Celebrated novelist Chang-rae Lee was the first director of the Creative Writing MFA program at Hunter College, from 1999 to 2002. Born in Seoul, South Korea, Lee emigrated to the United States when he was three, and his work often explores themes of immigration, assimilation, and the modern Asian and Asian-American experience.

One of the world’s leading novelists, Peter Carey is among only five writers who have won the Booker Prize twice, first for Oscar and Lucinda in 1988 and then for True History of the Kelly Gang in 2001. Frequently cited as Australia’s next contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature, the celebrated author was the director of the Hunter College Creative Writing MFA program from 2003 to 2021.