Fiction
The Fiction concentration prides itself on its standards of excellence, its commitment to our students and its artistic and aesthetic diversity. Adhering to any particular school of writing would be antithetical to our mission as well as impossible given the multiformity of writers on our faculty: Paul Beatty, Anellise Chen, Nicholas Christopher, Richard Ford, Rivka Galchen, Heidi Julavits, Binnie Kirshenbaum, Victor LaValle, Sam Lipsyte, Ben Marcus, Matthew Salesses and Gary Shteyngart.
Our adjunct faculty boasts such writers as James Canon, Maisy Card, Joanna Hershon, Megha Majumdar, Lynn Steger Strong, Lara Vapnyar, Adam Wilson and James Wood among others. Our adjunct faculty also includes editors from Random House, FSG, Grove, The Paris Review and Tin House.
These brilliant writers and editors are equally brilliant teachers who work closely with their students to help them develop their own voices, styles and form, to make the work better. At the same time, students are encouraged to take risks, to push beyond the known and try something new to that particular student. In addition to workshops, students take seminars that are designed specifically for reading as writers. The depth and breadth of the seminars are astounding and exciting. To study Fiction at Columbia is transformative.
The Fiction concentration is exciting for a myriad of reasons: the illustrious writers and editors on faculty, the scope of artistic diversity, the variety of course offerings, the intensity of rigor and the relaxed collegiality. But what is truly incomparable is the depth of attention given to each student’s work, and the depth of commitment expected from the student in return.