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George Mason University’s Creative Writing Program joins Watershed Lit and Mason’s University Libraries in presenting the Spring 2026 Visiting Writers Series.

This course booklet is a crucial tool in planning your Spring 2026 classes. Inside, you will find descriptions for course offerings in all English/Creative Writing graduate programs.

Teresa Michals delivered this year's Scott Pollard Lecture at Christopher Newport University in October.

Holly Mason Badra, MFA ’17 and now Associate Director of Women and Gender Studies, recently published Sleeping in the Courtyard: Contemporary Kurdish Writers in Diaspora (University of Arkansas Press).

The College of Humanities and Social Sciences is proud to honor Laura Scott, MFA Creative Writing ’93, with the 2025 Distinguished Faculty Alumni Award. Scott has spent her career shaping the next generation of storytellers at George Mason University. After earning her degree, she joined the English department as an academic coordinator and instructor, where she now teaches fiction writing and guides students as they begin their journeys as novelists.

The College of Humanities and Social Sciences is proud to honor Rachel Lindsey, MA English ’05, MEd Counseling and Development ’14, with the 2025 Distinguished Staff Alumni Award. Lindsey is the assistant director of career education, where she manages career preparation courses that reach more than 500 students annually.

Just over a year ago, three English Department professors—fiction writers Michael Don and Billy Howell and poet and essayist Liz Paul—joined local poet Erika Ostergaard to launch a new literary series in downtown Fairfax. Fox City Lit hosts quarterly readings as well as weekly writing get-togethers—both celebrating and encouraging literary talent from the local area and throughout the DMV region. 

The College of Humanities and Social Sciences is proud to honor Michael Carrigan, BA English '98, with the 2025 Distinguished Alumni Award in English. Carrigan serves as branch chief for the Ending the HIV Epidemic in the U.S. initiative at the Health Resources and Services Administration’s HIV/AIDS Bureau. He leads a team supporting jurisdictions across the country in delivering innovative care and treatment for people with HIV. 

Three recent MFA alums—Jessika Bouvier, Kara Crawford, and Connor Harding, all class of ’25—have recently debuted an online literary journal, Chatterbox, dedicated to short fiction on the longer side.