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The 12 Best Creative Writing Colleges and Programs

College Info

Finding a dedicated creative writing program at a school you're excited about can be a real challenge, and that's even before you start worrying about getting in. Nonetheless, there are some great options. In order to help you find the best school for you, this list rounds up some of the best colleges for creative writing in the United States .

The Best Creative Writing Programs: Ranking Criteria

You should never take college rankings as absolute truth —not even the very official-seeming US News ones. Instead, use these kinds of lists as a jumping-off place for your own exploration of colleges. Pay attention not just to what the rankings are but to how the rankings are determined.

To help with that, I'll explain how I came up with this highly unscientific list of great creative writing colleges. I started by narrowing my search down to schools that offered a specific creative writing major. (If you don't see a school you were expecting, it's likely because they only have a minor.)

In ranking the schools, I considered five major criteria:

• #1: MFA Ranking —If a school has a great graduate creative writing program, it means you'll be taught by those same professors and the excellent graduate students they attract. Schools with strong MFA programs are also more likely to have solid alumni networks and internship opportunities. However, many schools with great undergrad programs do not offer MFAs, in which case I simply focused on the other four options.
• #2: General School Reputation —The vast majority of your classes won't be in creative writing, so it's important that other parts of the school, especially the English department, are great as well.
• #3: Extracurricular Opportunities —One of the key advantages of majoring in creative writing is that it can provide access to writing opportunities outside the classroom, so I took what kind of internship programs, author readings, and literary magazines the school offers into consideration.
• #4: Diversity of Class Options —I gave extra points to schools with a variety of genre options and specific, interesting classes.
• #5: Alumni/Prestige —This last criterion is a bit more subjective: is the school known for turning out good writers? Certainly it's less important than what kind of education you'll actually get, but having a brand-name degree (so to speak) can be helpful.

The Best Creative Writing Schools

Now, let's get to the good stuff: the list of schools! The exact numbering is always arguable, so look at it as a general trend from absolutely amazing to still super great, rather than fixating on why one school is ranked #3 and another is ranked #4.

#1: Northwestern University

Northwestern's undergrad creative writing program boasts acclaimed professors and an unparalleled track record of turning out successful writers (including Divergent author Veronica Roth and short-story writer Karen Russell).

Outside the classroom, you can work on the student-run literary journal, intern at a publication in nearby Chicago, or submit to the Department of English's yearly writing competition . The university is also home to a top journalism program , so if you want to try your hand at nonfiction as well, you'll have plenty of opportunities to do so.

#2: Columbia University

Like Northwestern, Columbia is home to both a world-class creative writing program and a top journalism school (plus one of the best English departments in the country), so you have a wide range of writing-related course options. Columbia also benefits from its location in New York City, which is bursting at the seams with publishing houses, literary journals, and talented authors.

#3: University of Iowa

The University of Iowa's big draw is the infrastructure of its graduate Writers' Workshop, which is often considered the best MFA program in the country.

As an English and Creative Writing major here, you'll take classes from great young writers and established professors alike, and get to choose from a wide range of topics. This major provides transferable skills important for a liberal arts major with a creative focus. You'll also have access to the university's impressive literary community, including frequent readings, writing prizes and scholarships, and the acclaimed literary journal The Iowa Review .

#4: Emory University

Emory is renowned for its dedicated undergrad creative writing program , which draws the very best visiting scholars and writers. Students here have the chance to attend intimate question-and-answer sessions with award-winning authors, study a range of genres, compete for writing awards and scholarships, and work closely with an adviser to complete an honors project.

#5: Oberlin College

A small liberal arts school in Ohio, Oberlin offers very different advantages than the schools above do. You'll have fewer opportunities to pursue writing in the surrounding city, but the quality of the teachers and the range of courses might make up for that. Moreover, it boasts just as impressive alumni, including actress and writer Lena Dunham.

#6: Hamilton College

Hamilton is another small college, located in upstate New York. It's known for giving students the freedom to pursue their interests and the support to help them explore topics in real depth, both inside and outside the classroom. Hamilton's creative writing program takes full advantage with small classes and lots of opportunities to intern and publish; it also has one of the best writing centers in the country.

#7: Brown University

Brown's Literary Arts program offers one of the top MFAs in the US as well as an undergraduate major . For the major, you must take four creative writing workshops and six reading-intensive courses, which span an array of departments and topics, from music and literature to Middle East studies and Egyptology.

#8: Washington University in St. Louis

Washington University has an excellent creative writing MFA program, lots of super specific class options, and a number of scholarships specifically earmarked for creative writing students. This school’s undergraduate English program also offers a concentration in creative writing that allows students to specialize in a specific genre: poetry, fiction, or creative nonfiction. If you’re interested in exploring your potential in a specific writing genre, Washington University could be a great pick for you.

#9: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

MIT might not be a school you generally associate with writing, but it actually has an excellent program that offers courses in digital media and science writing, as well as creative writing, and provides plenty of guidance on how graduates can navigate the tricky job market.

Not to mention the school is located in Cambridge, a haven for book lovers and writers of all kinds. Though it probably isn’t a good fit for students who hate science, MIT is a great place for aspiring writers who want to build writing skills that are marketable in a wide range of industries.

#10: University of Michigan

University of Michigan is one of the best state universities in the country and has a top-notch MFA program. This school’s undergrad creative writing sub-concentration requires students to submit applications for admittance to advanced creative writing courses. These applications give students crucial practice in both building a writing portfolio and articulating their interest in creative writing to an audience who will evaluate their work. If you're looking to attend a big school with a great creative writing major, this is a fantastic choice.

#11: Johns Hopkins University

Johns Hopkins is another school that's known more for engineering than it is for writing, but, like MIT, it has a dedicated writing program. As a major here, you must take not only courses in prose, poetry, and literature, but also classes on topics such as philosophy and history.

#12: Colorado College

Colorado College is a small liberal arts school known for its block plan , which allows students to focus on one class per three-and-a-half-week block. The creative writing track of the English major includes a sequence of four writing workshops and also requires students to attend every reading of the Visiting Writers Series.

Bonus School: New York University

I didn't include NYU in the main list because it doesn't have a dedicated creative writing major, but it's a great school for aspiring writers nonetheless, offering one of the most impressive creative writing faculties in the country and all the benefits of a Manhattan location.

How To Pick the Best Creative Writing School for You

Just because Northwestern is a great school for creative writing doesn't mean you should set your heart on going there. (The football fans are completely terrifying, for one thing.) So where should you go then?

Here are some questions to ask yourself when looking at creative writing programs to help you determine the best school for you:

Does It Have Courses You're Interested In?

Look at the course offerings and see whether they interest you. While you can't predict exactly what classes you'll love, you want to avoid a mismatch where what you want to study and what the program offers are completely different. For example, if you want to write sonnets but the school focuses more on teaching fiction, it probably won't be a great fit for you.

Also, don't forget to look at the English courses and creative writing workshops! In most programs, you'll be taking a lot of these, too.

What Opportunities Are There To Pursue Writing Outside of Class?

I touched on this idea in the criteria section, but it's important enough that I want to reiterate it here. Some of the best writing experience you can get is found outside the classroom, so see what kind of writing-related extracurriculars a school has before committing to it.

Great options include getting involved with the campus newspaper, working on the school's literary journal, or interning at the university press.

Who Will Be Teaching You?

Who are the professors? What kind of work have they published? Check teacher ratings on Rate My Professors (but make sure to read the actual reviews—and always take them with a grain of salt).

If you're looking at a big school, there's a good chance that a lot of your teachers will be graduate students. But that's not necessarily a bad thing: a lot of the best teachers I had in college were graduate students. Just take into consideration what kind of graduate program the school has. If there's a great creative writing MFA program, then the graduate students are likely to be better writers and more engaged teachers.

What Are the Alumni Doing Now?

If you have a sense of what you want to do after you graduate, see if any alumni of the program are pursuing that type of career. The stronger the alumni network is, the more connections you'll have when it comes time to get a job.

What About the Rest of the School?

Don't pick a school for which you like the creative writing program but dread everything else about it. Most of your time will be spent doing other things, whether hanging out in the dorms, exploring off campus, or fulfilling general education requirements.

Many schools require you to apply to the creative writing major, so make doubly sure you'll be happy with your choice even if you aren't accepted to the program.

What's Next?

Are you sure a creative writing major is the right fit for you? Read our post on the pros and cons of the major to help you decide what path to take in college.

For more general advice about choosing a college, check out our complete guide to finding the right school for you. Some major factors to consider include deciding whether you're interested in a small college or a big university , an in-state or out-of-state institution , and a public or private school .

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Alex is an experienced tutor and writer. Over the past five years, she has worked with almost a hundred students and written about pop culture for a wide range of publications. She graduated with honors from University of Chicago, receiving a BA in English and Anthropology, and then went on to earn an MA at NYU in Cultural Reporting and Criticism. In high school, she was a National Merit Scholar, took 12 AP tests and scored 99 percentile scores on the SAT and ACT.

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Creative Writing

Stanford’s Creative Writing Program--one of the best-known in the country--cultivates the power of individual expression within a vibrant community of writers. Many of our English majors pursue a concentration in creative writing, and the minor in Creative Writing is among the most popular minors on campus. These majors and minors participate in workshop-based courses or independent tutorials with Stegner Fellows, Stanford’s distinguished writers-in-residence.

English Major with a Creative Writing Emphasis

The English major with a Creative Writing emphasis is a fourteen-course major. These fourteen courses comprise eight English courses and six Creative Writing courses.

English majors with a Creative Writing emphasis should note the following:

All courses must be taken for a letter grade.

Courses taken abroad or at other institutions may not be counted towards the workshop requirements.

Any 190 series course (190F, 190G, etc.), 191 series course (191T, etc.), or 192 series course (192V, etc.) counts toward the 190, 191, or 192 requirement.

PWR 1 is a prerequisite for all creative writing courses.

Minor in Creative Writing

The Minor in Creative Writing offers a structured environment in which students interested in writing fiction or poetry develop their skills while receiving an introduction to literary forms. Students may choose a concentration in fiction, poetry.

In order to graduate with a minor in Creative Writing, students must complete the following three courses plus three courses in either the prose or poetry tracks. Courses counted towards the requirements for the minor may not be applied to student's major requirements. 30 units are required. All courses must be taken for a letter grade.

Prose Track

Suggested order of requirements:

English 90. Fiction Writing or English 91. Creative Nonfiction

English 146S Secret Lives of the Short Story

One 5-unit English literature elective course

English 190. Intermediate Fiction Writing or English 191. Intermediate Creative Nonfiction Writing

English 92. Reading and Writing Poetry

Another English 190, 191, 290. Advanced Fiction, 291. Advanced Nonfiction, or 198L. Levinthal Tutorial

Poetry Track

English 92.Reading and Writing Poetry

English 160. Poetry and Poetics

English 192. Intermediate Poetry Writing

Another English 192, or 292.Advanced Poetry or 198L.Levinthal Tutorial

Creative Writing minors should note the following:

To declare a Creative Writing minor, visit the Student page in Axess. To expedite your declaration, make sure to list all 6 courses you have taken or plan to take for your minor.

Any 190 series course (190F, 190G, etc.), 191series course (191T, etc.), or 192 series course (192V, etc.) counts toward the 190, 191, or 192 requirement.

For more information, visit the Stanford Creative Writing Program.

• Utility Menu

• Creative Writing

The vital presence of creative writing in the English Department is reflected by our many distinguished authors who teach our workshops. We offer courses each term in fiction, poetry, nonfiction, screenwriting, playwriting, and television writing. Our workshops are small, usually no more than twelve students, and offer writers an opportunity to focus intensively on one genre. 

Apply to Creative Writing Workshops

Workshops are open by application to Harvard College undergraduates, graduate students, staff, and students from other institutions eligible for cross registration. Submission guidelines for workshops can be found under individual course listings; please do not query instructors.  Review all departmental rules and application instructions before applying.  

Fall 2024 First Application Deadline: 11:59 pm ET on Sunday, April 7

Fall 2024 Second Application Deadline: 11:59 pm ET on Thursday, August 22 (Not all workshops will be reopen to applications. First-year students, incoming transfer students, and incoming graduate students - who could not participate in April registration processes - will be given priority during the August application review cycle. Returning students who did not submit workshop applications in April may apply in August. Students who applied in April and were not offered a seat in a workshop will automatically be reconsidered and need not submit a new application.) Spring 2025 Application Deadline: October-November 2024, TBA

Please visit our course listings for all the Fall 2024 workshops.

Our online submission manager (link below) will open for Fall 2024 applications on Thursday, August 15 .  

Students who have questions about the creative writing workshop application process should contact Case Q. Kerns at [email protected] .

Featured Faculty

Teju Cole  is a novelist, critic, and essayist, and is the first Gore Vidal Professor of the Practice. "Among other works, the boundary-crossing author is known for his debut novel “Open City” (2011), whose early admirers included Harvard professor and New Yorker critic James Wood." 

Faculty Bookshelf

Known and strange things by teju cole (2016).

A State of Freedom by Neel Mukherjee (2012)

Sea Change by Jorie Graham

The Isle of Youth by Laura van den Berg (2013)

Creative Writing Workshops

• Spring 2024

English CACD. The Art of Criticism

Instructor: Maggie Doherty Wednesday, 12:00-2:45pm | Location: TBD Enrollment: Limited to 12 students Course Site

This course will consider critical writing about art–literary, visual, cinematic, musical, etc.—as an art in its own right. We will read and discuss criticism from a wide variety of publications, paying attention to the ways outlets and audience shape critical work. The majority of our readings will be from the last few years and will include pieces by Joan Acocella, Andrea Long Chu, Jason Farago, and Carina del Valle Schorske. Students will write several short writing assignments (500-1000 words), including a straight review, during the first half of the semester and share them with peers. During the second half of the semester, each student will write and workshop a longer piece of criticism about a work of art or an artist of their choosing. Students will be expected to read and provide detailed feedback on the work of their peers. Students will revise their longer pieces based on workshop feedback and submit them for the final assignment of the class. Apply via Submittable  (deadline: 11:59pm EDT on Thursday, August 22) Supplemental Application Information:  Please write a letter of introduction (1-2 pages) giving a sense of who you are, your writing experience, and your current goals for your writing. Please also describe your relationship to the art forms and/or genres you're interested in engaging in the course. You may also list any writers or publications whose criticism you enjoy reading. Please also include a 3-5-page writing sample of any kind of prose writing. This could be an academic paper or it could be creative fiction or nonfiction.

English CACW. Advanced Fiction Workshop

Instructor: Paul Yoon TBD | Location: TBD Enrollment: Limited to 12 students Advanced fiction workshop for students who have already taken a workshop at Harvard or elsewhere. The goal of the class is to continue your journey as a writer. You will be responsible for participating in discussions on the assigned texts, the workshop, engaging with the work of your colleagues, and revising your work. Supplemental Application Information:   * Please note: previous creative writing workshop experience required. * Please submit ONLY a cover letter telling me your previous creative writing workshop experience, either at Harvard or elsewhere; then tell me something you are passionate about and something you want to be better at; and, lastly, tell me why of all classes you want to take this one this semester. Again, please no writing samples.

English CBBR. Intermediate Poetry: Workshop

Instructor:  Josh Bell   Monday, 12:00-2:45pm | Location: Barker 018 Enrollment: Limited to 12 students Course Site

Initially, students can expect to read, discuss, and imitate the strategies of a wide range of poets writing in English; to investigate and reproduce prescribed forms and poetic structures; and to engage in writing exercises meant to expand the conception of what a poem is and can be. As the course progresses, reading assignments will be tailored on an individual basis, and an increasing amount of time will be spent in discussion of student work. Apply via Submittable  (deadline: 11:59pm EDT on Thursday, August 22)

Supplemental Application Information:  Please submit a portfolio including a letter of interest, ten poems, and a list of classes (taken at Harvard or elsewhere) that seem to have bearing on your enterprise.

English CCEP. Ekphrastic Poetry: Workshop

Instructor: Tracy K. Smith Wednesday, 3:00-5:45 pm | Location: Lamont 401 Enrollment: Limited to 12 students Course Site What can a poem achieve when it contemplates or even emulates a work of art in another medium? In this workshop, we'll read and write poems that engage with other art forms--and we'll test out what a foray into another artistic practice allows us to carry back over into the formal methods and behaviors of poetry. With poems by Keats, Rilke, Auden, Hughes, and Brooks, as well as Kevin Young, Evie Shockley, Ama Codjoe and other contemporary voices. Apply via Submittable  (deadline: 11:59pm EDT on Saturday, August 26) Supplemental Application Information:  Please submit a writing sample of 5-10 poems and an application letter explaining your interest in this course.

English CCFC. Poetry Workshop: Form & Content

Instructor: Tracy K. Smith Tuesday, 12:00-2:45pm | Location: Sever 112 Enrollment: Limited to 12 students Course Site

In this workshop, we’ll look closely at the craft-based choices poets make, and track the effects they have upon what we as readers are made to think and feel. How can implementing similar strategies better prepare us to engage the questions making up our own poetic material? We’ll also talk about content. What can poetry reveal about the ways our interior selves are shaped by public realities like race, class, sexuality, injustice and more? Apply via Submittable  (deadline: 11:59pm EDT on Saturday, August 26)   

Supplemental Application Information:  Please submit a writing sample of 5-10 poems and an application letter explaining your interest in this course.

English CCIJ. Intermediate Fiction Workshop

Instructor: Jesse McCarthy Thursday, 3:00-5:45 pm | Location: Barker 269 Enrollment: Limited to 12 students Course Site This is an intermediate course in the art of writing literary fiction. Previous experience with workshopping writing is encouraged but not required. The emphasis of the course will be learning how to read literature as a writer, with special attention given to the short story, novella, or short novel. We will read these works from the perspective of the writer as craftsperson and of the critic seeking in good faith to understand and describe a new aesthetic experience. We will be concerned foremost with how literary language works, with describing the effects of different kinds of sentences, different uses of genre, tone, and other rhetorical strategies. Together, we will explore our responses to examples of literature from around the world and from all periods, as well as to the writing you will produce and share with the class. As a member of a writing community, you should be prepared to respectfully read and respond to the work of others—both the work of your peers and that of the published writers that we will explore together. Apply via Submittable  (deadline: 11:59pm EDT on Saturday, August 26) Supplemental Application Information:  This course is by application only but there are no prerequisites for this course and previous experience in a writing workshop is not required . In your application please submit a short letter explaining why you are interested in this class. You might tell me a bit about your relationship to literature, your encounter with a specific author, book, or even a scene or character from a story or novel. Please also include a writing sample of 2-5 pages (5 pages max!) of narrative prose fiction.

English CCFS. Fiction Workshop

Instructor: Teju Cole Spring 2024: Tuesday, 6:00-8:45pm | Location: TBD Enrollment: Limited to 12 students Course Site Spring 2025: TBD This reading and writing intensive workshop is for students who want to learn to write literary fiction. The goal of the course would be for each student to produce two polished short stories. Authors on the syllabus will probably include James Joyce, Eudora Welty, Toni Morrison, Alice Munro, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Diane Williams.

Supplemental Application Information:   Please submit a cover letter saying what you hope to get out of the workshop. In the cover letter, mention three works of fiction that matter to you and why. In addition, submit a 400–500 word sample of your fiction; the sample can be self-contained or a section of a longer work.

English CLPG. Art of Sportswriting

Instructor: Louisa Thomas Spring 2024: Tuesday, 9:00-11:45am | Location: TBD Enrollment: Limited to 12 students Course Site Spring 2025: TBD

In newsrooms, the sports section is sometimes referred to as the “toy department” -- frivolous and unserious, unlike the stuff of politics, business, and war. In this course, we will take the toys seriously. After all, for millions of people, sports and other so-called trivial pursuits (video games, chess, children’s games, and so on) are a source of endless fascination. For us, they will be a source of stories about human achievements and frustrations. These stories can involve economic, social, and political issues. They can draw upon history, statistics, psychology, and philosophy. They can be reported or ruminative, formally experimental or straightforward, richly descriptive or tense and spare. They can be fun. Over the course of the semester, students will read and discuss exemplary profiles, essays, articles, and blog posts, while also writing and discussing their own. While much (but not all) of the reading will come from the world of sports, no interest in or knowledge about sports is required; our focus will be on writing for a broad audience.  Supplemental Application Information:  To apply, please write a letter describing why you want to take the course and what you hope to get out of it. Include a few examples of websites or magazines you like to read, and tell me briefly about one pursuit -- football, chess, basketball, ballet, Othello, crosswords, soccer, whatever -- that interests you and why.

English CALR. Advanced Screenwriting: Workshop

Instructor: Musa Syeed Spring 2024: Wednesday, 12:00-2:45pm | Location: TBA Enrollment: Limited to 12 students Course Site Spring 2025: TBD

The feature-length script is an opportunity to tell a story on a larger scale, and, therefore, requires additional preparation. In this class, we will move from writing a pitch, to a synopsis, to a treatment/outline, to the first 10 pages, to the first act of a feature screenplay. We will analyze produced scripts and discuss various elements of craft, including research, writing layered dialogue, world-building, creating an engaging cast of characters. As an advanced class, we will also look at ways both mainstream and independent films attempt to subvert genre and structure. Students will end the semester with a first act (20-30 pages) of their feature, an outline, and strategy to complete the full script.

Supplemental Application Information:  Please submit a 3-5 page writing sample. Screenplays are preferred, but fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry, and plays are acceptable as well. Also, please write a short note to introduce yourself. Include a couple films/filmmakers that have inspired you, your goals for the class, as well as any themes/subject matter/ideas you might be interested in exploring in your writing for film.

English CNFR. Creative Nonfiction: Workshop

Instructor: Darcy Frey Fall 2024: Wednesday, 3:00-5:45 pm | Location: TBD Enrollment: Limited to 12 students. Course Site Spring 2025: TBD

Whether it takes the form of literary journalism, essay, memoir, or environmental writing, creative nonfiction is a powerful genre that allows writers to break free from the constraints commonly associated with nonfiction prose and reach for the breadth of thought and feeling usually accomplished only in fiction: the narration of a vivid story, the probing of a complex character, the argument of an idea, or the evocation of a place. Students will work on several short assignments to hone their mastery of the craft, then write a longer piece that will be workshopped in class and revised at the end of the term. We will take instruction and inspiration from published authors such as Joan Didion, James Baldwin, Ariel Levy, Alexander Chee, and Virginia Woolf. This is a workshop-style class intended for undergraduate and graduate students at all levels of experience. No previous experience in English Department courses is required. Apply via Submittable  (deadline: 11:59pm ET on Thursday, August 22)

Supplemental Application Information:   Please write a substantive letter of introduction describing who you are as writer at the moment and where you hope to take your writing; what experience you may have had with creative/literary nonfiction; what excites you about nonfiction in particular; and what you consider to be your strengths and weaknesses as a writer. Additionally, please submit 3-5 pages of creative/literary nonfiction (essay, memoir, narrative journalism, etc, but NOT academic writing) or, if you have not yet written much nonfiction, an equal number of pages of narrative fiction.

English CLAR. Getting the Words Right: The Art of Revision

Instructor: Laura van den Berg TBD | Location: TBD Enrollment: Limited to 12 students A promising draft is of little use to us as writers if we have no idea what to do next, of how to begin again. This course aims to illuminate how revision can be every bit as creative and exhilarating as getting the first draft down—and how time spent re-imagining our early drafts is the ultimate show of faith in our work. We will explore the art of revision—of realizing the promise of that first draft—through reading, craft discussion, exercises, and workshop. Students can expect to leave the semester with two polished short stories (or 40-50 polished novel pages), a keener understanding of their own writing process, and a plan for where to take their work next. Texts will include  How to Write an Autobiographical Novel  by Alexander Chee,  Refuse to by Done  by Matt Bell, and  Craft in the Real World  by Matthew Salesses. It will be helpful to enter into the semester with some pre-existing material that you wish to revise (a short story, several chapters of a novel). Previous experience with workshopping writing is encouraged but not required. Supplemental Application Information:   Please submit a brief letter—1-2 pages—that discusses your interest in the course and in writing more broadly. What are you interested in working on and learning more about, at this point in your practice? Please also submit a short—2-3 page—writing sample (the first 2 pages of a short story or novel, for example).

English CACF. Get Real: The Art of Community-Based Film

Instructor: Musa Syeed Wednesday, 12:00-2:45pm | Location: TBD Enrollment: Limited to 12 student Course Site

“I’ve often noticed that we are not able to look at what we have in front of us,” the Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami said, “unless it’s inside a frame.” For our communities confronting invisibility and erasure, there’s an urgent need for new frames. In this workshop, we’ll explore a community-engaged approach to documentary and fiction filmmaking, as we seek to see our world more deeply. We’ll begin with screenings, craft exercises, and discussions around authorship and social impact. Then we each will write, develop, and shoot a short film over the rest of the semester, building off of intentional community engagement. Students will end the class with written and recorded materials for a rough cut. Basic equipment and technical training will be provided.

Apply via Submittable  (deadline: 11:59pm EDT on Thursday, August 22)

Supplemental Application Information:  Please submit a brief letter explaining why you're interested to take this class. Please also discuss what participants/communities you might be interested in engaging with for your filmmaking projects. For your writing sample, please submit 3-5 pages of your creative work from any genre (screenwriting, poetry, fiction, non-fiction, etc.)

English CAFR. Advanced Fiction Workshop: Writing this Present Life

Instructor: Claire Messud Thursday, 3:00-5:45 pm | Location: TBD Enrollment: Limited to 12 students Course Site Intended for students with prior fiction-writing and workshop experience, this course will concentrate on structure, execution and revision. Exploring various strands of contemporary and recent literary fiction – writers such as Karl Ove Knausgaard, Rachel Cusk, Chimamanda Adichie, Douglas Stuart, Ocean Vuong, etc – we will consider how fiction works in our present moment, with emphasis on a craft perspective. Each student will present to the class a published fiction that has influenced them. The course is primarily focused on the discussion of original student work, with the aim of improving both writerly skills and critical analysis. Revision is an important component of this class: students will workshop two stories and a revision of one of these. Apply via Submittable  (deadline: 11:59pm ET on Thursday, August 22)

Supplemental Application Information:  Please submit 3-5 pages of prose fiction, along with a substantive letter of introduction. I’d like to know why you’re interested in the course; what experience you’ve had writing, both in previous workshops and independently; what your literary goals and ambitions are. Please tell me about some of your favorite narratives – fiction, non-fiction, film, etc: why they move you, and what you learn from them.

English CAKV. Fiction Workshop: Writing from the First-Person Point of View

Instructor:  Andrew Krivak Tuesday, 9:00-11:45 1m | Location: TBD Enrollment: Limited to 12 students Course Site This course is a workshop intended for students who are interested in writing longer form narratives from the first-person point of view. The “I” at the center of any novel poses a perspective that is all at once imaginatively powerful and narratively problematic, uniquely insightful and necessarily unreliable. We will read from roughly twelve novels written in the first-person, from Marilynne Robinson and W.G. Sebald, to Valeria Luiselli and Teju Cole, and ask questions (among others) of why this form, why this style? And, as a result, what is lost and what is realized in the telling? Primarily, however, students will write. Our goal will be to have a student’s work read and discussed twice in class during the semester. I am hoping to see at least 35-40 pages of a project —at any level of completion—at the end of term.  Apply via Submittable  (deadline: 11:59pm EDT on Thursday, August 22) Supplemental Application Information:  Please write a substantive letter telling me why you’re interested in taking this class, what writers (classical and contemporary) you admire and why, and if there’s a book you have read more than once, a movie you have seen more than once, a piece of music you listen to over and over, not because you have to but because you want to. Students of creative nonfiction are also welcome to apply.

English CCSS. Fiction Workshop: The Art of the Short Story

Instructor: Laura van den Berg Tuesday, 12:00-2:45 pm | Location: TBD Enrollment: Limited to 12 students Course Site This course will serve as an introduction to the fundamentals of writing fiction, with an emphasis on the contemporary short story. How can we set about creating “big” worlds in compact spaces? What unique doors can the form of the short story open? The initial weeks will focus on exploratory exercises and the study of published short stories and craft essays. Later, student work will become the primary text as the focus shifts to workshop discussion. Authors on the syllabus will likely include Ted Chiang, Lauren Groff, Carmen Maria Machado, and Octavia Butler. This workshop welcomes writers of all levels of experience. Apply via Submittable  (deadline: 11:59pm EDT on Thursday, August 22) Supplemental Application Information:  Please submit a letter of introduction. I’d like to know a little about why you are drawn to studying fiction; what you hope to get out of the workshop and what you hope to contribute; and one thing you are passionate about outside writing / school. Please also include a very brief writing sample (2-3 pages). The sample can be in any genre (it does not have to be from a work of fiction). 

Write an Honors Creative Thesis

Students may apply to write a senior thesis or senior project in creative writing, although only English concentrators can be considered. Students submit applications in early March of their junior year, including first-term juniors who are out of phase. The creative writing faculty considers the proposal, along with the student's overall performance in creative writing and other English courses, and notifies students about its decision in early mid-late March. Those applications are due, this coming year, on TBA . 

Students applying for a creative writing thesis or project must have completed at least one course in creative writing at Harvard before they apply. No student is guaranteed acceptance. It is strongly suggested that students acquaint themselves with the requirements and guidelines well before the thesis application is due. The creative writing director must approve any exceptions to the requirements, which must be made in writing by Monday, February 7, 2022. Since the creative writing thesis and project are part of the English honors program, acceptance to write a creative thesis is conditional upon the student continuing to maintain a 3.40 concentration GPA. If a student’s concentration GPA drops below 3.40 after the spring of the junior year, the student may not be permitted to continue in the honors program.

Joint concentrators may apply to write creative theses, but we suggest students discuss the feasibility of the project well before applications are due. Not all departments are open to joint creative theses.

Students who have questions about the creative writing thesis should contact the program’s Director, Sam Marks .

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Creative Writing for Undergraduates

The English Department is pleased to offer two creative writing concentrations for English majors who wish to specialize in creative writing. Students interested in poetry writing can apply to the  Area Program in Poetry Writing (APPW) , which allows undergraduate writers to pursue serious study of the craft of poetry writing and poetics within the context of the English major. The  Area Program in Literary Prose Writing (APLP)  is our fiction and nonfiction equivalent of the APPW, allowing English majors to specialize in the craft of narrative writing.

But you don't have to be an English major to take our courses. Undergraduates can take a full spectrum of elective poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction, beginning with ENCW 2200, 2300, and 2600, introductory classes usually taught by MFA students in our graduate program. These 2000-level classes introduce students to poetic and narrative techniques, teach close reading of literary texts, and employ a workshop model of peer critique. The target audience for our 2000-level classes is mostly first- and second-year undergraduates (who can enroll directly in SIS) though we also create some sections in each genre open to third- and fourth-year registration. In addition, we sometimes feature themed introductory sections, ENCW 2530 or 2560, that we also keep open to third- and fourth-year registration.

As students hone their writing skills, they move into intermediate 3000- and 4000-level courses. While we prefer that students start in our 2000-level courses, students can also enroll directly in a 3000 or 4000 section. Advanced third- and fourth-year students can also take 5000-level workshops, which mix undergraduates and graduate students in the same classroom. All of these intermediate and advanced courses are taught by full-time English faculty members.  For details on how to apply to these intermediate and advanced creative writing courses, see the FAQ section below.  In recent years, our department has also begun to offer a number of creative nonfiction courses at the 3000- and 4000-level.

Undergraduates should also take advantage of our scheduled visits by Rea Writers and Lecturers and our Kapnick Distinguished Writer-in-Residence by attending public readings and other private sessions open to undergraduates

"FIRST CLASS" POLICY

There is usually a high demand for seats in creative writing courses. Students who register for creative writing courses in SIS but who fail to attend the first class meeting after their registration may be dropped from the roll so that we can free up seats for other students on the waitlist. Students who cannot attend the first class meeting after their registration in SIS must, before the class meeting occurs, email their instructor with a valid excuse as to why they cannot attend, but the instructor is under no obligation to accept the excuse.  Bottom line: for creative writing courses, go to the first class after you register in SIS to ensure you stay on the roll.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Q: I can’t register for a 2000-level section, even though there are open seats. What gives?

A: If you have tried to add an open ENCW 2000-level section and cannot, you are most likely a third- or fourth-year student (or are a rising third-year student). This is because we initially configure most of our 2200/2300/2600 sections with the seats reserved for first- and second-years. The reason we tilt the early enrollment toward first- and second-year students is because it helps us create a large pool of undergraduates ready to take our intermediate and advanced coursework in their later years at UVA, as well as apply to our APPW and APLP concentrations in the English major. However, we do usually create some sections of 2300 and 2600 open to third- and fourth-year students, and we sometimes have themed ENCW 2560 (fiction) and ENCW 2530 (poetry) courses that are open to third- and fourth-years. ENCW 2560 and 2530 do not have any prerequisites and are open on a first-come, first-served basis.

Once all first- and second-years have had time to register in SIS, we try to remove the restrictions from our sections. This usually happens in the first weeks of August or November, so keep checking in SIS. We have to maintain the course restrictions over the entire summer to allow first-year students a chance to register for open seats. Transfer students who arrive at UVA in their third year and other special cases can email the instructors for ad hoc permission to join a section. Please do not email more than two instructors.

Q: Why does a fall section have just a few open seats available? I thought your classes took 15 students but only 8 seats are available. Why is that?

A: This situation usually happens in spring/summer semesters when students are trying to register for next fall. Because many first-years take our courses, the undergraduate registrar temporarily lowers the seating capacity of our fall courses. This is because the incoming first-year students come to grounds over several summer enrollment sessions, and the registrar is trying to make sure students in the later sessions have similar class choices to those in early sessions. So our 2000-level ENCWs may have restricted seats in the early part of summer, and the seating capacity rises throughout July as more first-years have a chance to register. Once all first-years have had a chance to register, we try to lift all our course restrictions, making them available to everyone. 

Q: What should I do if cannot register for ENCW 2300/2600?

A: If the section is restricted right now to first- and second-years and you are a third- or fourth-year, you likely cannot add that class or get on the waitlist. You should look for other unrestricted sections and check back when we lift the restrictions on our classes. If you are eligible for a section but there are no seats, we recommend you add yourself to the waitlist. Students on class waitlists might want to use the waitlist "Edit Enrollment" feature to configure SIS to drop another course if a slot in ENCW 2300/2600 opens. Remember: SIS takes the first eligible student off of a waitlist, not the first student on the waitlist. So configure SIS to drop other courses if adding out course would give you too many hours.

In addition, students with some writing experience and ready manuscripts can also consider registering for one of our intermediate or advanced classes; we prefer that students take a 2000-level class first, but they are not a firm prerequisite. See below for details.

Q: How do I apply for intermediate and advanced courses in creative writing?

A: To apply to one of our intermediate or advanced courses (ENCW 3000 and higher):

• In SIS, request permission to take the class, and
• Send the instructor a manuscript and cover letter.

Please email the instructor only one document. First, create a cover page that has your name, email, phone, year at UVA, major, and a brief explanation of why you want to take the course. If you are applying to other ENCW 3000+ courses for the same semester, please note that too (this does not hurt or help your application—it just helps us distribute students among our sections). Poetry applicants should then append up to ten pages of poetry, which is generally single-spaced. Please compile your poems and your cover sheet into ONE document/attachment. Fiction and nonfiction applicants should append up to fifteen pages of prose to the cover letter. The prose must be double-spaced. Please use traditional fonts in the 12-point range and save the file as one document in a .PDF or MS Word .doc or .docx. For full consideration, email your application as soon as possible, but before noon on December 15 for spring courses, or by August 5 for fall. The instructor will let you know by mid-January for spring courses, and by late August for fall courses. Of course, submitting  earlier  than these deadlines is encouraged, and our classes do sometimes fill before the final submission deadline—so send early if you can. Once the instructor grants you permission in SIS to add the class, you must also log in and accept the course to your schedule. If you fail to accept the course into your schedule promptly, the permission request goes "stale" in SIS, and you must delete your original permission request in SIS and submit a new one.

Q: I’m not a humanities student, or even in the College of Arts & Sciences. Can I take your courses?

A: Yes, if SIS allows you to register, you can enroll just like any other student. If SIS will not allow you to enroll, contact our office to see if course action might be an option. Our ENCW courses often satisfy humanities requirements from other schools. See your local registrar.

Q: Do your ENCW courses satisfy academic requirements?

A: All ENCW courses can satisfy three credits under artistic, interpretive, & philosophical inquiry under the new curriculum, and for a few more senior undergrads who started here under a different curriculum, three credits of their humanities area requirement (fine arts). See the Arts & Sciences  General Education Page . ENCW 2300 and 2600 courses can satisfy the first writing requirement for some UVA first-years on an exception basis as determined by the  UVA Writing and Rhetoric Program . At present, the only ENCW course that satisfies the second writing requirement is ENCW 2200. Our courses may satisfy humanities and/or writing requirements for other schools like Engineering, Architecture, or Nursing. Please contact your school's registrar for confirmation.

Q: Can I take one of your courses more than once?

A: In most cases, yes. This includes our 2000-level courses. We generally encourage students to try higher-level ENCW courses, but we understand that some students do not feel ready to move on, and sometimes the day/time of a lower-level course just fits a student's schedule better. Second enrollments generally do not satisfy very many requirements. See your advisor or our office for additional details.

Q: Do you offer independent studies in creative writing? There's a novel I want to write ...

A: Yes, we do offer independent studies, but we generally only set them up for APPW and APLP students and advanced English majors who have exhausted our standard course offerings and have a well-defined semester-length project in mind. We rarely agree to independent study requests from non-English majors. Those students are encouraged to try our intermediate and advanced coursework first. In any case, students hoping for independent studies must begin negotiating with our creative writing faculty members at least one semester before their independent study actually starts. Ad hoc requests made at the beginning of a semester will almost always be rejected.

Q: I’m a local resident. Can I take your undergraduate courses?

A: Yes, but usually at the 3000-level or higher. Our 2000-level ENCW courses are primarily for UVA undergraduates in their first few years at the university. Citizen scholars have usually been writing on their own for a while, and 3000-level and higher courses are typically a better fit (this includes 5000-level courses, which are open to undergraduate and graduate enrollment). To enroll, first email the instructor* and ask if they would consider your application. If they are willing, ask them to reserve a seat in the course for you. Then contact the School of Continuing and Professional Studies (SCPS) at  http://www.scps.virginia.edu/  to officially enroll in the course and pay your fees. SCPS may ask you to have the instructor email them saying you have permission to enroll. 

You can view current and historical course offerings in our Student Information System (SIS) . Click on "Search for Classes by Semester" and enter "ENCW" into the "Subject" box. Undergraduate classes are 5000 and lower.

Q: Can I audit or enroll in one of your graduate-level workshops?

A: Yes, but only at the 5000 level. Our ENCW 7310 and 7610 courses are reserved for our current MFAs only, and we do not currently allow others to audit or take the courses. You can, however, enroll in some of the same graduate-level literature courses that our MFA students attend.

Q: But what if I’ve tried all this (or most of it) and can’t get into any of your classes?

A: Remember that Charlottesville is blessed with a vibrant creative writing community. UVA is not your only option.  Piedmont Community College  offers wonderful courses, some of which may be transferrable to a UVA degree. The UVA School of Continuing and Professional Studies ( http://www.scps.virginia.edu/ ) offers shorter-duration fiction/poetry/nonfiction writing courses in the evenings. And local organizations like  WriterHouse  also offer excellent programs.

Q: Can I sit in on a workshop course to see what it is like?

A: In general, no. Workshops require a level of intimacy and trust that is disrupted by visitors, however quiet or well-intended they might be.

Q: Will taking undergraduate creative writing at UVA help me get into your MFA Program?

A: Probably not. By the time an undergraduate takes our upper-level creative writing courses, they are working with the same faculty who teach in our MFA Program. We generally believe these students are better served by experiencing teachers and writers beyond our university rather than continuing their studies in Charlottesville.

Q: I want to go to the Young Writers Workshop. Is that you?

A: No, the  Young Writers Workshop  is a wonderful program for high schoolers run out of UVA's Curry School. Several of our MFA students and APLP/APPW graduates have worked there, but we are unaffiliated.

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Creative Writing

The English Major with a Concentration in Creative Writing provides students with a solid grounding in literature as well as advanced study in creative writing. Penn’s premier undergraduate creative writing program includes courses in poetry, fiction, nonfiction, screenwriting, playwriting, writing for children, journalistic writing, and review.

The English Major with a Concentration in Creative Writing consists of 13 courses distibuted as follows:

• 6 courses to complete the English Core
• 3 Creative Writing Seminars—any courses within these ranges: ENGL 0051, 0700-0799, or 3000-3999
• 1 course from The One Series (anything within this range: ENGL 4500-4998)
• 1 Literature Seminar in either Literature Before 1700 (a course with the AEB7 attribute) or Literature Before 1900 (a course with the AEB9 attribute)
• 1 Literature Seminar in any area (this can be an additional Creative Writing Seminar)
• Elective(s)

If you are interested in this concentration, please contact Julia Bloch, Director of Creative Writing ( [email protected] ).

Our faculty of award-winning writers teach more than sixty workshops each year in fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, speculative writing, journalism, playwriting, screenwriting, and writing for children and young adults. We also offer a number of innovative workshops in cross-genre, experimental, and hybrid writing, including writing that engages with community organizing, multimedia and visual arts, and performance. Our program is home to for-credit apprenticeships and programs in independent study, a number of student honors and awards, and events throughout the year that are open to the public.

Creative Writing courses as well as the Creative Writing Minor and the Journalistic Writing Minor are open to any student in the four undergraduate schools (College, Wharton, Engineering, Nursing) or in the College of Liberal and Professional Studies. Additionally, English majors can choose to concentrate in Creative Writing, one of the most popular paths in the English major.

The Creative Writing Program invites visiting writers to the Penn campus for readings and talks, often at the renowned and hospitable literary hub Kelly Writers House. Recent visitors have included poets, fiction writers, screenwriters, playwrights, and memoirists, including Claudia Rankine , John Keene , Margaret Christakos , Rachel Levitsky , Divya Victor , Jenny Zhang , Scott Neustadter , Elizabeth Willis , Maria Dahvana Headley , Bhanu Kapil , Nicole Dennis-Benn , Will Alexander , Edwin Torres , Yolanda Wisher , Paul Lisicky , Madeleine George , Daniel Saldaña París , Rob Sheffield , Lesley Nneka Arimah , Eduardo Espina , and Patterson Hood . We have also hosted a robust roster of journalists from The Washington Post , ProPublica , Politico , The New Yorker , The New York Times, The Atlantic , and elsewhere, including Karen Heller , Brooke Borel , Michael Sokolove , Matthew Nusbaum , Alec MacGillis , Charles M. Blow , Paul Waldman , Ada Calhoun , Patrick Kerkstra , Ariel Levy , and Jennifer Lin .

Rising seniors are encouraged to apply to our Creative Writing Honors Program, through which students complete a capstone project under consultation of a faculty advisor. Through  RealArts@Penn , students are given the opportunity to engage with alumni in writing-related careers and to apply for paid summer internships in creative fields across the country. Each spring, the Creative Writing Program sponsors university-wide writing contests in several categories: poetry, fiction, review, scriptwriting, creative nonfiction, journalistic writing, and translation.

Related Programs and Groups

• Penn's Creative Writing Program
• Kelly Writers House

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Creative Writing

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Undergraduate Creative Writing Program Office: 609 Kent; 212-854-3774 http://arts.columbia.edu/writing/undergraduate

Director of Undergraduate Studies: Prof. Anelise Chen, Fiction, Nonfiction, 609 Kent; 212-854-3774; [email protected]

Undergraduate Executive Committee:

• Prof. Anelise Chen, Fiction, Nonfiction, 609 Kent; 212-854-3774; [email protected]
• Prof. Heidi Julavits, Fiction, 609 Kent; 212-854-3774; [email protected]
• Prof. Dorothea Lasky, Poetry, 609 Kent; 212-854-3774; [email protected]
• Prof. Timothy Donnelly, Poetry, 415 Dodge; 212-854-4391; [email protected]
• Prof. Margo Jefferson, Nonfiction, 609 Kent; 212-854-3774; [email protected]
• Prof. Sam Lipsyte, Fiction, 609 Kent; 212-854-3774; [email protected]
• Prof. Deborah Paredez, Poetry, 609 Kent, [email protected]
• Prof. Alan Ziegler, Fiction, 415 Dodge; 212-854-4391; [email protected]

The Creative Writing Program in The School of the Arts combines intensive writing workshops with seminars that study literature from a writer's perspective. Students develop and hone their literary technique in workshops. The seminars (which explore literary technique and history) broaden their sense of possibility by exposing them to various ways that language has been used to make art. Related courses are drawn from departments such as English, comparative literature and society, philosophy, history, and anthropology, among others.

Students consult with faculty advisers to determine the related courses that best inform their creative work. For details on the major, see the Creative Writing website: http://arts.columbia.edu/writing/undergraduate .

Margo L. Jefferson

Phillip Lopate

• Benjamin Marcus
• Alan Ziegler

Associate Professors

• Susan Bernofsky
• Timothy Donnelly
• Rivka Galchen
• Heidi Julavits
• Dorothea Lasky
• Victor LaValle
• Sam Lipsyte
• Deborah Paredez
• Wendy Walters

Assistant Professors

• Anelise Chen

Adjunct Professors

• Hannah L Assadi
• Eliza B Callahan
• Bonnie Chau
• Meehan J Crist
• Matty Davis
• Alex Dimitrov
• Joseph Fasano
• Omer M Friedlander
• Emily R Gutierrez
• Alexis J Hutchinson
• Katrine Øgaard Jensen
• Emily Christine C Johnson
• Chloe Jones
• Quincy S Jones
• Sophie Kemp
• Holly Melgard
• Marie Myung-Ok Lee
• Vanessa Martir
• Kyle McCarthy
• Patricia Marx
• Molly L McGhee
• Mallika Rao
• Rebecca J Schiff
• Mina Seckin
• Joel Sedaño Jr
• Luciana Siracusano
• Wally Suphap
• Adam Z Wilson
• James C Yeh
• Samantha Zighelboim

Lecturer in the Discipline of Writing

• Peter M Rafel
• Ronald L Robertson Jr

Major in Creative Writing

The major in creative writing requires a minimum of 36 points: five workshops, four seminars, and three related courses.

Workshop Curriculum (15 points)

Students in the workshops produce original works of fiction, poetry, or nonfiction, and submit them to their classmates and instructor for a close critical analysis. Workshop critiques (which include detailed written reports and thorough line-edits) assess the mechanics and merits of the writing pieces. Individual instructor conferences distill the critiques into a direct plan of action to improve the work. Student writers develop by practicing the craft under the diligent critical attention of their peers and instructor, which guides them toward new levels of creative endeavor.

Creative writing majors select 15 points within the division in the following courses. One workshop must be in a genre other than the primary focus. For instance, a fiction writer might take four fiction workshops and one poetry workshop.

Seminar Curriculum (12 points)

The creative writing seminars form the intellectual ballast of our program.  Our seminars offer a close examination of literary techniques such as plot, point of view, tone, and voice.  They seek to inform and inspire students by exposing them to a wide variety of approaches in their chosen genre.  Our curriculum, via these seminars, actively responds not only to historical literary concerns, but to contemporary ones as well.  Extensive readings are required, along with short critical papers and/or creative exercises.  By closely analyzing diverse works of literature and participating in roundtable discussions, writers build the resources necessary to produce their own accomplished creative work. 

Creative writing majors select 12 points within the division. Any 4 seminars will fulfill the requirement, no matter the student's chosen genre concentration.  Below is a sampling of our seminars.  The list of seminars currently being offered can be found in the "Courses" section. 

Related Courses (9 points)

Drawn from various departments, these courses provide concentrated intellectual and creative stimulation, as well as exposure to ideas that enrich students' artistic instincts. Courses may be different for each student writer. Students should consult with faculty advisers to determine the related courses that best inform their creative work.

Fiction Workshops

WRIT UN1100 BEGINNING FICTION WORKSHOP. 3.00 points .

Prerequisites: No prerequisites. Department approval NOT required. The beginning workshop in fiction is designed for students with little or no experience writing literary texts in fiction. Students are introduced to a range of technical and imaginative concerns through exercises and discussions, and they eventually produce their own writing for the critical analysis of the class. The focus of the course is on the rudiments of voice, character, setting, point of view, plot, and lyrical use of language. Students will begin to develop the critical skills that will allow them to read like writers and understand, on a technical level, how accomplished creative writing is produced. Outside readings of a wide range of fiction supplement and inform the exercises and longer written projects

WRIT UN2100 INTERMEDIATE FICTION WORKSHOP. 3.00 points .

Intermediate workshops are for students with some experience with creative writing, and whose prior work merits admission to the class (as judged by the professor). Intermediate workshops present a higher creative standard than beginning workshops, and increased expectations to produce finished work. By the end of the semester, each student will have produced at least seventy pages of original fiction. Students are additionally expected to write extensive critiques of the work of their peers. Please visit https://arts.columbia.edu/writing/undergraduate for information about registration procedures

WRIT UN3100 ADVANCED FICTION WORKSHOP. 3.00 points .

Prerequisites: The department's permission required through writing sample. Please go to 609 Kent for submission schedule and registration guidelines or see http://www.arts.columbia.edu/writing/undergraduate. Building on the work of the Intermediate Workshop, Advanced Workshops are reserved for the most accomplished creative writing students. A significant body of writing must be produced and revised. Particular attention will be paid to the components of fiction: voice, perspective, characterization, and form. Students will be expected to finish several short stories, executing a total artistic vision on a piece of writing. The critical focus of the class will include an examination of endings and formal wholeness, sustaining narrative arcs, compelling a reader's interest for the duration of the text, and generating a sense of urgency and drama in the work. Please visit https://arts.columbia.edu/writing/undergraduate for information about registration procedures

WRIT UN3101 SENIOR FICTION WORKSHOP,Senior Fiction Workshop. 4.00,4 points .

Prerequisites: The department's permission required through writing sample. Please go to 609 Kent for submission schedule and registration guidelines or see http://www.arts.columbia.edu/writing/undergraduate. Prerequisites: The department's permission required through writing sample. Please go to 609 Kent for submission schedule and registration guidelines or see http://www.arts.columbia.edu/writing/undergraduate. Seniors who are majors in creative writing are given priority for this course. Enrollment is limited, and is by permission of the professor. The senior workshop offers students the opportunity to work exclusively with classmates who are at the same high level of accomplishment in the major. Students in the senior workshops will produce and revise a new and substantial body of work. In-class critiques and conferences with the professor will be tailored to needs of each student.,

Seniors who are majors in creative writing are given priority for this course.  Enrollment is limited, and is by permission of the professor.  The senior workshop offers students the opportunity to work exclusively with classmates who are at the same high level of accomplishment in the major.  Students in the senior workshops will produce and revise a new and substantial body of work.  In-class critiques and conferences with the professor will be tailored to needs of each student.

Fiction Seminars

WRIT UN2110 APPROACHES TO THE SHORT STORY. 3.00 points .

Prerequisites: No prerequisites. Department approval NOT required. The modern short story has gone through many transformations, and the innovations of its practitioners have often pointed the way for prose fiction as a whole. The short story has been seized upon and refreshed by diverse cultures and aesthetic affiliations, so that perhaps the only stable definition of the form remains the famous one advanced by Poe, one of its early masters, as a work of fiction that can be read in one sitting. Still, common elements of the form have emerged over the last century and this course will study them, including Point of View, Plot, Character, Setting and Theme. John Hawkes once famously called these last four elements the "enemies of the novel," and many short story writers have seen them as hindrances as well. Hawkes later recanted, though some writers would still agree with his earlier assessment, and this course will examine the successful strategies of great writers across the spectrum of short story practice, from traditional approaches to more radical solutions, keeping in mind how one period's revolution -Hemingway, for example - becomes a later era's mainstream or "commonsense" storytelling mode. By reading the work of major writers from a writer's perspective, we will examine the myriad techniques employed for what is finally a common goal: to make readers feel. Short writing exercises will help us explore the exhilarating subtleties of these elements and how the effects created by their manipulation or even outright absence power our most compelling fictions

WRIT UN3128 How to Write Funny. 3.00 points .

"Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall into an open sewer and die." --Mel Brooks "Comedy has to be based on truth. You take the truth and you put a little curlicue at the End." --Sid Caesar "Analyzing humor is like dissecting a frog. Few people are interested and the frog dies of it." --E.B. White "What is comedy? Comedy is the art of making people laugh without making them puke." --Steve Martin "Patty Marx is the best teacher at Columbia University." --Patty Marx One of the above quotations is false. Find out which one in this humor-writing workshop, where you will read, listen to, and watch comedic samples from well-known and lesser-known humorists. How could you not have fun in a class where we watch and critique the sketches of Monty Python, Nichols and May, Mr. Show, Mitchell ＆ Webb, Key and Peele, French and Saunders, Derrick Comedy, Beyond the Fringe, Dave Chappelle, Bob and Ray, Mel Brooks, Amy Schumer, and SNL, to name just a few? The crux of our time, though, will be devoted to writing. Students will be expected to complete weekly writing assignments; additionally, there will be in-class assignments geared to strategies for crafting surprise (the kind that results in a laugh as opposed to, say, a heart attack or divorce). Toward this end, we will study the use of irony, irreverence, hyperbole, misdirection, subtext, wordplay, formulas such as the rule of three and paraprosdokians (look it up), and repetition, and repetition

WRIT UN3125 APOCALYPSES NOW. 3.00 points .

From ancient myths of the world’s destruction to cinematic works that envision a post-apocalyptic reality, zealots of all kinds have sought an understanding of “the end of the world as we know it.”  But while apocalyptic predictions have, so far, failed to deliver a real glimpse of that end, in fiction they abound.  In this course, we will explore the narrative mechanisms by which post-apocalyptic works create projections of our own world that are believably imperiled, realistically degraded, and designed to move us to feel differently and act differently within the world we inhabit.  We will consider ways in which which authors craft immersive storylines that maintain a vital allegorical relationship to the problems of the present, and discuss recent trends in contemporary post-apocalyptic fiction.  How has the genre responded to our changing conception of peril?  Is literary apocalyptic fiction effective as a vehicle for persuasion and for showing threats in a new light?  Ultimately, we will inquire into the possibility of thinking beyond our present moment and, by doing so, altering our fate.

WRIT W3830 Fiction Seminar: Voices & Visions of Childhood. 3 points .

This course focuses on literature written for adults, NOT children's books or young-adult literature.

Prerequisites: No prerequisites. Department approval NOT required.

Flannery O'Connor famously said, "Anybody who has survived his childhood has enough information about life to last him the rest of his days."  A child's or youth's journey-- whether through ordinary, universal rites of passage, or through extraordinary adventure or trauma-- compels an adult reader (and writer) to (re)inhabit the world as both naif and nature's savant.  Through the knowing/unknowing eye of the child or adolescent, the writer can explore adult topics prismatically and poignantly -- "from the bottom up" -- via humor, terror, innocence, wonder, or all of the above.    In this course, we will read both long and short form examples of childhood and youth stories, examining in particular the relationships between narrator and character, character and world (setting), character and language and narrator and reader (i.e. "reliability" of narrator).  Students will write two papers.  Short scene-based writing assignments will challenge student writers to both mine their own memories for material and imagine voices/experiences far from their own.

WRIT UN3121 HOW TO BUILD A PERSON. 3.00 points .

Prerequisites: No prerequisites. Departmental approval NOT required. Prerequisites: No prerequisites. Departmental approval NOT required. Character is something that good fiction supposedly cannot do without. But what is a character, and what constitutes a supposedly good or believable one? Should characters be like people we know, and if so, how exactly do we create written versions of people? This class will examine characters in all sorts of writing, historical and contemporary, with an eye toward understanding just how characters are created in fiction, and how they come to seem real to us. Well read stories and novels; we may also look at essays and biographical writing to analyze where the traces of personhood reside. Well also explore the way in which these same techniques of writing allow us to personify entities that lack traditional personhood, such as animals, computers, and other nonhuman characters. Does personhood precede narrative, or is it something we bestow on others by allowing them to tell their story or by telling a story of our own creation on their behalf? Weekly critical and creative exercises will intersect with and expand on the readings and discussions

WRIT UN3132 THE ECSTASY OF INFLUENCE. 3.00 points .

What does it mean to be original? How do we differentiate plagiarism from pastiche, appropriation from homage? And how do we build on pre-existing traditions while simultaneously creating work that reflects our own unique experiences of the world? In a 2007 essay for Harper’s magazine, Jonathan Lethem countered critic Harold Bloom’s theory of “the anxiety of influence” by proposing, instead, an “ecstasy of influence”; Lethem suggested that writers embrace rather than reject the unavoidable imprints of their literary forbearers. Beginning with Lethem’s essay—which, itself, is composed entirely of borrowed (or “sampled”) text—this class will consider the nature of literary influence, and its role in the development of voice. Each week, students will read from pairings of older stories and novel excerpts with contemporary work that falls within the same artistic lineage. In doing so, we’ll track the movement of stylistic, structural, and thematic approaches to fiction across time, and think about the different ways that stories and novels can converse with one another. We will also consider the influence of other artistic mediums—music, visual art, film and television—on various texts. Students will then write their own original short pieces modeled after the readings. Just as musicians cover songs, we will “cover” texts, adding our own interpretive imprints

Nonfiction Workshops

WRIT UN1200 BEGINNING NONFICTION WORKSHOP. 3.00 points .

Prerequisites: No prerequisites. Department approval NOT required. The beginning workshop in nonfiction is designed for students with little or no experience in writing literary nonfiction. Students are introduced to a range of technical and imaginative concerns through exercises and discussions, and they eventually submit their own writing for the critical analysis of the class. Outside readings supplement and inform the exercises and longer written projects

WRIT UN2200 INTERMEDIATE NONFICTION WRKSHP. 3.00 points .

The intermediate workshop in nonfiction is designed for students with some experience in writing literary nonfiction. Intermediate workshops present a higher creative standard than beginning workshops and an expectation that students will produce finished work. Outside readings supplement and inform the exercises and longer written projects. By the end of the semester, students will have produced thirty to forty pages of original work in at least two traditions of literary nonfiction. Please visit https://arts.columbia.edu/writing/undergraduate for information about registration procedures

WRIT UN3200 ADVANCED NONFICTION WORKSHOP. 3.00 points .

Advanced Nonfiction Workshop is for students with significant narrative and/or critical experience. Students will produce original literary nonfiction for the workshop. This workshop is reserved for accomplished nonfiction writers and maintains the highest level of creative and critical expectations. Among the many forms that creative nonfiction might assume, students may work in the following nonfiction genres: memoir, personal essay, journalism, travel writing, science writing, and/or others. In addition, students may be asked to consider the following: ethical considerations in nonfiction writing, social and cultural awareness, narrative structure, detail and description, point of view, voice, and editing and revision among other aspects of praxis. A portfolio of nonficiton will be written and revised with the critical input of the instructor and the workshop. Please visit https://arts.columbia.edu/writing/undergraduate for information about registration procedures

WRIT UN3201 SENIOR NONFICTION WORKSHOP. 4.00 points .

Nonfiction Seminars

WRIT UN2211 TRADITIONS IN NONFICTION. 3.00 points .

Prerequisites: No prerequisites. Department approval NOT required. The seminar provides exposure to the varieties of nonfiction with readings in its principal genres: reportage, criticism and commentary, biography and history, and memoir and the personal essay. A highly plastic medium, nonfiction allows authors to portray real events and experiences through narrative, analysis, polemic or any combination thereof. Free to invent everything but the facts, great practitioners of nonfiction are faithful to reality while writing with a voice and a vision distinctively their own. To show how nonfiction is conceived and constructed, class discussions will emphasize the relationship of content to form and style, techniques for creating plot and character under the factual constraints imposed by nonfiction, the defining characteristics of each authors voice, the authors subjectivity and presence, the role of imagination and emotion, the uses of humor, and the importance of speculation and attitude. Written assignments will be opportunities to experiment in several nonfiction genres and styles

WRIT UN3214 HYBRID NONFICTION FORMS. 3.00 points .

Prerequisites: No prerequisites. Department approval NOT required. Prerequisites: No prerequisites. Department approval NOT required. Creative nonfiction is a frustratingly vague term. How do we give it real literary meaning; examine its compositional aims and techniques, its achievements and especially its aspirations? This course will focus on works that we might call visionary - works that combine art forms, genres and styles in striking ways. Works in which image and text combine to create a third interactive language for the reader. Works still termed fiction history or journalism that join fact and fiction to interrogate their uses and implications. Certain memoirs that are deliberately anti-autobiographical, turning from personal narrative to the sounds, sight, impressions and ideas of the writers milieu. Certain essays that join personal reflection to arts and cultural criticism, drawing on research and imagination, the vernacular and the formal, even prose and poetry. The assemblage or collage that, created from notebook entries, lists, quotations, footnotes and indexes achieves its coherence through fragments and associations, found and original texts

WRIT UN3215 ART WRITING FOR WRITERS. 3.00 points .

Prerequisites: No prerequisites. Department approval NOT required. Prerequisites: No prerequisites. Department approval NOT required. In this course, we will look at some of the most dynamic examples of "visual writing." To begin, we will look at writers writing about art, from the Romantic period through the present. The modes of this art writing we will consider include: the practice of ekphrasis (poems which address or derive their inspiration from a work of art); writers such as Ralph Ellison, Amiri Baraka, John Ashbery, and Eileen Myles, who for periods of their lives worked as art critics; writers such as Etel Adnan and Alexander Kulge, who have produced literature and works of art in equal measure; as well as numerous collaborations between writers and visual artists. We will also look at artists who have written essays and poetry throughout their careers, like artists Robert Smithson, Glenn Ligon, David Wojnarowicz, Moyra Davey, Paul Chan, and Hannah Black, as well as professional critics whose work has been elevated to the status of literature, such as Hilton Als, Janet Malcolm, and Susan Sontag. Lastly, we will consider what it means to write through a “milieu” of sonic and visual artists, such as those associated with Dada, the Harlem Renaissance, the New York School, and Moscow Conceptualism. Throughout the course, students will also be prompted to write with and about current art exhibitions and events throughout the city. They will produce original works in various of the modes described above and complete a final writing project that incorporates what they have learned

WRIT UN3217 SCIENCE AND SENSIBILITY. 3.00 points .

Writing about the natural world is one of the world's oldest literary traditions and the site of some of today's most daring literary experiments.  Known loosely as "science writing" this tradition can be traced through texts in myriad and overlapping genres, including poetry, explorer's notebooks, essays, memoirs, art books, and science journalism.  Taken together, these divers texts reveal a rich literary tradition in which the writer's sensibility and worldview are paramount to an investigation of the known and unknown.  In this course, we will consider a wide range of texts in order to map this tradition.  We will question what it means to use science as metaphor, explore how to write about science with rigor and commitment to scientific truth, and interrogate the fiction of objectivity. 

WRIT UN3224 Writing the Sixties. 3.00 points .

In this seminar, we will target nonfiction from the 1960s—the decade that saw an avalanche of new forms, new awareness, new freedoms, and new conflicts, as well as the beginnings of social movements and cultural preoccupations that continue to frame our lives, as writers and as citizens, in the 21st century: civil rights, feminism, environmentalism, LGBTQ rights, pop culture, and the rise of mass media. We will look back more than a half century to examine the development of modern criticism, memoir, reporting, and profile-writing, and the ways they entwine. Along the way, we will ask questions about these classic nonfiction forms: How do reporters, essayists, and critics make sense of the new? How do they create work as rich as the best novels and short stories? Can criticism rise to the level of art? What roles do voice, point-of-view, character, dialogue, and plot—the traditional elements of fiction—play? As we go, we will witness the unfolding of arguably the most transitional decade in American history—with such events as the Kennedy assassination, the Watts Riots, the Human Be In, and the Vietnam War, along with the rise of Pop art, rock ‘n’ roll, and a new era of moviemaking—as it was documented in real time by writers at The New Yorker, New Journalists at Esquire, and critics at Partisan Review and Harper’s, among other publications. Some writers we will consider: James Baldwin, Joan Didion, Susan Sontag, Rachel Carson, Dwight Macdonald, Gay Talese, Tom Wolfe, Truman Capote, Pauline Kael, Nik Cohn, Joseph Mitchell, Lillian Ross, Gore Vidal, Norman Mailer, Thomas Pynchon, John Updike, Michael Herr, Martha Gellhorn, John McPhee, and Betty Friedan. We will be joined by guest speakers

WRIT UN3225 LIFE STORIES. 3.00 points .

In this seminar, we will target nonfiction that tells stories about lives: profiles, memoirs, and biographies. We will examine how the practice of this kind of nonfiction, and ideas about it, have evolved over the past 150 years. Along the way, we will ask questions about these nonfiction forms: How do reporters, memoirists, biographers, and critics make sense of their subjects? How do they create work as rich as the best novels and short stories? Can criticism explicate the inner life of a human subject? What roles do voice, point-of-view, character, dialogue, and plot—the traditional elements of fiction—play? Along the way, we’ll engage in issues of identity and race, memory and self, real persons and invented characters and we’ll get glimpses of such key publications as The Atlantic Monthly, The New Yorker, Esquire, Harper’s, and The New York Review of Books. Some writers we will consider: Frederick Douglass, Louisa May Alcott, Walt Whitman, Henry Adams, Joseph Mitchell, Lillian Ross, James Agee, John Hersey, Edmund Wilson, Gore Vidal, Gay Talese, James Baldwin, Vladimir Nabokov, Janet Malcolm, Robert Caro, Joyce Carol Oates, Toni Morrison, Joan Didion, and Henry Louis Gates Jr. The course regularly welcomes guest speakers

WRIT UN3226 NONFICTION-ISH. 3.00 points .

This cross-genre craft seminar aims to uncover daring and unusual approaches to literature informed by nonfiction (and nonfiction-adjacent) practices. In this course we will closely read and analyze a diverse set of works, including Svetlana Alexievich’s oral history of women and war, Lydia Davis’s “found” microfictions, Theresa Hak Cha’s genre-exploding “auto-enthnography,” Alejandro Zambra’s unabashedly literary narratives, Sigrid Nunez’s memoir “of” Susan Sontag, Emmanuel Carrére’s “nonfiction novel,” John Keene’s bold counternarratives, W. G. Sebald’s saturnine essay-portraits, Saidiya Hartman’s melding of history and literary imagination, Annie Ernaux’s collective autobiography, Sheila Heti’s alphabetized diary, Ben Mauk’s oral history about Xinjiang detention camps, and Edward St. Aubyn’s autobiographical novel about the British aristocracy and childhood trauma, among other texts. We will also examine Sharon Mashihi’s one-woman autofiction podcasts about Iranian Jewish American family. What we learn in this course we will apply to our own work, which will consist of two creative writing responses and a creative final project. Students will also learn to keep a daily writing journal

Poetry Workshops

WRIT UN1300 BEGINNING POETRY WORKSHOP. 3.00 points .

Prerequisites: No prerequisites. Department approval NOT required. The beginning poetry workshop is designed for students who have a serious interest in poetry writing but who lack a significant background in the rudiments of the craft and/or have had little or no previous poetry workshop experience. Students will be assigned weekly writing exercises emphasizing such aspects of verse composition as the poetic line, the image, rhyme and other sound devices, verse forms, repetition, tone, irony, and others. Students will also read an extensive variety of exemplary work in verse, submit brief critical analyses of poems, and critique each others original work

WRIT UN2300 INTERMEDIATE POETRY WORKSHOP. 3.00 points .

Intermediate poetry workshops are for students with some prior instruction in the rudiments of poetry writing and prior poetry workshop experience. Intermediate poetry workshops pose greater challenges to students and maintain higher critical standards than beginning workshops. Students will be instructed in more complex aspects of the craft, including the poetic persona, the prose poem, the collage, open-field composition, and others. They will also be assigned more challenging verse forms such as the villanelle and also non-European verse forms such as the pantoum. They will read extensively, submit brief critical analyses, and put their instruction into regular practice by composing original work that will be critiqued by their peers. By the end of the semester each student will have assembled a substantial portfolio of finished work. Please visit https://arts.columbia.edu/writing/undergraduate for information about registration procedures

WRIT UN3300 ADVANCED POETRY WORKSHOP. 3.00 points .

This poetry workshop is reserved for accomplished poetry writers and maintains the highest level of creative and critical expectations. Students will be encouraged to develop their strengths and to cultivate a distinctive poetic vision and voice but must also demonstrate a willingness to broaden their range and experiment with new forms and notions of the poem. A portfolio of poetry will be written and revised with the critical input of the instructor and the workshop. Please visit https://arts.columbia.edu/writing/undergraduate for information about registration procedures

WRIT UN3301 SENIOR POETRY WORKSHOP. 4.00 points .

Prerequisites: The department's permission required through writing sample. Please go to 609 Kent for submission schedule and registration guidelines or see http://www.arts.columbia.edu/writing/undergraduate. Seniors who are majors in creative writing are given priority for this course. Enrollment is limited, and is by permission of the professor. The senior workshop offers students the opportunity to work exclusively with classmates who are at the same high level of accomplishment in the major. Students in the senior workshops will produce and revise a new and substantial body of work. In-class critiques and conferences with the professor will be tailored to needs of each student. Please visit https://arts.columbia.edu/writing/undergraduate for information about registration procedures

Poetry Seminars

WRIT UN2311 TRADITIONS IN POETRY. 3.00 points .

Prerequisites: No prerequisites. Department approval NOT required. Prerequisites: No prerequisites. Department approval NOT required. “For those, in dark, who find their own way by the light of others’ eyes.” —Lucie Brock-Broido The avenues of poetic tradition open to today’s poets are more numerous, more invigorating, and perhaps even more baffling than ever before. The routes we chose for our writing lead to destinations of our own making, and we take them at our own risk—necessarily so, as the pursuit of poetry asks each of us to light a pilgrim’s candle and follow it into the moors and lowlands, through wastes and prairies, crossing waters as we go. Go after the marshlights, the will-o-wisps who call to you in a voice you’ve longed for your whole life. These routes have been forged by those who came before you, but for that reason, none of them can hope to keep you on it entirely. You must take your steps away, brick by brick, heading confidently into the hinterland of your own distinct achievement. For the purpose of this class, we will walk these roads together, examining the works of classic and contemporary exemplars of the craft. By companioning poets from a large spread of time, we will be able to more diversely immerse ourselves in what a poetic “tradition” truly means. We will read works by Edmund Spencer, Dante, and Goethe, the Romantics—especially Keats—Dickinson, who is mother to us all, Modernists, and the great sweep of contemporary poetry that is too vast to individuate. While it is the imperative of this class to equip you with the knowledge necessary to advance in the field of poetry, this task shall be done in a Columbian manner. Consider this class an initiation, of sorts, into the vocabulary which distinguishes the writers who work under our flag, each of us bound by this language that must be passed on, and therefore changed, to you who inherit it. As I have learned the words, I have changed them, and I give them now to you so that you may pave your own way into your own ways, inspired with the first breath that brought you here, which may excite and—hopefully—frighten you. You must be troubled. This is essential

WRIT UN3319 POETICS OF PLACE:AMERICAN LANDSCAPES, VO. 3.00 points .

When the American Poet Larry Levis left his home in California’s San Joaquin Valley, “all [he] needed to do,” he wrote, “was to describe [home] exactly as it had been. That [he] could not do, for that [is] impossible. And that is where poetry might begin. This course will consider how place shapes a poet’s self and work. Together we will consider a diverse range of poets and the places they write out of and into: from Philip Levines Detroit to Whitmans Manhattan, from Robert Lowells New England to James Wrights Ohio, from the Kentucky of Joe Bolton and Crystal Wilkinson to the California of Robin Blaser and Allen Ginsberg, from the Ozarks of Frank Stanford to the New Jersey of Amiri Baraka, from the Pacific Northwest of Robinson Jeffers to the Alaska of Mary Tallmountain. We will consider the debate between T. S. Eliot and William Carlos Williams about global versus local approaches to the poem, and together we will ask complex questions: Why is it, for example, that Jack Gilbert finds his Pittsburgh when he leaves it, while Gerald Stern finds his Pittsburgh when he keeps it close? Does something sing because you leave it or because you hold it close? Do you come to a place to find where you belong in it? Do you leave a place to find where it belongs in you? As Carolyn Kizer writes in Running Away from Home, Its never over, old church of our claustrophobia! And of course home can give us the first freedom of wanting to leave, the first prison and freedom of want. In our reflections on each “place,” we will reflect on its varied histories, its native peoples, and its inheritance of violent conquest. Our syllabus will consist, in addition to poems, of manifestos and prose writings about place, from Richard Hugos Triggering Town to Sandra Beasleys Prioritizing Place. You will be encouraged to think about everything from dialect to economics, from collectivism to individualism in poems that root themselves in particular places, and you will be encouraged to consider how those poems “transcend” their origins. You will write response papers, analytical papers, and creative pieces, and you will complete a final project that reflects on your own relationship to place

WRIT UN3322 WASTE. 3.00 points .

What if we think of writing as waste management? “To find a form that accommodates the mess, that is the task of the artist now,” said Samuel Beckett then, famously, but: What does this mean? In this course, we will explore the many ways in which artists and writers have tried to answer this question, not only with waste as a figure for thought but as the concrete and recalcitrant reality of our being. Students will be asked to keep a notebook, with the instruction to keep everything that is for them a signature of thought. In this way, a pinecone or a piece of garbage is as much “writing” as anything else. Together, we will create an archive for the semester, of everything that is produced and/or consumed under this aegis of making. This class is designed to pose questions about form and the activity of writing and, in turn, the modes and methods of production not only as writers, but as persons. In addition to our weekly readings, we will be taking field trips throughout the city, convening with Freegan.info for a trash tour and meeting with the artist in residence at the Department of Sanitation, as well as hosting visitors for additional conversations over Zoom

WRIT UN3324 SENSORY POETICS. 3.00 points .

“A writer should have the precision of a poet and the imagination of a scientist” —Vladimir Nabokov “Every word was once an animal.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson How do writers use words to bring whole worlds to life in the senses? Sensory Poetics is a semester-long exploration of how this formal question has propelled the last 150 years of formally innovative poetry, manifestos and essays on craft. Here, we will read by critically and creatively responding to these texts with a single goal in mind: Borrow their methods to compose a dossier of writing that brings just one thing to life in the senses—any one thing—of your individual choosing. To that end, the semester is divided into 3 Labs that each isolate a different register of sensemaking: Sound, Image, and Line. For example, in the Sound Lab unit, you’ll respond to poems and essays by acoustic-centered poets like John Cage, Kamau Brathwaite and Gertrude Stein, transcribing the sound of your one thing, and writing a metered sonnet based on models from different periods and artistic contexts. To capture the look and logic of your one thing, further in you’ll read Surrealists like Aimé and Suzanne Césaire (for Image Lab), Kathy Acker’s cut-ups, and the psychedelic prose poems of Georges Perec and Yoko Ono (for Line Lab). Throughout, we’ll also read Raymond Queneau’s Exercises in Style, a book that is similarly a dossier of one thing written a hundred different ways. Class time focuses on close-reading and analyzing poems together. At the end of each of the three Labs, you’ll submit a portfolio which showcases and reflects on your favorite creative/critical writing generated during the unit. So, no matter how boring or inflexible your one thing may appear to you at any point, your only limits beyond this constraint—make a dossier on one thing—will merely be the finite plasticity of your own imagination, which luckily, readings in this course are curated to expand. This is a place to encounter, practice and experiment with new and exciting forms that broaden your repertoire for articulating your obsessions in ways that bring them to life in the ears, eyes and minds of your audience. Writers of all majors and levels welcome

WRIT UN3365 21STC AM POETRY ＆ ITS CONCERNS. 3.00 points .

The lyric has often been conceived of as timeless in its content and inwardly-directed in its mode of address, yet so many poems with lasting claim on our attention point unmistakably outward, addressing the particulars of their times. This course will examine the ways in which an array of 21st poets have embraced, indicted, and anatomized their cultural and historical contexts, diagnosing society’s ailments, indulging in its obsessions, and sharing its concerns. Engaging with such topics as race, class, war, death, trauma, feminism, pop culture and sexuality, how do poets adapt poetic form to provide meaningful and relevant insights without losing them to beauty, ambiguity, and music? How is pop star Rihanna a vehicle for discussing feminism and isolation? What does it mean to write about Black masculinity after Ferguson? In a time when poetry’s cultural relevancy is continually debated in academia and in the media, how can today’s poets use their art to hold a mirror to modern living? This class will explore how writers address present-day topics in light of their own subjectivity, how their works reflect larger cultural trends and currents, and how critics as well as poets themselves have reflected on poetry’s, and the poet’s, changing social role. In studying how these writers complicate traditional notions of what poetry should and shouldn’t do, both in terms of content and of form, students will investigate their own writing practices, fortify their poetic voices, and create new works that engage directly and confidently with the world in which they are written

WRIT UN3321 Ecopoetics. 3.00 points .

“There are things / We live among ‘and to see them / Is to know ourselves.’” George Oppen, “Of Being Numerous” In this class we will read poetry like writers that inhabit an imperiled planet, understanding our poems as being in direct conversation both with the environment as well as writers past and present with similar concerns and techniques. Given the imminent ecological crises we are facing, the poems we read will center themes of place, ecology, interspecies dependence, the role of humans in the destruction of the planet, and the “necropastoral” (to borrow a term from Joyelle McSweeney), among others. We will read works by poets and writers such as (but not limited to) John Ashbery, Harryette Mullen, Asiya Wadud, Wendy Xu, Ross Gay, Simone Kearney, Kim Hyesoon, Marcella Durand, Arthur Rimbaud, Geoffrey G. O’Brien, Muriel Rukeyser, George Oppen, Terrance Hayes, Juliana Spahr, and W.S. Merwin—reading several full collections as well as individual poems and essays by scholars in the field. Through close readings, in-class exercises, discussions, and creative/critical writings, we will invest in and investigate facets of the dynamic lyric that is aware of its environs (sound, image, line), while also exploring traditional poetic forms like the Haibun, ode, prose poem, and elegy. Additionally, we will seek inspiration in outside mediums such as film, visual art, and music, as well as, of course, the natural world. As a class, we will explore the highly individual nature of writing processes and talk about building writing practices that are generative as well as sustainable

Cross Genre Seminars

WRIT UN3010 SHORT PROSE FORMS. 3.00 points .

Note: This seminar has a workshop component.

Prerequisites: No Prerequisites. Department approval NOT required. Prerequisites: No Prerequisites. Department approval NOT required. Flash fiction, micro-naratives and the short-short have become exciting areas of exploration for contemporary writers. This course will examine how these literary fragments have captured the imagination of writers internationally and at home. The larger question the class seeks to answer, both on a collective and individual level, is: How can we craft a working definition of those elements endemic to short prose as a genre? Does the form exceed classification? What aspects of both crafts -- prose and poetry -- does this genre inhabit, expand upon, reinvent, reject, subvert? Short Prose Forms incorporates aspects of both literary seminar and the creative workshop. Class-time will be devoted alternatingly to examinations of published pieces and modified discussions of student work. Our reading chart the course from the genres emergence, examining the prose poem in 19th-century France through the works of Mallarme, Baudelaire, Max Jacob and Rimbaud. Well examine aspects of poetry -- the attention to the lyrical, the use of compression, musicality, sonic resonances and wit -- and attempt to understand how these writers took, as Russell Edson describes, experience [and] made it into an artifact with the logic of a dream. The class will conclude with a portfolio at the end of the term, in which students will submit a compendium of final drafts of three of four short prose pieces, samples of several exercises, selescted responses to readings, and a short personal manifesto on the short prose form

WRIT UN3011 TRANSLATION SEMINAR. 3.00 points .

Prerequisites: No prerequisites. Students do not need to demonstrate bilingual ability to take this course. Department approval NOT needed. Corequisites: This course is open to undergraduate & graduate students. Prerequisites: No prerequisites. Students do not need to demonstrate bilingual ability to take this course. Department approval NOT needed. Corequisites: This course is open to undergraduate ＆ graduate students. This course will explore broad-ranging questions pertaining to the historical, cultural, and political significance of translation while analyzing the various challenges confronted by the arts foremost practitioners. We will read and discuss texts by writers and theorists such as Benjamin, Derrida, Borges, Steiner, Dryden, Nabokov, Schleiermacher, Goethe, Spivak, Jakobson, and Venuti. As readers and practitioners of translation, we will train our ears to detect the visibility of invisibility of the translators craft; through short writing experiments, we will discover how to identify and capture the nuances that traverse literary styles, historical periods and cultures. The course will culminate in a final project that may either be a critical analysis or an original translation accompanied by a translators note of introduction

WRIT UN3018 Inhabiting Form: Writing the Body. 3.00 points .

The body is our most immediate encounter with the world, the vessel through which we experience our entire lives: pleasure, pain, beauty, horror, limitation, freedom, fragility and empowerment. In this course, we will pursue critical and creative inquiries into invocations and manifestations of the body in multiple genres of literature and in several capacities. We will look at how writers make space for—or take up space with—bodies in their work. The etymology of the word “text” is from the Latin textus, meaning “tissue.” Along these lines, we will consider the text itself as a body. Discussions around body politics, race, gender, ability, illness, death, metamorphosis, monstrosity and pleasure will be parallel to the consideration of how a text might function itself as a body in space and time. We will consider such questions as: What is the connective tissue of a story or a poem? What is the nervous system of a lyric essay? How is formal constraint similar to societal ideals about beauty and acceptability of certain bodies? How do words and language function at the cellular level to build the body of a text? How can we make room to honor, in our writing, bodies that have otherwise been marginalized? We will also consider non-human bodies (animals ＆ organisms) and embodiments of the supernatural (ghosts, gods ＆ specters) in our inquiries. Students will process and explore these ideas in both creative and analytical writings throughout the semester, deepening their understanding of embodiment both on and off the page

WRIT UN3031 INTRO TO AUDIO STORYTELLING. 3.00 points .

It’s one thing to tell a story with the pen. It’s another to transfix your audience with your voice. In this class, we will explore principles of audio narrative. Oral storytellers arguably understand suspense, humor and showmanship in ways only a live performer can. Even if you are a diehard writer of visually-consumed text, you may find, once the class is over, that you have learned techniques that can translate across borders: your written work may benefit. Alternatively, you may discover that audio is the medium for you. We will consider sound from the ground up – from folkloric oral traditions, to raw, naturally captured sound stories, to seemingly straightforward radio news segments, to highly polished narrative podcasts. While this class involves a fair amount of reading, much of what we will be studying and discussing is audio material. Some is as lo-fi as can be, and some is operatic in scope, benefitting from large production budgets and teams of artists. At the same time that we study these works, each student will also complete small audio production exercises of their own; as a final project, students will be expected to produce a trailer, or “sizzle” for a hypothetical multi-episode show. This class is meant for beginners to the audio tradition. There are some tech requirements: a recording device (most phones will suffice), workable set of headphones, and computer. You’ll also need to download the free audio editing software Audacity

WRIT UN3036 THE AESTHETIC EXPERIENCE. 3.00 points .

What is an aesthetic experience and what does it tell us about art or about ourselves? An aesthetic experience might be best initially defined as a subjective and often profound encounter with an object, artwork, or phenomenon that elicits a heightened sense of beauty, appreciation, or emotional response. It involves a deep engagement with the sensory, emotional, and intellectual aspects of the object of appreciation. Aesthetic experiences typically involve a sense of pleasure, contemplation, or emotional resonance, and they often transcend practical or utilitarian considerations. These experiences can encompass a wide range of phenomena, literature, natural landscapes, and even everyday objects when perceived with a heightened sense of awareness and appreciation. Aesthetic experiences are highly personal and can vary from person to person based on individual preferences, cultural backgrounds, and emotional responses. For me, an aesthetic experience is both mysterious and confounding—I’m impacted physically as much as it might mentally or emotionally. In the throes of an aesthetic experience, I might feel the small hairs on my arms or on the back of my neck stand up. I might feel nearly ill from a racing heart or my stomach turning. I might feel energized by new thoughts prompted by the experience or feel my heart swell in appreciation and awe. I might also feel a deep sense of recognition—one that connects me to the art object and its maker in a way that transcends time and place. But why do I feel this? Where does this feeling come from? What is really happening?? In this class, we’ll study this question on two levels: 1. A ‘theoretical’ level. Theorists, critics, and philosophers have long tried to understand what it means to have an aesthetic experience. Plato likened this experience to madness, Kant to the sublime; Tolstoy argued the aesthetic experience was a form of communication only accessible through engagement in art. Historians place aesthetic experience within the context of time and culture. We’ll study and discuss theories that have tried to define this mysterious phenomenon. 2. A ‘practical’ level. We’ll also read the work of writers who have puzzled through this question of the aesthetic experience by writing about their connection to a work or body of work by another artist. Often this involves a search to understand the self via the work of another artist. Books: Required books available at Book Culture on 112th Street and Broadway or in course reserves at Butler Library. Several readings will be available for free via our courseworks page. They are indicated on the syllabus as (CW)

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Undergraduate Overview

The undergraduate experience forms the heart of the Creative Writing Program. We offer nearly 100 courses a year, ranging from introductory workshops in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry to special projects, such as Novel Writing Intensive, Young Adult Fiction, Fiction into Film, and the Stanford Graphic Novel Project.

We host dozens of events, readings, and one-day workshops, giving students the opportunity to engage with published writers and explore their creativity beyond the classroom. Students looking to dive deep into creative writing can pursue capstone courses, such as the Levinthal Tutorials, advanced workshops, and courses with the Mohr Visiting Poet and Stein Visiting Writer.

Almost all our courses fulfill the Creative Expression (CE) Ways requirement . Additionally, we offer the 3-unit course Creative Expression in Writing , which not only fulfills the CE Ways requirement, but also provides students the chance to tap into their own creativity and experiment with the craft and adventure of their own writing.

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Our undergraduate program has 3 minor subplans:

• Fiction into Film

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English and Creative Writing

The Department of English offers the English major with a Creative Writing emphasis.

The Classroom and Beyond

From writing seminars to workshop series, we provide students with various opportunities to fine tune their craft and grow as writers.

If you have questions about the undergraduate program, there are several ways to get in touch:

Email us at creative1 [at] stanford.edu (creative1[at]stanford[dot]edu)

Meet with our Peer Advisors during their office hours

Or visit us in our main office: Margaret Jacks Hall (Building 460), Room 223

We look forward to connecting with you!

Recent Books by Former Undergraduate Students

All the Yellow Suns

Clues to the Universe

At Stanford, I have had the privilege to pursue independent studies, including the Levinthal Tutorial, with devoted and talented instructors that approached my work with critical generosity and improved my caliber of writing tenfold. Workshop classes like English 92 and 192 helped me meet other writers on campus and the creative spaces brought much-needed inspiration.

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Creative Writing

Creative Writing is the expression of one’s ideas, observations, and imagination through the genres of poetry and prose (including fiction and nonfiction). Students who pursue a B.A. with a concentration in Creative Writing or a minor in Creative Writing will work alongside award-winning faculty to learn the techniques of the craft, study published writers, create their own original work in a series of workshops, and craft courses designed to introduce students to the basics of each genre and allow for their individual growth as they advance in their practice.

Learn about our B.A. Creative Writing Concentration

Learn about our Creative Writing minor

Creative Writing faculty

The Creative Writing faculty is comprised of award-winning poets, playwrights, and fiction and nonfiction writers whose honors include fellowships from the Lannan and Guggenheim foundations, the NEA Literature Fellowship in Fiction, the Kingsley Tufts Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the U.S. Artists Simon Fellowship, and the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award. The faculty works closely with undergraduates and M.F.A. students in both creative writing workshops and traditional literature courses.

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• B.A., Creative Writing Concentration
• B.A., Cultural Studies Concentration
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• Minor, English
• Minor, Creative Writing
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The Creative Writing MFA program emphasizes the workshop, integrating concentrated time for writing with craft seminars and individualized reading tutorials.

The backbone of our undergraduate creative writing curriculum is a progressive sequence of writing classes and workshops, including introductory, intermediate, and advanced courses in poetry and fiction. Additional course offerings may include literature for poets and fiction writers, advanced fiction and poetry seminars, and nonfiction workshops.

Explore Creative Writing Courses

The University of Oregon course catalog offers degree plans and a complete list of courses for the Creative Writing Program.

Featured Courses

CRWR 413  Lit for Poets: Contemporary British and Irish Poetry

This course explores contemporary British and Irish poetry. We share with poets in the British Isles a history of poems written in English, though theirs exists within a longer tradition. Our goal in the course will be to learn something about this allied body of literature and to read capaciously—as writers, seeking new models and strategies—a group of poets whose work may charge our own. 

CRWR 330  Intermediate Poetry: Rhapsody & Restraint

Because of its music and brevity, lyric poetry is often regarded in terms of compression: weight is placed on each individual word in a line. But lyric poems are also feelingful, even lush. In this course we investigate poems that manifest a duality: a leaning toward radiant expression, ardent music; and a seemingly paradoxical insistence on restraint, subtlety, and the unsaid.

CRWR 407 Narrative Strategies for the Short Story The story form is nimble. A variety of writers from different backgrounds and traditions have left their mark on the form. We cannot conduct an exhaustive study of the form in one term, but we can isolate many of the main techniques story writers have used in their craft. We will model close reading of fictional texts by established writers. Our goal is to learn to read as writers, which means we learn to read from the point of view of literary craft. To this end, we will establish and utilize a literary vocabulary that will help us describe what we are reading. We will then discuss how to use what we have observed in our own stories.

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The English Major: Creative Writing Option

Note!  The requirements below took effect in Summer 2022 .  If you declared your major before then, please see the old requirements .  If you have questions about which version of the major applies to you, please contact HAS .

The Creative Writing Concentration prepares students not only to be more effective communicators and artists, but also creative problem solvers and more nuanced critical thinkers. By situating small, student-oriented writing workshops alongside literary models, Creative Writing classes enhance the broader study of literature and critical theory, helping students gain a greater understanding of the social and cultural forces informing their work. A student completing the program is more able to situate themselves in a larger aesthetic and social context and make more meaningful, informed decisions about their own artistic practice. In addition, through the intense practice of creative writing, students are able to see the world more clearly, in a more nuanced and meaningful manner, and apply these skills to a wide variety of work and life situations.

This page describes the English Major Concentration in Creative Writing. For the major's other option, see English Language, Literature, and Culture ,.

Students enrolled in the Creative Writing Concentration will complete a major consisting of 65 ENGL credits, at least 30 of which must be completed in residence at the University of Washington. A maximum of 20 credits in 200-level courses may count toward the English major, and may be used to fulfill the distribution requirements.

Creative writing students’ coursework is distributed as follows:

• ENGL 202: Introduction to English Language and Literature
• A sequence of creative writing workshops: ENGL 283: Beginning Verse Writing, ENGL 284: Beginning Short Story Writing, ENGL 383: The Craft of Verse, and ENGL 384: The Craft of Prose
• 15 credits in Historical Depth
• 15 credits in Power and Difference
• Two 400-level Creative Writing seminars ( Please see the  400-level Creative Writing workshop registration instruction page  for instructions on registering for these courses)

Please note: Creative writing students do *not* need to complete either ENGL 302 (satisfied by 383 & 384) or the senior capstone (satisfied by two 400-level CW classes), required for the major in Language, Literature, and Culture. All creative writing courses satisfy the Genre, Method, and Language distribution area, so Creative Writing students do not need to complete this area separately.

Applying to Creative Writing:

Applicants to the Creative Writing option must have already declared, or be eligible to declare, the English: Language and Literature major .

Applications for the Creative Writing option are accepted in autumn, winter, and spring quarters only, and should be submitted through this online application form   by the third Friday of the quarter at 4:00pm . Applications to creative writing are not accepted in summer quarter.

Eligibility Requirements

To be eligible to apply for the Creative Writing option, you must

• have already declared, or be ready to declare, the English major program ;
• have completed ENGL 202, 283 (beginning verse writing) and ENGL 284 (beginning short story writing) or transfer equivalents.

Application Procedure:

Please submit online ONE complete attachment that includes the items below, by 4:00pm on the third Friday of autumn, winter, or spring quarter (no applications accepted in summer):

1. Undergraduate Creative Writing Option Application (PDF)

RIGHT-click the above link and save it as a PDF to your computer. Fill out the form using Acrobat Reader. Save your changes. Then combine it with the following materials:

Transcripts for all college work completed, both at the UW and elsewhere (these are additional sets of transcripts, separate from the transcripts you will have supplied as part of your application for the major):

• Unofficial UW Transcript : Even if this is your first quarter after transferring to the UW, you should submit an unofficial UW transcript, available through the MyUW system ;
• Complete set of Unofficial transcripts from all schools from which you have transfer credit : We need the information contained in the complete transcript from each transfer school; the transfer summary on a UW unofficial transcript is not sufficient. Photocopies of transcripts are acceptable.

2. A Writing Sample of 3-5 poems and 5-10 pages of fiction (preferably a complete story). Fiction should be double-spaced, with 12pt font (Times New Roman) and 1" margins:

• Review writing sample guidelines and be sure to submit literary fiction and poetry
• Be sure to proofread carefully.

Admission decisions are based primarily on the potential a student exhibits in his or her writing sample - grades and GPAs are usually not at issue. Admission decisions are sent to applicants by e-mail, normally within two weeks of the application deadline.

Completion of the requirements above does not guarantee admission.

Students who are denied admission to the Creative Writing option will continue to be English majors, and may complete the requirements for the literature BA in English. They may apply for the Creative Writing option one additional time, but if they are denied admission then, they must complete the literature major or elect another major in another department.

Distribution Areas:

The majority of English courses are distributed among three overlapping areas: Historical Depth, Power & Difference, and Genre, Method, and Language. Creative Writing students are required to complete 15 credits in two of these areas, Historical Depth and Power & Difference, with the remainder of their coursework focusing on Creative Writing workshops. 

Some courses can count towards both "Historical Depth" or "Power & Difference"; however, each course can ultimately only be used to fulfill one requirement. For example, ENGL 351 is listed under both “Historical Depth” and “Power and Difference" but it will only count in one of those categories in a student's degree progress. The student may choose (and can change their mind, shuffling courses as long as they are enrolled).  Students noticing issues with how these classes are applying to the distribution areas in their degree audit can contact an advisor at   Humanities Academic Services Center  (HAS), A-2-B Padelford Hall  for support. 

Descriptions of each area, along with the courses fulfilling it, are available below. 

Historical Depth:

People have been speaking, reading, and writing in English for more than a thousand years, producing literature that is at once timeless and deeply informed by the time in which it was written. Cultural artifacts from the English-speaking world have shaped, and been shaped by, social movements and historical conditions around the globe, as has the language itself. With this in mind, English majors are required to take 15 credits focused on materials produced before 1945, with at least 5 of those credits focused on materials produced before 1700. Distributing coursework in this way helps students to understand the depth, richness, and variability of English literature, language, and culture across time, and dramatizes how the ways we organize history affect the stories we tell about it. These courses open up past worlds that are in some ways totally alien and in others very similar to our own, revealing that what seems real and true to us can radically alter over time. Entering into these past realities offers a new perspective on the present and develops our capacity to imagine alternative futures.

Historical Depth Courses:

• ENGL 210 Medieval and Early Modern Literature, 400 to 1600
• ENGL 211 Literature, 1500-1800
• ENGL 225 Shakespeare
• ENGL 310 The Bible as Literature
• ENGL 320 English Literature: The Middle Ages
• ENGL 321 Chaucer
• ENGL 322 Medieval & Early Modern Literatures of Encounter (P&D)
• ENGL 323 Shakespeare to 1603
• ENGL 324 Shakespeare after 1603
• ENGL 325 Early Modern English Literature
• ENGL 326 Milton (GML)
• ENGL 351: Writing in the Contact Zone: North America 1492 - 1800 (P&D)
• ENGL 376: Introduction to Middle English Language (HD)
• ENGL 422 Arthurian Legends (GML)
• ENGL 212 Literature, 1700-1900
• ENGL 300: Reading Major Texts (can also count as pre-1700 depending on texts)
• ENGL 303 History of Literary Criticism and Theory I (GML)
• ENGL 312 Jewish Literature: Biblical to Modern (P&D)
• ENGL 314: Transatlantic Literature and Culture (P&D)
• ENGL 315: Literary Modernism (GML)
• ENGL 327 Narratives of Bondage & Freedom (P&D)
• ENGL 328 Eighteenth Century Literature & Culture
• ENGL 329 Rise of the English Novel (GML)
• ENGL 330 English Literature: The Romantic Age
• ENGL 331 Globalization & Nationalism in the Age of Empire (P&D)
• ENGL 332 Nineteenth Century Poetry (GML)
• ENGL 333 Nineteenth Century Novel (GML)
• ENGL 335 English Literature: The Victorian Age
• ENGL 336 English Literature: Early Twentieth Century
• ENGL 337 The Modern Novel (GML)
• ENGL 338 Modern Poetry (GML)
• ENGL 352 Literatures of the United States to 1865 (P&D)
• ENGL 353 American Literature: Later Nineteenth Century
• ENGL 354 American Literature: Early Twentieth Century
• ENGL 373: History of the English Language (GML)
• ENGL 380: Special Topics in History
• ENGL 385: Global Modernism (P&D)

Power and Difference:

Literature, language, and culture have been shaped by and in turn shape systems of power. Such systems include capitalism, colonialism, imperialism, and hierarchies of race, status, caste, sex, gender, and sexuality. Over time, systems of power elevate some voices and stories and marginalize and silence others. English majors are required to take at least 15 credits focused on how systems of power operate in and through literature, language, and culture. These courses explore the evolving relationship of literature, language, and culture to structures of violence and dispossession and center critical perspectives that have been marginalized or silenced. They embrace alternative ways of learning about the past and present, and the impress of the former on the latter. They highlight the complex, sometimes contradictory ways in which literature and culture mediate systems of power. In so doing, Power and Difference courses foster our imagination of more just and equitable futures.

Power and Difference Courses:

• ENGL 207: Introduction to Cultural Studies (GML)
• ENGL 208: Data and Narrative (GML)
• ENGL 256: Introduction to Queer Cultural Studies (DIV) (GML)
• ENGL 257: Introduction to Asian American Literature (DIV)
• ENGL 258: Introduction to African American Literature (DIV)
• ENGL 259: Literature and Social Difference (DIV)
• ENGL 265: Introduction to Environmental Humanities (DIV, GML)
• ENGL 307: Cultural Studies
• ENGL 308: Marxism and Literary Theory
• ENGL 311: Modern Jewish Literature in Translation
• ENGL 312: Jewish Literature: Biblical to Modern (HD)
• ENGL 314: Transatlantic Literature and Culture (HD)
• ENGL 316: Postcolonial Literature and Culture (DIV)
• ENGL 317: Literature of the Americas (DIV)
• ENGL 318: Black Literary Genres (DIV, GML)
• ENGL 319: African Literatures (DIV)
• ENGL 322 Medieval & Early Modern Literatures of Encounter (HD)
• ENGL 327 Narratives of Bondage & Freedom (HD)
• ENGL 331 Globalization & Nationalism in the Age of Empire (HD)
• ENGL 339: Globalization & Contemporary World Literature (GML)
• ENGL 340: Irish Literature (P&D)
• ENGL 349: Science Fiction & Fantasy
• ENGL 351: Writing in the Contact Zone: North America 1492 - 1800 (HD)
• ENGL 352: American Literatures to 1865 (HD)
• ENGL 355: Contemporary American Literature
• ENGL 357: Jewish American Literature and Culture (DIV)
• ENGL 358: African American Literature (DIV)
• ENGL 359: Contemporary American Indian Literature (DIV)
• ENGL 361: American Political Culture After 1865 (DIV)
• ENGL 362: Latino Literary Genres (DIV, GML)
• ENGL 364: Literature & Medicine
• ENGL 365: Literature & Environment (GML, DIV)
• ENGL 366: Literature & Law
• ENGL 367: Gender Studies in Literature (DIV)
• ENGL 368: Women Writers (DIV)
• ENGL 372: World Englishes (DIV) (GML)
• ENGL 379: Special Topics in Power & Difference
• ENGL 385: Global Modernism (HD)
• ENGL 386: Asian American Literature (DIV)
• ENGL 466: Queer and LGBT Literature (DIV)
• ENGL 478: Language and Social Policy (DIV) (GML)
• ENGL 479: Language Variation and Language Policy in North America (DIV, GML)
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Creative Writing Program

THE PROGRAM

  The Creative Writing Program offers undergraduate writers a focused, adventurous experience in creative expression. The Program’s nationally recognized, award-winning faculty teach a wide variety of courses on genre-specific craft across fiction, poetry, play-writing and creative non-fiction. As practicing writers, the program’s faculty lead students in conversations with the some of the most innovative and culturally responsive contemporary writers who visit classes, facilitate generative writing sessions, and offer literary readings and interdisciplinary performances. We also offer courses on the history and practice of literary editing and publishing, along with a range of professionalizing events focused on industry practices and careers for those interested creative writing.    

In our program, self-expression lives alongside political expression. We view writing both as a tool of personal inquiry and growth, and as a tool for critical investigation and literary analysis.  We celebrate a diverse array of social functions for literary practices and affirm that the cultural purpose of literature evolves with an emerging generation of writers, in which we include our students. We welcome writers at all levels of experience, who practice and live within many languages, and who aspire to literary genealogies & traditions on their own terms. In the Program’s classes and culture, creative expression is understood to be a living entity and a practice of global citizenship that includes all of us.   

Our program celebrates writing within and outside the classroom. We facilitate field trips to regional galleries and festivals, and are honored to house the MSU Creative Writing Club, led by students. We are also the home of Red Cedar Review, one of the oldest student-managed literary journals in the United States. 

BA in English with CW Concentration

Minor in Creative Writing

Graduate Program in Creative Writing

Master of Arts in Creative Writing, Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing

Master of Arts, Master of Fine Arts

Genre Fiction, Nature Writing, Poetry, Publishing, Screenwriting – an advanced degree in any of our five areas of creative writing provides you the opportunity to hone your craft, elevate your art, and inspire the world. Join our welcoming and inclusive community and become the writer you are meant to be. To learn more about our program directly from our faculty and students, check out our program video .

Program Overview

Pursue your dream of becoming a published author.

If you’re looking to get serious about your writing and you’re eager to join a thriving and diverse community of writers, then you’ll find your niche in Western Colorado University’s Graduate Program in Creative Writing. Our five innovative areas of study—Genre Fiction, Nature Writing, Poetry, Publishing, and Screenwriting—offer cutting-edge courses, and our dedicated faculty of award-winning writers will ensure that you achieve your full potential as a writer.

Our low-residency model makes a graduate education accessible. During the academic year, students work closely with faculty and fellow students through videoconferencing and online courses. Each summer, all students take intensive courses that culminate in a one-week residency on Western’s beautiful campus in late July. These residencies are packed full of exciting courses, inspirational workshops and lively social events.

Sharing work in community

Screenwriting student Tia Phillip giving a reading at the 2023 Open-Mic Night

Faculty & Staff

Kevin j. anderson, mfa.

Director, Publishing Concentration

Byron Aspaas, MFA

Poetry Faculty

Karen Auvinen, Ph.D.

Nature Writing Faculty

Claire Boyles, M.A.

Screenwriting and Nature Writing Faculty

Steve Coughlin, MFA

Professor of English

Julie E. Czerneda

Genre Fiction Thesis Mentor

Amy Fox, MFA

Screenwriting Faculty

CMarie Fuhrman, MFA

Associate Director; Director, Poetry Concentration; Faculty, Nature Writing Concentration

Geoff Geib, MFA

Gwyneth gibby, m.a..

Publishing Faculty

Sarah Goettsch

Graduate Program in Creative Writing Coordinator

Carol D. Guerrero-Murphy, Ph.D.

Tyson hausdoerffer, ph.d..

Director, Graduate Program in Creative Writing

Mitali Jahagirdar, MFA

Tenea d. johnson, m.a., julie kane, ph.d., lindsay king-miller, mfa.

Thesis Mentor

Gary Lilley

Allyson longueira, m.a., js mayank, mfa.

Interim Director of Screenwriting

Cameron McGill, MFA

Candace nadon, ph.d..

Genre Fiction Faculty

Johanna Parkhurst, M.A.

Director, Genre Fiction Concentration

Laura Pritchett, Ph.D.

Director, Nature Writing Concentration

Laura Resau, M.A.

Nature Writing/Genre Fiction Faculty

Ligiah Villalobos Rojas, MFA

Liz sczudlo.

Screenwriting Thesis Consultant

Andrew Sellon, MFA

GPCW Faculty, Performance Coach

Derek Sheffield, MFA

Ana maria spagna, mfa, anna stileski, m.a..

Executive Assistant

Richard Wilber, Ed.D.

Genre Fiction Faculty, Graduate Thesis Coordinator

Maya Jewell Zeller, MFA

Nature Writing and Poetry Faculty

Laura Pritchett

Laura Pritchett, who directs the MFA with a concentration in Nature Writing, has two novels coming out in 2024, and they could not be more different.

Ligiah Villalobos Rojas

Melissa Dalton-Martinez

Lara Richardson

Take the first steps toward your academic and personal growth..

Fostering your intellectual development is the primary focus of every academic program at Western. Our professors and Office of Career Services will help you identify your strengths, hone your skills, define your goals, and prepare for a fulfilling and enriched life after graduation.

News & Research

Western’s MFA Director Laura Pritchett’s latest novel is born from a world on fire

Western Earns Accreditation from the Higher Learning Commission

Western Poetry Faculty Member Chosen for Prestigious Poetry Prize

Teaching into the Firetower

Western’s CMarie Fuhrman Releases New Anthology & Public Radio Podcast

Nature Writing and Western Press Books to Produce Inaugural Book

Renown Author Karen Auvinen to Join Western Faculty

Western Instructor Named to Top Writer’s Honor

Graduate Program Pushes Caps on Enrollment During Pandemic

Western Professor Named to Authors’ Hall of Fame

Additional resources, admission requirements & application.

Western’s Graduate Program in Creative Writing considers applications in four waves throughout the year: Early Admissions, from July 1 through November …

Tuition & Fees

Full-time enrollment in the MFA extends over 25 months, spanning four non-residency semesters and three Summer Residencies. Students may also attend half-time or take a leave of …

Scholarships & Financial Aid

The GPCW is deeply committed to raising funds to support our students. Each year we offer substantial direct-funding scholarships. The GPCW is currently …

Summer Residency

The highlight of our academic year is the Summer Residency, held each July on Western’s beautiful campus in Gunnison, Colorado.

How can a low-residency format create a sense of community among students and faculty?…

Publications

Publications in the Creative Writing Graduate Program Explore the publications below to discover the depth and breadth of Western’s Graduate Program in Creative Writing: Think Journal Christine …

GPCW Mission, Indigenous Commitment and DEIA+ Statements

The Graduate Program in Creative Writing at Western Colorado University seeks to create transformative learning experiences for our students, built from a strong foundation that honors our students’ unique voices and is supported within inclusive environments established both virtually and at yearly residency gatherings.

Learn More about the GPCW

Interested in learning more about the Graduate Program in Creative Writing? There’s no better way to get to know our program than through the voices of our faculty and students. Tune in to watch this informational video about everything you’ll look forward to as a student in our program.

Related Programs

Genre Fiction

Master of Arts | Master of Fine Arts

Graduate Program in Creative Writing (GPCW) 3+2

Accelerated Degree Programs

Nature Writing

Master of Arts

Screenwriting

Department information, associate director, program coordinator, contact information.

970.943.2014

[email protected]

Campus Location

Western Colorado University Quigley Hall 117 1 Western Way Gunnison, CO 81231

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Creative writing courses

Studying creative writing at university, example course modules.

• Thinking about literature
• Writing the short story
• Screenwriting
• Writing comedy
• Writing modern drama
• Literary aesthetics
• Writing for the media
• Poetry for page and stage
• Short stories
• Travel writing

Teaching hours / week

Average for this subject

Average for all subjects

Average hours for this subject: 9 (Low N/A - High N/A). Average hours for all subjects: 14.

The time you'll spend in lectures and seminars each week will vary from university to university, so use this as a guide.

Who studies this subject

• Female : 69% Male : 31%
• Mature : 41% School leaver : 59%
• Full-time : 73% Part-time : 27%

What students say about creative writing

Academic experience.

Creative writing is a subject that seems like a laidback one - a bit of story writing and you're done, easy, right? - but it's not. You need to be hardworking, creative (obviously!) and involved. Stories may rather easily come to mind, but it takes time, effort and skill to put pen to paper and create what is in your mind - and even then, you'll hate a lot of what you've written and want to start again. Creative writing is a subject that requires a lot of effort and input, it requires you to get involved in class and share your work and ideas, because you never know where someone's feedback will lead you. Ultimately, though, when you finally get that 'bit of story writing' spot on and just how you like it, the effort is all worth it. Especially if your grades reflect your work!

The content of the course is tailored towards improving you as a writer, not telling how to write or imposing how/ what they think you should be writing, but encouraging your own creativity and helping you build upon your 'writer's toolbox'. The type of work we usually do is creative exercises, during which we are often given a task in small groups to create an idea, for example, one group might be given the task of creating a world for a story, then another might be given the task of creating characters, and another group given the task of creating a storyline guiding the character through the world. Exercises such as this help develop a writer's ability to create and adapt their own ideas and techniques whilst learning what others might do in the same situation.

On the creative writing course we are asked to do weekly assignments; these are signed each week as proof that they have been completed. They are added to our portfolio which is marked at the end of semester along with our essays. There are no exams. In year 1 and 2 we also work in group presentations. There is a wide variety of modules to choose from in different writing areas, which helps to expand our knowledge of what we would like to specialise in. There are opportunities to perform our work and also submit it to the university's publications. These are student-run with the support of tutors.

What you need to get on a course

Subjects you need.

A-levels (or equivalent) usually required

• No Specific Requirements

Useful to have

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Here's a guide to what to expect from the application process - also check individual university entry requirements, as these may differ.

• January application
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Personal statement advice

Your personal statement is a core part of your university application, and getting it just right takes time. Before you start work on yours, take a look at our five quick tips on writing a personal statement. We'll help you past that writer's block!

Career prospects

Six months after graduating.

• Sales assistants and retail cashiers

Longer term career paths

Jobs where this degree is useful.

• Public relations officer

Other real-life job examples

• Stage director
• Press officer
• Web content manager

What employers like about this subject

Creative writing students can learn a range of subject-specific skills including a grounding in the technique and forms of creative writing; how to develop ideas in writing and the principles of writing for different audiences from theatre to online. Transferable skills you can develop include first-rate communication skills, project management, team-working, self-motivation and time management. Creative writing graduates find jobs in publishing, education, advertising, TV and film and the performing arts.

Explore these related courses...

Related subjects to explore

Drama and theatre studies, english language and literature, photography and film, media studies.

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93 universities offer 346 undergraduate courses

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104 - 136 UCAS points

Creative Writing League Table

136 - 136 UCAS points

University of Warwick

144 - 144 UCAS points

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Studying Creative Writing

Search through undergraduate Communication and Media degree courses to see what’s available from UK universities. Each page should give you an insight into what the course might be like, along with information on entry requirements, UCAS points and university league table performance.A degree in Communication and Media will give you the knowledge and skills required for a career in the media industry. Courses have an interdisciplinary approach where you think critically about the press, film, broadcasting, digital media, advertising and other areas. You’ll learn how to be flexible, adaptable and critical, and potentially gain valuable experience through industry work placements.

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Creative Writing courses

Whether you’re looking to develop your own writing skills and editorial practice for your profession or for purely personal interest, our creative writing courses have much to offer you. Choose below from our range of qualifications.

Creative Writing Degrees  Degrees Also known as an undergraduate or bachelors degree. Internationally respected, universally understood. An essential requirement for many high-level jobs. Gain a thorough understanding of your subject – and the tools to investigate, think critically, form reasoned arguments, solve problems and communicate effectively in new contexts. Progress to higher level study, such as a postgraduate diploma or masters degree.

• Credits measure the student workload required for the successful completion of a module or qualification.
• One credit represents about 10 hours of study over the duration of the course.
• You are awarded credits after you have successfully completed a module.
• For example, if you study a 60-credit module and successfully pass it, you will be awarded 60 credits.

How long will it take?

Creative Writing Diplomas  Diplomas Widely recognised qualification. Equivalent to the first two thirds of an honours degree. Enhance your professional and technical skills or extend your knowledge and understanding of a subject. Study for interest or career development. Top up to a full honours degree in just two years.

Creative writing certificates  certificates widely recognised qualification. equivalent to the first third of an honours degree. study for interest or career development. shows that you can study successfully at university level. count it towards further qualifications such as a diphe or honours degree., why study creative writing with the open university.

Since 2003, over 50,000 students have completed one of our critically acclaimed creative writing modules. 

The benefits of studying creative writing with us are:

• Develops your writing skills in several genres including fiction, poetry, life writing and scriptwriting.
• Introduces you to the world of publishing and the requirements of professionally presenting manuscripts.
• Online tutor-group forums enable you to be part of an interactive writing community.
• Module workbooks are widely praised and used by other universities and have attracted worldwide sales.

Careers in Creative Writing

Studying creative writing will equip you with an adaptable set of skills that can give entry to a vast range of occupations. You’ll learn to evaluate and assimilate information in constructing an argument as well as acquiring the skills of creative and critical thinking that are much in demand in the workplace.

Our range of courses in creative writing can help you start or progress your career in:

• Arts, creative industries, culture and heritage
• Advertising, marketing, communications and public relations
• Journalism and publishing
• Public administration, civil service and local government

Looking for something other than a qualification?

The majority of our modules can be studied by themselves, on a stand-alone basis. If you later choose to work towards a qualification, you may be able to count your study towards it.

See our full list of Creative Writing modules

All Creative Writing courses

Browse all the Creative Writing courses we offer – certificates, diplomas and degrees.

See our full list of Creative Writing courses

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CREEES Professional Resources Forum

Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies at The University of Texas at Austin

Grad Program: MA in Creative Writing in Russian (Moscow)

Application opens February 2019

For fiction/non-fiction writers in Russian.

MA “Creative Writing”  is:

• Practical and theoretical/historical courses, such as  Creative Writing Workshop ,  Storytelling in Different Media ,  Literary Editing , Poetics of Novel and Screenwriting ;
• Unique professors and teachers, among them famous Russian writers, screenwriters and critics –  Marina Stepnova ,  Lyudmila Ulitskaya ,  Lev Danilkin ,  Sergey Gandlevsky  and  Maya Kucherskaya  as well as prominent philologists, authors of academic and non-fiction books  Oleg Lekmanov ,  Ekaterina Lyamina  and  Alexey Vdovin ;
• Participation in open readings, discussions and  literary expeditions ,  publications in students’ projects ;
• International exchange  – lectures and workshops of the leading specialists in Creative Writing, students’ exchange in the best world universities;
•  Help and support in the process of  employment  in various publishing houses, editorials, Mass Media, high schools and universities and PR;
• Creation and participation in  cultural projects ;
• Flexible timetable  enabling students to work while studying.

Our graduates already work in the best publishing houses, universities and schools in Moscow. Their writing is published in the authoritative literary magazines. Their projects (such as prize  “_Litblog”  for the best literary blogger and first Creative Writing Internet resource in Russian  “Mnogobukv” and collections of prose) have gained much attention.

Language of instruction: Russian

You can apply to non-paid place as a foreign student in February. Looking forward to seeing you at Higher School of Economics!

More information about the programme:  https://www.hse.ru/en/ma/litmaster

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