Along with a handful of other writing programs nationwide, Brown provides a home for writers who are envisioning new paths in fiction, poetry, digital language arts, and mixed media.
Literary Arts
Literary Arts
For fifty years, Literary Arts at Brown University has been a creative and intellectual center for a diverse and innovative literary community.
Literary Arts
For fifty years, Literary Arts at Brown University has been a creative and intellectual center for a diverse and innovative literary community.
Course Information
During pre-registration, students may register for courses depending on certain factors—some are open based on class year, others are based on declared concentration.
After pre-registration, instructor permission is needed to gain entry and/or access to the waitlist. No one will receive such permission until lotteries are run on the first day of the semester — for spring 2026, lotteries take place on Wed., 21 January.
After pre-registration, instructor permission is needed to gain entry and/or access to the waitlist. No one will receive such permission until lotteries are run on the first day of the semester — for spring 2026, lotteries take place on Wed., 21 January.
Literary Arts offers a mixture of workshops, seminars and hybrid workshop/seminar courses each semester, many of which are special topics (and are subject to change from one semester to the next).
Academics
Undergraduate
The Department in Literary Arts offers courses in fiction, poetry, screenwriting, digital & cross-disciplinary writing, and translation, as well as seminar courses in reading and writing about literature.
Graduate
Graduate students in Brown's Literary Arts MFA program may choose to focus in one of three tracks – Fiction, Poetry, or Digital/Cross Disciplinary Writing.
Recent News
Chloe Malle, who earned her AB in Literary Arts in May 2008, has been named by Vogue as the new head of the U.S. edition.
Read Article
Poetry Foundation
Andres Cordoba, MFA '25, a Poetry Foundation Fellow
Andres Cordoba. a recent recipient of Brown's MFA, was one of five poets selected by the Poetry Foundation as a 2025 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellow.
Read Article
New York Times
In remembrance: Thomas Sayers Ellis, MFA '95
Poet and editor Thomas Sayers Ellis, MFA '95, died on 17 July 2025. Thomas was a highly-regarded poet and an enthusiastic builder of literary communities, such as the Dark Room Collective in Cambridge, Mass.
Read Article