The majority of MFA classes and workshops, special events, social gatherings, and author Q & A’s are held in our beautiful home, The Efroymson Center for Creative Writing (ECCW). Located at 530 West Hampton Drive, the ECCW opened its doors on December 15, 2011. Purchased and beautifully remodeled with a $1 million donation from the Efroymson Family Fund, the ECCW is a site for graduate-level workshops and public readings. It is also a work space for visiting writers, visiting students, faculty, and alumni. The Efroymson Family Fund, a fund of the Central Indiana Community Foundation, also sponsors the Efroymson Scholarships in Creative Writing.
“When Butler initiated its MFA in Creative Writing in 2008, we did so because Indianapolis was the largest American city that did not have such a program,” said English Professor Andy Levy, past director of the MFA in Creative Writing program. “And when we asked our students what they wanted, here’s what they said more than anything: We want a home, a place to call our own. We will call this building a center, but make no mistake: It’s a home.”
Levy says the center is a place where students, faculty, visiting writers and the community feel welcome, encouraged, inspired, to write, and to join with others in writing, in reading, in publishing, in service. They find a home for those words and thoughts they can’t say anywhere else.