Literary Hub Presents: AWP by the Numbers

The 50th Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) Conference starts this week in our nation's capital, Washington D.C. In preparation for this year's festivities, dotted with panels, readings, off-site events, and a bookfair, Amy Brady takes a close look at a few pertinent statistics related to M.F.A. programs, literary publishers, book sales, and hiring practices within higher education at Literary Hub. "For a few blessed people, it’s a time and place where magic happens: a writer scores an agent, an editor finds just the writer she’s been looking for, a poet makes his first sale. Whatever your view of AWP, knowledge is power," she writes. And now, let's take a look at the numbers:

Number of MFA programs in 2008
156

In 2016
244

Number of creative writing PhD programs in 2008
37

In 2016
50

Estimated number of online MFA programs in 2016
8

Number of open tenure-track creative writing positions in 2015
171

In 2016
119

Estimated total number of applications submitted to MFA programs last year
20,000

Number of applicants the Iowa Writers’ Workshop received last year for fiction
1,041

Number of applicants for poetry
322

Total number of applicants accepted to both programs
50

Estimated number of newly minted MFA graduates each year in the United States
3,000

Estimated two-year cost to attend Columbia University’s MFA program (tuition and fees)
$124,000

Average cost to attend a full-residency MFA program (tuition and fees)
$20,180

To attend a low-residency MFA program (tuition and fees)
$31,184

Read onward at Literary Hub.