 Rich but unhappy, he applied to the San Francisco State University and was accepted into their Masters Program in Creative Writing by Anne Rice.While at the San Francisco State University, he took classes taught by Frances Mayes, Daniel J. Langton, Molly Giles, and Harry Mark Petrakis.Kirby Wright earned a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing and was the first student in the history of his university to receive the (Academy of American Poets Award as well as the Browning Society Award for Dramatic Monologue, and the Ann Fields Poetry Prize).