In a recent interview on WLIW-FM’s Heart of the East End with host Gianna Volpe, Robert Reeves, associate professor of creative writing and founder of Stony Brook University’s Lichtenstein Center, and Christian McLean, lecturer and MFA associate director of creative writing, sat down to discuss the unique strengths of the MFA Program in Creative Writing and Literature.
At the heart of their conversation was a simple but powerful idea: everyone has a story to tell.
Reeves and McLean emphasized that the program is designed to attract adults from a wide range of professional backgrounds who are ready to transform lived experience into art. “One [of our students] is a doctor who’s mid-career… and she has so many stories she wants to tell. We have someone who’s a senior real estate agent… [who] wants to write other things, personal essays, fiction, creative nonfiction,” Reeves said. “They want to come to a community that will give them the best opportunity to accomplish what they want to.”
Affordability and flexibility are the key to that mission. As a state university, Stony Brook offers competitive tuition rates and the option for part-time or non-matriculated study, making the MFA accessible to working professionals and life-long learners alike. “We are many, many, many thousand [dollars] less than equivalent MFA programs of the same quality,” Reeves noted. “They can take one class and see if it makes sense for them and go from there,” McLean added.
The program’s workshops center on community, craft, and a generative process of writing — creating new work in a supportive environment. Students are encouraged to take risks, explore their voices, and discover unexpected directions in their stories. “Art is something that you know makes you more powerful than you are. It’s something that you have to give in to, surrender to,” Reeves said.
Current MFA student Laura Renee Tucker was highlighted in the conversation; her thesis, a memoir about her father, a Tuskegee Airman, captures both personal and historical memory.
“It’s capturing not only her story, but her father’s story,” McLean said. “And the question of who can pass on these stories, and who has the ability to…taking the time to do so is so important.”
“Black history in particular is being erased every day. So stories like Laura’s and her father’s are of utmost importance. That’s American history,” Volpe added.
Stony Brook Southampton’s MFA in Creative Writing continues to foster that courage and conversation through careful instruction, a vibrant and creative community, and the belief that storytelling remains one of our most powerful tools for connection and understanding.
The MFA program held open houses October 21 at Stony Brook Southampton, and October 22 at the Stony Brook Manhattan Center for Creative Writing and Film. It will host online information sessions in November and December.
Applications for Fall 2026 are due January 15. The program invites writers of any age or background to join the community, even by starting with just one class, to discover the stories only they can tell.
—Lily Miller
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