​Are you applying to MFA programs? Are you curious about how an MFA can support your professional and writing goals?  Are you baffled by what to even include in an MFA application?

​​Join University of Alabama MFA in Creative Writing faculty members John Estes and Brooke Champagne for Part II of an AMA on the MFA life - from the application process, to what to expect as a student and citizen of an artistic community, to how an MFA in Creative Writing prepares you for the rest of your life. 

​​About the University of Alabama MFA

​​Founded in 1974, the University of Alabama MFA in Creative Writing is among the oldest writing programs in the country, known as a welcoming landing-place for developing artists with a rigorous yet flexible curriculum that fosters cross-genre experimentation. Their award-winning faculty work closely with students at all levels, culminating in an individual thesis project. Students become part of a vibrant community of fellow writers, participate in local readings, meet with visiting writers, and build lifelong friendships along the way. They offer workshops in fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction as well as a wide-range of craft classes that inspire wide reading, teach new modes of invention, explore aspects of genre and hybridity, and that encourage students to grow as practicing writers.

​​Home to the prestigious literary magazine Black Warrior Review, the MFA also provides students with the opportunity to engage with a Visiting Writers Series, receive conference and research funding, and explore diverse teaching opportunities including through the Alabama Prison + Arts Fellowship. 

​​John Estes

​​John Estes directs the Creative Writing Program at The University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. Previous books include Kingdom Come (C&R Press, 2011), Sure Extinction (Elixir Press, 2017)—which won the Antivenom Poetry Prize—with two books forthcoming from Apocryphile Press, a volume of poetry and a collection of short fiction. 

​​Taylor Brorby

​Taylor Brorby is the author of Boys and Oil: Growing Up Gay In a Fractured Land (NYT Editors’ Choice), Crude: Poems, Coming Alive: Action and Civil Disobedience, and co-editor of Fracture: Essays, Poems, and Stories on Fracking in America. His work has been supported by grants and fellowships from the National Book Critics Circle, the MacDowell Colony, Mesa Refuge, and the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture.

​Taylor’s work has appeared in The New York Times, The Huffington Post, The Nation, LitHub, Orion Magazine, and in numerous anthologies. Taylor’s been interviewed about his work on MSNBC, NPR, Esquire, as well as international television. He is a contributing editor at North American Review and serves on the editorial boards of Terrain.org and Hub City Press. In 2026, he’ll be the Rachel Carson Distinguished Fellow at Chatham University.

​Taylor regularly speaks around the country on issues related to extractive economies, queerness, disability, and climate change.