CW Undergraduate Program
The creative writing major is 30 credits and combines a grounding in literary study with a workshop-style focus on writing. Students will learn to effectively use language to create complex and emotionally powerful experiences in the form of stories, poetry, and creative nonfiction. Coursework will include literature, creative writing workshops and craft classes. Creative writing workshops focus on the students’ own creative work, while craft classes such as Reading and Writing Poetry and Fairytales in Fiction are classes where students “read like writers” – learning craft and literary techniques from the work of established writers. The creative writing minor requires students to take 18 credits of craft classes and creative writing workshops.
Students in the B.A. program can utilize myriad creative writing resources, including the well-established Raymond Carver Reading Series, opportunities to meet with visiting writers and highly talented graduate students who will help guide undergraduates, and an undergraduate creative writing club called “Write Out.”
First-year students can also choose to live in the Creative Writing Learning Living Community (LLC), where they can meet fellow students and create friendships, network with faculty and established authors through public readings and LLC dinners, and explore their passion for reading and writing poetry, fiction, graphic novels, creative nonfiction or any other types of writing.
B.A. in Creative Writing
The Creative Writing Major in the English and Textual Studies Department is designed for students who have an intense interest in cultivating the skills, knowledge and inventiveness needed to write creative nonfiction, fiction, and poetry. This 30-credit major combines a grounding in literary study with a workshop-style focus on writing. Students will learn to use language to create complex and emotionally powerful work. Required classes include literature classes, and creative writing workshops and craft classes in at least two genres. It is our belief that all writers need to be readers. To that end, the classes, even the workshops, balance reading historical and contemporary literature with the practice of writing.
Minor in Creative Writing
The Creative Writing Minor in the English Department is designed for students who have an interest in developing their skills as writers and readers of creative nonfiction, fiction, and poetry but need to fulfill the requirements of other majors. Students will take a series of six creative writing classes in order to learn to think as writers do, to understand the aesthetic and moral choices writers confront as they write, and become familiar with contemporary writing practices. Through a mix of workshop, imitation classes and a topics course, students will have ample opportunity for frequent and extensive writing and rewriting under the guidance of the distinguished faculty of the nationally ranked MFA in Creative Writing.