Happy Tuesday Takeover!! This week we will be discussing what books we’re currently reading as well as give insight into how we go about annotating while we read. 

Anna: I am reading ‘The Rachel Incident’ by Caroline O’Donoghue! This book is turning out to be probably one of my favorite books of all time. It follows our protagonist Rachel as she navigates her life as a twenty something in Ireland in the early 2000s. If I love anything, it’s a messy twenty something woman figuring stuff out. As for annotating, I am no scholar. My annotations are incredibly selfish. I underline things I find funny or want to remember or relate to. As pictured, I underlined a moment the character sends a text message about the incredibly distinct smell of Subway sandwiches. I have been cursing the name of Subway and their smelly sandwiches for years and it really feels incredible to be seen, finally. Anyways, happy Tuesday, go read and eat something delicious (not a Subway sandwich).

Hadley: I’m currently reading Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery. I read the first ten chapters for my Young Adult Literature class (which I am loving!!) but enjoyed it so much that I decided to keep on reading. It’s incredibly fun and relatable, but I also found myself drawn to the balance of dialogue and beautiful description. While reading, I like to have my many sticky tabs and a pen ready to go. Each color tab represents a different type of annotation: a question, a particularly beautiful line or image, a writing technique I admire, a plot point I want to remember, etc. I usually prefer to write in the book if I own it, but the sticky tabs help me keep track of my annotations and allow me to stay organized and engaged in my reading!
Happy Tuesday Takeover!! This week we will be discussing what books we’re currently reading as well as give insight into how we go about annotating while we read. 

Anna: I am reading ‘The Rachel Incident’ by Caroline O’Donoghue! This book is turning out to be probably one of my favorite books of all time. It follows our protagonist Rachel as she navigates her life as a twenty something in Ireland in the early 2000s. If I love anything, it’s a messy twenty something woman figuring stuff out. As for annotating, I am no scholar. My annotations are incredibly selfish. I underline things I find funny or want to remember or relate to. As pictured, I underlined a moment the character sends a text message about the incredibly distinct smell of Subway sandwiches. I have been cursing the name of Subway and their smelly sandwiches for years and it really feels incredible to be seen, finally. Anyways, happy Tuesday, go read and eat something delicious (not a Subway sandwich).

Hadley: I’m currently reading Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery. I read the first ten chapters for my Young Adult Literature class (which I am loving!!) but enjoyed it so much that I decided to keep on reading. It’s incredibly fun and relatable, but I also found myself drawn to the balance of dialogue and beautiful description. While reading, I like to have my many sticky tabs and a pen ready to go. Each color tab represents a different type of annotation: a question, a particularly beautiful line or image, a writing technique I admire, a plot point I want to remember, etc. I usually prefer to write in the book if I own it, but the sticky tabs help me keep track of my annotations and allow me to stay organized and engaged in my reading!
Happy Tuesday Takeover!! This week we will be discussing what books we’re currently reading as well as give insight into how we go about annotating while we read. 

Anna: I am reading ‘The Rachel Incident’ by Caroline O’Donoghue! This book is turning out to be probably one of my favorite books of all time. It follows our protagonist Rachel as she navigates her life as a twenty something in Ireland in the early 2000s. If I love anything, it’s a messy twenty something woman figuring stuff out. As for annotating, I am no scholar. My annotations are incredibly selfish. I underline things I find funny or want to remember or relate to. As pictured, I underlined a moment the character sends a text message about the incredibly distinct smell of Subway sandwiches. I have been cursing the name of Subway and their smelly sandwiches for years and it really feels incredible to be seen, finally. Anyways, happy Tuesday, go read and eat something delicious (not a Subway sandwich).

Hadley: I’m currently reading Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery. I read the first ten chapters for my Young Adult Literature class (which I am loving!!) but enjoyed it so much that I decided to keep on reading. It’s incredibly fun and relatable, but I also found myself drawn to the balance of dialogue and beautiful description. While reading, I like to have my many sticky tabs and a pen ready to go. Each color tab represents a different type of annotation: a question, a particularly beautiful line or image, a writing technique I admire, a plot point I want to remember, etc. I usually prefer to write in the book if I own it, but the sticky tabs help me keep track of my annotations and allow me to stay organized and engaged in my reading!
Happy Tuesday Takeover!! This week we will be discussing what books we’re currently reading as well as give insight into how we go about annotating while we read. Anna: I am reading ‘The Rachel Incident’ by Caroline O’Donoghue! This book is turning out to be probably one of my favorite books of all time. It follows our protagonist Rachel as she navigates her life as a twenty something in Ireland in the early 2000s. If I love anything, it’s a messy twenty something woman figuring stuff out. As for annotating, I am no scholar. My annotations are incredibly selfish. I underline things I find funny or want to remember or relate to. As pictured, I underlined a moment the character sends a text message about the incredibly distinct smell of Subway sandwiches. I have been cursing the name of Subway and their smelly sandwiches for years and it really feels incredible to be seen, finally. Anyways, happy Tuesday, go read and eat something delicious (not a Subway sandwich). Hadley: I’m currently reading Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery. I read the first ten chapters for my Young Adult Literature class (which I am loving!!) but enjoyed it so much that I decided to keep on reading. It’s incredibly fun and relatable, but I also found myself drawn to the balance of dialogue and beautiful description. While reading, I like to have my many sticky tabs and a pen ready to go. Each color tab represents a different type of annotation: a question, a particularly beautiful line or image, a writing technique I admire, a plot point I want to remember, etc. I usually prefer to write in the book if I own it, but the sticky tabs help me keep track of my annotations and allow me to stay organized and engaged in my reading!
3 weeks ago
View on Instagram |
4/9
Organized by Andi Gunther: “‘Into Autumn’s Arms’ is a poetry and prose reading (+ open mic!) on autumn, resistance, and feeling as truth, in honor of Audre Lorde. 

By sensing our internal experiences—like a leaf crumbling between our fingers—then transmuting them into words, we ask for fear’s disintegration. May we incant a world with light, before tyranny and war. Soul to mulch, burrowing insects, reddening, tumbling leaves; back into our bodies, then into autumn’s arms. 

Join me for an evening of poetry, music, and stories to bring in the new season—plus an open mic! Optional prompt is autumn and intuition.”
Organized by Andi Gunther: “‘Into Autumn’s Arms’ is a poetry and prose reading (+ open mic!) on autumn, resistance, and feeling as truth, in honor of Audre Lorde. By sensing our internal experiences—like a leaf crumbling between our fingers—then transmuting them into words, we ask for fear’s disintegration. May we incant a world with light, before tyranny and war. Soul to mulch, burrowing insects, reddening, tumbling leaves; back into our bodies, then into autumn’s arms. Join me for an evening of poetry, music, and stories to bring in the new season—plus an open mic! Optional prompt is autumn and intuition.”
3 weeks ago
View on Instagram |
5/9
Hear from @prattler EIC Sarina Greene @sarina.writes about our longstanding literary magazine and newspaper! Submissions are open now, and staff positions open in November.
4 weeks ago
View on Instagram |
6/9
First Writing Department faculty meeting of the year in the beautiful @prattdyegarden. Thanks to @ginaginaginaginagina for photographing this sweet moment from the second floor of Cannoneer! 💜
First Writing Department faculty meeting of the year in the beautiful @prattdyegarden. Thanks to @ginaginaginaginagina for photographing this sweet moment from the second floor of Cannoneer! 💜
4 weeks ago
View on Instagram |
7/9
Get some info on pratt’s study abroad programs in Seoul and Puerto Rico at this meeting on October 3rd! Check out @prattstudyabroad for more info.
Get some info on pratt’s study abroad programs in Seoul and Puerto Rico at this meeting on October 3rd! Check out @prattstudyabroad for more info.
4 weeks ago
View on Instagram |
8/9
Interested in studying in Berlin this spring? Check out one of the two upcoming info sessions for sophomores and juniors who’ve applied or are interested in applying! Zoom link in our bio.
Interested in studying in Berlin this spring? Check out one of the two upcoming info sessions for sophomores and juniors who’ve applied or are interested in applying! Zoom link in our bio.
1 month ago
View on Instagram |
9/9

From the Catalog