An Overview of Creative Writing
The Creative Writing track of the English major is designed for students who have a special interest in developing their skills as readers and writers of either poetry or fiction. The structure of the track is based on two beliefs held by the department. First, we believe that students who are serious about writing poetry or fiction must also be serious about reading and studying literature. Good writers have always cared deeply about and learned from the best that has been written in the past. For this reason, students who choose the Creative Writing track are required to satisfy most of the requirements of the English major. Second, we believe that students who write poetry and fiction can benefit from close involvement with others engaged in the same effort. Therefore, the Creative Writing track allows for students to read, critique, and nurture each other's work, and to meet occasionally with the published poets and fiction writers who are a part of our annual Visiting Writers Series. The Creative Writing track is demanding and rigorous, designed for a small but serious community of undergraduate writers.
Aims of the Program
Students with a special interest in developing their skills at writing either poetry or fiction do an English major with a special Creative Writing track. The structure of this track is based on two beliefs that the department holds:
First, it believes that students who are serious about writing poetry or fiction must also be serious about reading and studying literature; good writers have always cared deeply about, formed their standards on, and tested their ideas against the best that has been written in the past. For this reason, students who choose the Creative Writing track are required to satisfy most of the same requirements that other English majors must satisfy, particularly the distribution requirements for the study of literature from many different periods and from diverse cultures.
Secondly, the department believes that students who write poetry and fiction can benefit from close involvement with other students engaged in the same effort, from reading and criticizing one another’ s work, discussing their common problems, providing help and encouragement for one another. The Creative Writing track allows for much of this kind of mutual involvement.
In addition to departmental requirements, a course in another arts discipline is required of Creative Writing students, to open up possibilities for interdisciplinary work, and because work in a different discipline can help students develop a stronger sense of their own creative processes.
It should be pointed out that the English major with Creative Writing emphasis is arduous. It requires more courses and a greater commitment of time, both in and out of the classroom, than the regular English major.
Because of scheduling limitations on the part of the faculty, it is necessary to limit the enrollment in this track of the major to 16 students per year. Interested students must apply no later than Block Five of the junior year. Decisions will be made by the Creative Writing faculty.
Program Description
Students specialize in one genre, poetry or fiction. Students interested in the Creative Writing track need to have taken or be enrolled in the beginning creative writing course in the chosen genre (282 or 283) by Block 5 of the junior year. During Block 5, interested students may apply for the Creative Writing track; in Block 6, the faculty make decisions based on students’ work in the beginning course. Eight students are accepted in each genre. Once accepted, those students attend an organizational meeting and the Senior Reading series in Blocks 7 and/or 8.
In the senior year, students take an advanced Creative Writing workshop in Block 1, during which they develop a plan for the Senior Project, as well as writing new poems and stories. Writers enroll in the Senior Seminar for Blocks 6 and 7; Block 7 is dedicated to the completion of a senior thesis: a substantial collection of poems or short stories, or a novella. In Block 8, students give readings from their finished project.
Students specialize in either poetry or fiction and take all the required Creative Writing courses in the same genre.
1. English 282: Beginning Poetry Writing or English 283: Beginning Fiction Writing. (Consent of Instructor required.)
2. In spring of Junior year: attendance at Senior Reading Series.
3. English 308: Advanced Poetry Workshop or English 309: Advanced Fiction Workshop. (Prerequisite: Admission to Creative Writing track.)
4. English 480: Senior Seminar: Writing Workshop.
RECOMMENDED: It is recommended that students interested in specializing in fiction for the track take English 211: Fiction before taking Beginning Fiction Writing. Students interested in specializing in poetry must take the required English 221: Poetry before Beginning Poetry Writing.
OTHER REQUIRED ENGLISH COURSES:
1. Period courses: one departmental 300- or 400-level course in each of these categories, but any one of these requirements may be fulfilled with a 200-level course:
- Middle Ages and Renaissance, excluding Shakespeare
- Shakespeare
- 18th Century and English Romantics, 1660-1830
- 19th Century, 1830-1914
2. English 221: Introduction to Poetry
3. English 250: Introduction to Literary Theory or Comparative Literature 210
4. Prose Fiction
5. Alternative Literature (minority, non-western, or women’ s literature)
REQUIRED COURSE OUTSIDE DEPARTMENT:
1 course in another art discipline (e.g. studio art, drama, dance, photography)
Students may count no more than two units of summer independent reading in fulfilling their English major requirements. Distinction in English is awarded at graduation to senior majors who have done outstanding academic work in department courses.
