Male provisioning ability may have evolved as a ‘good dad’ indicator through sexual selection, while male creativity may have evolved partly as a ‘good genes’ indicator. If so, women near peak fertility mid-cycle should prefer creativity over wealth, especially in short-term mating. Forty-one normally cycling women read vignettes describing creative but poor men versus non-creative but rich men. Women’s estimated fertility predicted their short-term (but not long-term) preference for creativity over wealth, for both their desirability ratings of individual men (r = .40, p < .01), and their forced-choice decisions between men (r = .46, p < .01). These preliminary results are consistent with the view that creativity evolved at least partly as a good genes indicator through mate choice.