From Pulitzer Prize winners Annie Dillard and Natasha Trethewey to bestselling author Lee Smith and Man Booker Prize recipient Kiran Desai, Hollins has long earned its place on the literary map. A remarkable number of nationally and internationally acclaimed writers have found their voices here and used them to their full potential.
Each spring, we host a distinguished writer-in-residence who works with graduate and selected undergraduate students. Louis D. Rubin Jr. founded Hollins’ renowned creative writing program.
At Hollins, you’ll join a new generation of writers and scholars. You’ll develop a way of seeing and saying that is distinctively your own. Our multi-genre approach intertwines the writing of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction with the study of important texts from the medieval period to the present. At Hollins you’ll be immersed in a diversity of writers, writing theories, and literary experiences on campus, led by a faculty whose publishing success surpasses that of any other liberal arts college.
A rich legacy. A supportive and encouraging environment. Focused exploration. This is the foundation for how students mature into authors at Hollins.
Tracks
Major in English and Creative Writing
Students are challenged to improve their control of language and prepared for graduate study in literature, creative writing, and related fields, or for entering a career in which their communication skills will be prized.
Minor in Creative Writing
Students study writing in a variety of genres to extend their creative skills and love of literature.
Minor in English
Students can choose from a variety of courses to develop their reading skills, effective communication, and appreciation for beautiful texts.
Louis D. Rubin Jr. Writer-In-Residence
Each spring, Hollins hosts a distinguished writer-in-residence who works with graduate and selected undergraduate students. Louis D. Rubin Jr., the nation’s best-known scholar and publisher of southern literature, founded Hollins’ renowned creative writing program.
Great Authors Go to Hollins
The Hollins creative writing M.F.A. program has one of the highest publishing records of any graduate school in the country. Among the many outstanding writers who have graduated from the creative writing program are:
- Pulitzer Prize winners Annie Dillard, Henry Taylor, and Natasha Trethewey
- Novelists and story writers Madison Smartt Bell, Kiran Desai, Tony D’Souza, David Huddle, Adam Ross, and Jill McCorkle
- Poets and essayists Adrian Blevins, Jenny Boully, Scott Cairns, Wyn Cooper, Kevin Prufer, and Mary Ruefle
- Novelists and memoirists Richard McCann and Karen Salyer McElmurray
- Photographer Sally Mann
- Filmmaker George Butler
- Non-fiction author Beth Macy
Books by Hollins authors
Jackson Center for Creative Writing
The Jackson Center for Creative Writing is home to Hollins’ undergraduate and graduate writing programs, which have produced dozens of writers of national and international acclaim.
The Benefactors:
In 2008, Susan Gager Jackson ’68 and her husband, John Jackson, gave Hollins $5 million to found the center. Susan Jackson is the author of Through a Gate of Trees: Poems (2007) and the chapbook, All The Light In Between (2013).
Nancy Thorp Poetry Contest
Sponsored by Hollins University, the 59th Annual Nancy Thorp Poetry Contest provides scholarships, prizes, and recognition for the best poems submitted by young women who are sophomores or juniors in high school or preparatory school.
Rubin Writing Semester
Hollins offers a one-semester intensive program in creative writing and modern literature every spring for undergraduate students from other institutions. Rubin Writers join other student writers and a faculty of regularly publishing novelists, short story writers, poets, and scholars.
Sigma Tau Delta
International English honor society
Students who love words are always up to the challenge of discovering creative and unique ways to convey the human experience through the evolution of language. Sigma Tau Delta, an international English honor society, was established to honor the outstanding accomplishments of high-achieving students in English language, literature, and writing. Hollins proudly joins over 900 chapters in celebrating the excellence and fostering of literacy.
