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 the registration period, students may register for courses depending on certain factors —some are open based on class year, others on declared concentration.
After the Registration period, instructor permission is needed to gain entry/access to the waitlist. No one will receive such permission until lotteries are run on the first day of the semester — for fall 2025, lotteries will take place on Wed., 3 September.
After the Registration period, instructor permission is needed to gain entry/access to the waitlist. No one will receive such permission until lotteries are run on the first day of the semester — for fall 2025, lotteries will take place on Wed., 3 September.
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
Kwame Dawes and Lorna Dawes know there is a wealth of poetry from African authors out there. Thousands of poems, they say, sit in universities and libraries across the world, waiting to be catalogued, translated, digitized and promoted.
The pair of Brown University researchers is committed to sharing this wealth of poetry with the world, and they’ll work to do so with support from a $2 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
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The pair of Brown University researchers is committed to sharing this wealth of poetry with the world, and they’ll work to do so with support from a $2 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
American Academy of Arts & Sciences
Kwame Dawes named member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences
Professor Kwame Dawes has been elected as member of the prestigious American Academy of Arts & Sciences in spring 2025. Professor Dawes joined the Literary Arts department at Brown in January of this year.
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