Photo of book and pen

Center for the Literary Arts

A Signature Initiative

Arts & Sciences at Washington University will be a global hub for writers, translators, and public intellectuals from across the globe through a new program in international written arts.

This initiative will leverage the achievements of our nationally acclaimed MFA program in Creative Writing, a roboust PhD program in Comparative Literature for International Writers, and a host of diverse faculty engaged in the study and practice of translation. It will generate new forms of exchange and cooperative experimentation among departments, programs, faculty, and graduate and undergraduate students centered on creative writing and translation, including multilingual writing, computationally assisted composition, new media, and inter-arts praxis.

A primary goal will be to energize communities engaged in creative practice both across the campus and the greater St. Louis area through lectures, readings, short-term residencies of renowned and up-and-coming writers and translators, as well as a range of yearly conferences, workshops and summer programming for all ages. The international network of writers, translators, and scholars that emerges from this undertaking will make Washington University a global and local destination for creative engagement with our world through writing.

Faculty Engagement