creative writing usc undergraduate

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Suggested search, undergraduate, about the undergraduate program.

We offer a broad range of courses in English, American and Anglophone literature of all periods and genres, but also in related areas such as creative and expository writing, literature and visual arts, ethnic literature and cultural studies, the history of the English language and of literary criticism, and literary and cultural theory.

Class sizes are kept at 19 to enable full discussion (12 in creative writing workshops). Instructors assign extensive reading and writing in order to help students become perceptive readers, critical thinkers and strong writers. Our literature and creative writing courses reinforce one another, and we counsel students to take classes in both areas.

We have nearly 40 full-time  faculty   and they are always available for  advisement . Many share appointments in other departments and can help guide you beyond our department and beyond USC.

We believe in the value of study abroad and will help you to find programs that are right for you. Students who wish to go beyond our regular courses of study can apply for our  Honors Program , and we honor excellent work in English with our extensive program of  prizes and awards . We run innovative  Maymester  programs in literature and creative writing, and our undergraduate associations provide ways for students to share interests in small settings.

Learning objectives for the English major

A student with a major in English should graduate with an appreciation for

• the relations between representation and the human soul
• the relations between words and ideas
• the social utility of a sophisticated understanding of discourse

Representation and the Human Soul

On one level, stories are fun to tell and hear, to read and write, and Aristotle claims in the  Poetics  that through this natural process humans learn to become human. But he also says that artistic fictions are more philosophical than history. They tell us more than how or why things are; they tell us what could be or should be, and are infused with moral purpose even when they claim not to be. They are invitations to live other lives—both in time and place—to test attitudes and understandings that are beyond our own immediate experience.

The resulting flexibility of mind and soul will help students find their own paths in a world yet unknown. Engaging with complex literatures prepares them for understanding complex lives. We expect our students:

– to understand the major representations in English discourse from earliest beginnings to the current moment; all literatures exist in conversation with earlier literatures;

– to get out of their own skins and feel the experiences of others, both by engaging in literatures and by their own efforts to create new literatures;

– to understand how periods and cultural intentions and literary genres differ from one another;

– to realize that we must understand others as we would be understood;

– to concentrate in one or more periods or genres so that they understand in depth just how complex are the relations between a culture and its representations;

– to grasp the skills and theories of interpretation, along with the history of our own discipline;

– to see how interpretive interests shift with time and place.

Words and Ideas

Ideas may finally be more important than words, but words are the pathway to ideas, and they are part of the joy of being human. When words are manipulated in ways unanticipated, they lead to ideas unanticipated. We still have no reliable ways to teach students to generate new ideas, but we have very reliable ways of teaching how to control and shape language—and how to recognize the ways that language has been controlled and shaped. We expect our students:

– to learn these ways with language and representation;

– to hear and practice our different languages in English for a lifetime of new ideas;

– to exercise their own skills in writing;

– to study six-hundred years of the history of creative writing.

Social Utility

All writing is creative writing, with extensive relations between English and other disciplines, and one Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court has said that the best undergraduate preparation for a legal career is the study of poetry. Both disciplines

– are primarily activities of interpretation;

– attend to linguistic details of semantics, phrasing, and structure;

– assume there are reasonable alternative understandings of a text;

– adjudicate their differences through arguments that must directly engage their counter-arguments;

– construct discourses that must be compelling to a neutral third party.

Some of our English majors may have careers in law, but most will have lives in very different areas calling for the same skills in discourse, civil argument, and civic engagement. We cannot and should not say what those careers will be; we train students for jobs that have not yet been invented.

Assessment of objectives

Assessment of these three learning objectives reflects the fact that literature is a way of knowing, rather than a gathering of information or theories. We prefer the intense engagement of seminars and small classes to the inevitable asymmetry of large lectures. Students cannot hide; they are under the immediate supervision of faculty. We monitor student progress through close encounter, oral presentation, and the continual exchange of written work both with faculty and among peers (particularly in creative writing workshops). We experiment with lectures where appropriate, but in general find that for freshmen and sophomores small classes provide the best introduction to rigorous argument and the testing of understandings in language. We have explored capstone classes, but have found that the small classes currently required of all our juniors and seniors serve the same purpose more efficiently and with greater variety. As our department and university move toward greater interdisciplinary work, the prospect of a coherent capstone administered by any one department seems less likely.

Every fall we offer two seminars in literary theory that are open to any senior, and required of any senior hoping to advance to our Senior Honors Thesis in the spring. These seminars are based on current research interests by selected faculty and actively demonstrate methodologies that students will need for their own advanced work. Recent seminars have researched the relations between Renaissance England and Islam, while scheduled seminars include experimentation in narrative forms in early twentieth-century novels. Our commitment to assessment through seminars and small classes requires a faculty consensus about criteria and standards. Our Honors Program provides one way to forge consensus. Students are admitted only upon application and must submit papers graded in earlier courses that demonstrate likelihood of being able to succeed in a sustained research project. These submissions are evaluated by a faculty committee whose membership rotates. Our theses must be supervised and read by at least two faculty members; all faculty must participate, all decisions are reached in concert, and all students present their work publicly before faculty and peers. Assessment in creative writing also requires consensus about criteria; admission to advanced seminar is by application and submission of a portfolio evaluated by our senior writers. Creative projects submitted for the Honors Program require both a creative component and a critical literary component, with separate faculty supervising each component. Throughout the year we canvass our faculty for likely candidates for the Honors Program; this helps us identify both capable students and those who need more attention.

We have a number of competitive undergraduate prizes awarded within the department that help to forge consensus about criteria and standards. The William James prize has two separate competitions—one for the best critical essay by a freshman or sophomore, and another competition for juniors and seniors. All faculty take turns as readers and all decisions are reached through discussion. The Edward W. Moses prize for creative writing likewise is read and judged by all creative writing faculty in turns. We continually reassess our procedures and criteria for all prizes.

Introductory courses at the freshman and sophomore level likewise are governed by communal faculty understandings of goals and assessment. We use roundtable discussions for courses with several sections, sharing syllabi and encouraging exchanges about expectations, while avoiding rigidity and sameness. We monitor syllabi across the department, looking for parity in workloads and modes of evaluation. Our junior faculty each have a mentoring team of three senior faculty, and their classroom teaching is observed each year. The number of college and university teaching awards garnered by our faculty, combined with our awards in general education and in student mentoring, argue for the strong standards and common sense of purpose shared by our colleagues.

The resurgence of our self-governing undergraduate student association (Sigma Tau Delta) is evidence that faculty have conveyed a sense of appreciation for our discipline. Not all assessment comes from faculty. Students increasingly have taken their coursework directly into the community, designing and executing projects in local schools. Our creative writing students actively engage with neighborhood public schools, and at the end of January they filled one of the large lecture halls on campus for a public reading of the children’s own poetry. Our students in literature are prominent in the university’s Joint Education Project for outreach to the USC community, and a number of our classes incorporate JEP activities. We are approached repeatedly by organizations and companies seeking our students for internships ranging from public relations and advertising to film and publishing. These and other forms of community assessment complement our internal academic assessment.

We have an excellent record of placement for our students, but we are leery about this as an index of assessment since students come to us with their own learning objectives, and in the real world we must balance their objectives with ours. In recent years our graduates have been placed in every major law school in the entire country, and particularly in the northeast. Our literature students have been accepted at Oxford, Yale, Michigan, Harvard, Chicago, Stanford, and a host of other principal programs. Recent creative writers have gone on to the best MFA programs in the country: Iowa, Otis, Sarah Lawrence, Columbia, Cornell, American University, Virginia, Wyoming, Las Vegas, NYU and UCI. We must not take this achievement as the sole measure of our success, but it does provide another fiduciary to validate our internal assessment.

Our goal cannot be mere replication of the professoriate or service provision to the professions, and we do not articulate either of these among our learning objectives. Flexibility of mind, facility with expression, and a sense of continuity with the past are ways of thinking and engagement that may not develop fully until years after graduation. We believe immediate assessment must be coupled with long-term assessment of fifteen years or more, when we canvass our graduates and ask whether the English Department prepared them for the lives they now live. Here is a sampling from the class of 1992: a filmmaker and film editor in Mexico City, a principal technical writer at Oracle, an insurance and retirement planner, a vice president of new product development at Scholastic, the registrar at the Colorado School of Traditional Chinese Medicine, a head of marketing at Intel, the owner of Gyro Digital in Connecticut, the owner of a luxury real estate firm in Manhattan Beach, a graphic designer in Los Angeles, the managing editor of the Huntington Library Press.

Learning objectives for the Narrative Studies major

To study narrative is to study the control of implication, to recognize that what isn’t said – or seen, or heard – is as important as what is said and how it is said.  These aspects shift according to culture, time, and audience, with shared understandings, perspectives, materials, media, and procedures.  No single discipline embraces all of these aspects to the exclusion of other disciplines.  Conversely, disparate explorations need to be brought together in a way that makes personal sense to each individual student.  Our studies in narrative are based in the humanities, coordinate with practice in the arts and media, and culminate in an individual project that will be unique to each student.

Students will learn to

– study narrative and its structure from the perspective of several disciplines

– develop and evaluate original content for novels, visual media, theatre, and other narrative platforms

– recognize professional opportunities beyond the roles of author, screenwriter or playwright

– recognize a good story, to critique, help shape, realize and transform it

– understand the history of narrative, cross-cultural and contemporary models, and the broader context of popular culture

– realize that effective narratives in new media are apt to emerge from an earlier medium

– understand the variety of current platforms while concentrating on the techniques of construction common to them all

– coordinate studies in humanities with studies and practices in fine arts

– integrate perspectives and methodologies from different fields

– design an individual and thematic curriculum

– engage in self-directed research

– identify and develop an independent research project

– work with scholars in different disciplines who share a common academic interest

Ready to Declare?

Contact details, usc department of english.

3501 Trousdale Parkway Taper Hall of Humanities 404 Los Angeles, CA 90089-0354

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Creative Writing at University of Southern California

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• Available Degrees
• Student Demographics
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Creative Writing Degrees Available at USC

• Bachelor’s Degree in Creative Writing

USC Creative Writing Rankings

In College Factual's most recent rankings for the best schools for creative writing majors , USC came in at #8. This puts it in the top 5% of the country in this field of study. It is also ranked #1 in California .

Popularity of Creative Writing at USC

During the 2020-2021 academic year, University of Southern California handed out 45 bachelor's degrees in creative writing. This is an increase of 32% over the previous year when 34 degrees were handed out.

USC Creative Writing Students

Take a look at the following statistics related to the make-up of the creative writing majors at University of Southern California.

USC Creative Writing Bachelor’s Program

Of the 45 creative writing students who graduated with a bachelor's degree in 2020-2021 from USC, about 31% were men and 69% were women.

The following table and chart show the ethnic background for students who recently graduated from University of Southern California with a bachelor's in creative writing.

Most Popular Related Majors

View All Creative Writing Related Majors >

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The master’s degree in Literary Editing and Publishing is intended for students with strong backgrounds in English literature, creative writing and narrative studies to explore the roles of the professional editor and publisher, with an emphasis in literary nonfiction.

Exceptional USC undergraduate students accepted to this degree program may combine their baccalaureate and masters studies during their senior (fourth) year, in accordance with USC policy on Progressive Degree Programs. Applicants without appropriate preparatory course work in literature and creative writing may be required to complete more course work. All applicants must have completed ENGL 300    or ENGL 310    with a grade of A- or better. The master’s degree in Literary Editing and Publishing requires a year of supervised external professional internship in lieu of a thesis.

Students interested in applying to the Progressive Degree Program in Literary Editing and Publishing will propose a plan of study in consultation with an academic adviser. Advisers will work with students throughout the final years of undergraduate study and the master’s program to help students select courses based on remaining undergraduate degree requirements, recommended preparation for the master’s degree, and the core requirements for the master’s degree in Literary Editing and Publishing. Students in the English department are required to meet with an adviser before registering for courses each semester.

Degree Requirements

The master’s degree in Literary Editing and Publishing is under the jurisdiction of the Graduate School. Refer to the Requirements for Graduation section and the Graduate School section of this catalogue for general regulations. All courses applied toward the degree must be courses accepted by the Graduate School.

Required Courses

A minimum of 28 units of graduate-level course work is required. All courses are 4 units unless otherwise noted.

• ENGL 601 Introduction to Literary Editing and Publishing Units: 4
• ENGL 602 Writers in the World: Text and Context Units: 4
• ENGL 603 The Editorial Experience: The Craft of Publication Units: 4
• ENGL 604 The Nonfiction Experience: A Literary-Editorial Focus Units: 4
• ENGL 607 Digital Publishing and Literary Writing for New Media Units: 4
• ENGL 608 Publishing on Both Sides of the Transom Units: 4
• ENGL 609a Internship in Editing and Publishing: Eloquence and Ethics Units: 2
• ENGL 609b Internship in Editing and Publishing: Eloquence and Ethics Units: 2

Recommended Course

• ENGL 600 Publication in Humanities Journals Units: 4

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The Undergraduate Writers’ Conference (UWC) is a partnership between USC’s Office of Academic Programs and The Writing Program.  The purpose of the event is to share and celebrate writing from current undergraduate students across all fields of study and offer a space to receive feedback from peers and faculty.  All participants will submit one piece of writing that represents their best work. Participation in at least two sessions throughout conference day in addition to the awards ceremony is required to remain eligible for prize consideration.   

Undergraduate Writers’ Conference: Tuesday, April 16, 2024

Awards Dinner: Thursday, April 18, 2024

Registration Form Closed

The deadline has been extended and will remain open until Friday, March 8 th at 11:59PM (PST), or until capacity is reached .

Keynote Address:

Laura Warrell is the author of Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm , a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction and the Barnes & Noble Discover Prize, and long-listed for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction. Her writing has appeared in the Los Angeles Times , the New York Times , Lit Hub , Los Angeles Review of Books , Huffington Post , and other publications.

Laura graduated from the Creative Writing Program at the Vermont College of Fine Arts and has attended residencies at the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and the Tin House Writer’s Workshop. She lives in Los Angeles.

Featured Publishing Panelists:

Creative publishing panel:.

Alexis Landau is a graduate of Vassar College and received an MFA from Emerson College and PhD in English Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Southern California. She is the author of the novels The Empire of the Senses and Those Who Are Saved and the forthcoming The Mother of All Things (May 7, 2024). She teaches writing at USC and lived with her husband and two children in Los Angeles.

Catherine Theis is the author of the poetry collection The Fraud of Good Sleep and the play MEDEA. Slashing Sounds , her translation of the Italian poet Jolanda Insana, is forthcoming Fall 2024 from the University of Chicago Press’ Phoenix Poets series. She teaches at the University of Southern California.

Academic and Nonfiction Publishing Panel:

Sarah Mesle is an Associate Professor (Teaching) in USC’s Writing Program. She’s the former Senior Humanities Editor of the Los Angeles Review of Books , and the founding editor of the digital magazine Avidly and the NYU Press book series Avidly Reads . Her criticism and profiles have appeared in venues ranging from LARB to InStyle Magazine to the New York Times . She has two books forthcoming: Reasons and Feelings: A Guide for Academics Writing in Hard Times (Chicago UP) and a collection of essays called Tangled: American Racism and White Women’s Hair (Beacon Press).

Dr. Trisha Tucker is an Associate Teaching Professor of Writing. She serves as Head of Writing Instruction in the Thematic Option Honors Program and Faculty in Residence in the McCarthy Honors College. Dr. Tucker worked as a journalist in the film, fashion, and the travel industries before returning to school to earn her Ph.D. in English. Her recent scholarship traces the ways in which eighteenth- and nineteenth-century beliefs about childhood underly justifications of contemporary books bans. Other scholarly and pedagogical interests include nineteenth-century British literature, Evangelicalism and Evangelical reading practices, supporting first-year student learning and the transition to college, general education pedagogy and curriculum, and building communities of trust and engagement in the classroom.

Juried Workshop Leaders:

Michelle Brittan Rosado is the author of Why Can’t It Be Tenderness , which won the Felix Pollak Prize in Poetry selected by Aimee Nezhukumatathil (University of Wisconsin Press, 2018). Her chapbook,  Theory on Falling into a Reef , was the winner of the inaugural Rick Campbell Prize (Anhinga Press, 2016). Individual poems have been published in Alaska Quarterly Review , Indiana Review , Poet Lore , and The New Yorker , as well as anthologies like Ink Knows No Borders: Poems of the Immigrant and Refugee Experience . Having earned an MFA in Creative Writing from California State University, Fresno, and a PhD in Literature & Creative Writing from the University of Southern California, she has received awards and fellowships from the Academy of American Poets, Community of Writers, Sustainable Arts Foundation, USC’s Center for Transpacific Studies, and the Vermont Studio Center. Currently a professor in The Writing Program at USC, she lives with her family in Long Beach.

Mitra Parineh is a writer and faculty lecturer in the Writing Program at USC. Her short fiction and essays have been published in literary journals and popular magazines including most recently in the  New Orleans Revie w and  Frenshe . She is at work on a heist-romance novel about teenagers in Silicon Valley.

Michelle Meyers is a Lecturer in the Writing Program at USC and the Community Engagement Liaison for the USC Dornsife Prison Education Project. She was a 2015 PEN Center Emerging Voices Fellow in Fiction, and her novel  Glass Shatters  was selected as an Editor’s Pick in Literary Fiction by Foreword Reviews. She graduated with a BA in Literary Arts from Brown University and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Alabama. She is a Los Angeles native.

Past Student Winners Panel

• Jonathan Hayden

Program Details

USC’s Office of Academic Programs and The Writing Program present the 21st annual Undergraduate Writers’ Conference on Tuesday, April 16, 2024. Awards ceremony to follow on Thursday, April 18, 2024.

Eligibility

Writing category descriptions, submission formatting, judging & prizes.

• How to Register

Conference Schedule

Tuesday, april 16, 2024.

Conference Kick-Off (9:00am-9:50am TCC 450 “The Forum”)

Join us for a breakfast meet and greet where students will have the opportunity to do a free writing exercise and engage in lively discussions about writing.

Keynote Address featuring Laura Warrell (10:00am-11:30am TCC 450)

Enjoy a keynote address from an inspirational writer and light breakfast to officially kick-off conference day. There will be time for Q & A as well as a raffle of the author’s books for those in attendance.

Open Mic (12:00pm-12:50pm TCC 450)

Share your Writer’s Conference submission or cheer on fellow writers from the audience during this writer’s showcase.

Past UWC Winners Panel (1:00pm-1:50pm TCC 450)

Previous Undergraduate Writers’ Conference winners will share excerpts from their winning submissions and unique approaches to writing.

Academic and Nonfiction Publishing Panel (2:00pm-2:50pm TCC 450)

Professional writers share their experiences and insights on the path to getting academic and nonfiction work published. Featured panelists: Professor Sarah Mesle and Professor Trisha Tucker

Creative Publishing Panel (3:00pm-3:50pm PST TCC 450)

Professional writers share their experiences and insights learned on the path to getting creative work published.  Featured panelists: Professor Alexis Landau and Professor Catherine Theis

Wednesday, April 17, 2024

Juried Workshop: Writing from Listening (10:00am-11:30am)

Participation in this workshop is upon acceptance by the workshop leader. If you are interested in participating, please indicate your interest on your registration form .

A fiction workshop oriented around dialogue and “hearing” our characters. Putting words in the mouths of characters and animating them through spoken language, dialect, syntax, and diction is one of the most fun ways to approach and begin to understand a character, giving them life and resonance on the page. When we build dialogue we also create subtext and layered meaning.

Juried Workshop: How to Be in Two Places at Once – A Generative Writing Workshop (12:30pm-2:00pm)

Have you ever wished you could be in two places at once? This generative writing workshop will encourage participants to engage with poetry as a genre of connection, by utilizing metaphor to leap from one geographical location to another. The workshop will involve gathering sensory details outdoors, recording what we can see, smell, hear, taste, or touch in our immediate surroundings. Returning indoors, participants will be invited to generate a poem draft that connects a sensory detail they observed to another place, which can be an imagined scene or pulled from memory. The workshop will conclude with encouraging feedback and ideas for expanding these drafts into revised poems. 

Thursday, April 18, 2024

Celebration Dinner & Awards Ceremony (6:00pm-8:00pm USC Town & Gown Ballroom )

Join us for a celebration dinner with all Undergraduate Writers’ Conference and Undergraduate Research Symposium participants. The most outstanding works will be recognized with First Prizes of $1000 and Second Prizes of $500.

Potential Online Publication

All participants gain automatic consideration for publication in  Scribe ,  the USC Dornsife online journal produced by undergraduates, and  Outstanding Academic Papers by Students (OAPS) , an academic research libraries program that preserves excellence in student scholarship.

Friday, April 19, 2024

Juried Workshop: Narrative Techniques and the Academic Essay (10:30am-12:00pm)

In this workshop, students will learn more about applying narrative techniques oftentimes used in fiction and creative nonfiction to academic writing, such as sensory details, figurative language, varied sentence length, and attention to style/voice. Students will consider the ways in which academic writing is a form of storytelling and how using the above narrative techniques can help to engage readers as they complete exercises and group activities together. In the final 30 minutes of the workshop, students will try applying these techniques to a piece of academic writing that they have brought in.

To be eligible, entrants must:

• Be a current  undergraduate student at USC,
• Complete an online registration form that includes a 300-500 word Writer’s Statement and submission of one piece of writing in one writing style category, and
• Commit to attend at least two sessions on the day of the Writer’s Conference in addition to the Celebration dinner in order to maintain eligibility for prize consideration.
• No group writing submissions will be accepted.

Please submit one piece of writing in one of the four categories offered:

• Fiction and Memoir  (30 pages max) – can include short stories, screenplays, excerpts from longer fictional works, memoirs, and personal essays
• Poetry (up to 10 poems, combined 30 pages max) 
• Academic Writing (30 pages max) – humanities and journalism
• Academic Writing (30 pages max) – social and hard science as well as business

All submissions may also be considered for the USC Schwarzenegger Institute Award and Sustainability Award when the writing topic aligns with award criteria.

Submissions for the juried workshops will also be considered upon request.

Submissions must adhere to the following format parameters:

• Double-spaced, 12pt font, is the preferred format with the exception of poetry and screenwriting
• Submissions must be in English
• PDF format only
• There is a 1000MB/1GB limit for each submission

Judges are USC faculty members primarily from the  USC Writing Program , Schwarzenegger Institute and Office of Sustainability . Each category has a panel of 2-6 judges, who are assigned based on their respective expertise in each of the writing categories.

The judges will award the following prizes:

• First Prize (All Categories):  One $1000 First Prize will be awarded in each of the four writing categories.
• Second Prize (All Categories):  One $500 Second Prize will be awarded in each of the four writing categories.  USC Schwarzenegger Institute Award:  The USC Schwarzenegger Institute will also award one $1000 First Prize and one $500 Second Prize to students whose work proposes real-world solutions to serious policy challenges and improves the lives of people and communities with regard to issues in Environment & Energy, or Political Reform & Voter access, or Terminate hate.
• Sustainability Award: One $1000 First Prize and one $500 Second Prize to students whose work addresses understanding the challenges and solutions related to climate change and other environmental issues that impact the well-being of people and the planet. In line with President Folt’s vision for a more sustainable USC , we encourage submissions related to sustainability and sustainable solutions, including topics such as (but not limited to): biodiversity loss, environmental pollution, climate change, environmental justice and sustainable design.

Prize Claims

An Undergraduate Writers’ Conference Prize is disbursed as a stipend in the spring as a check issued to the student.   This may affect student financial aid packages.   Students are encouraged to email the Financial Aid Office through the  askUSC  portal to discuss the potential effects of a Prize.  The award could adversely affect students with Pell grants and/or loans.

Join us for the 2024 Undergraduate Writers’ Conference!

Remember to mark your application as complete and hit the green “ SUBMIT ” button. You will receive an email confirmation upon successful submission.

Upcoming Dates & Deadlines

There are no upcoming events at this time.

Prize Recipients

Each year, the Undergraduate Writers’ Conference awards First and Second prizes for outstanding work in each of the four writing categories. Additional recognition includes Honorable Mentions and awards from the USC Schwarzenegger Institute and Office of Sustainability.

Narrative Studies: Resources for Creative Writers

• Research process: keywords and more
• Key multidisciplinary resources
• Key Literary Studies Resources
• Poetry Resources
• Key Film, TV, Theater Resources
• Key Gender Studies Resources
• American Studies, Race and Ethnicity
• Reviews: New York Review of Books & New Yorker
• Streaming Media @ USC
• Managing Research and citations
• Writing Awards at USC Libraries

Resources for Creative Writers

• Undergraduate Publications: Research Journals and more
• Research Exercise

Marketing and Promotion: Where and how to get published?

Trade Magazines and Reviews

Poets & Writers

The Writer's Digest

Publisher's Weekly

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Freshmen Application Procedures

The Bachelor of Fine Arts in the John Wells Division of Writing for Screen & Television is a unique, four-year program for students who seek intensive professional preparation for a career in screen and television writing. This rigorous program emphasizes small, workshop-style classes, and attracts students from all over the world. Students attend a variety of guest speaker presentations, take high level industry internships, are provided with mentors and taught by world-class professors.

The faculty admissions committee places considerable importance on the autobiographical character sketch, story ideas, writing samples, portfolio list and letters of recommendation during the application review process. There are no admission interviews but applicants may be contacted for more information or clarification of submitted materials. The committee ensures that all applicants are judged equitably by limiting evaluation to the items listed.

Access the Writing for Screen & Television B.F.A. Program - First-Year/Freshmen Applicants SlideRoom Application here.

• Autobiographical Character Sketch (must be uploaded in PDF format) Write a creative essay or short story that evokes an understanding of how you became who you are. We are looking for a sense of you as a unique individual and how your distinctive experiences, identities, values, and/or views of the world have shaped who you are. It's not a resume. (1-2 pages in length)
• Write a scene between two very different kinds of people who get stuck in an elevator on New Year's Eve.  Please use screenplay format. (2-5 pages in length)
• Write a scene between two people (e.g., a parent and child, roommates, spouses, etc.) who live together. The first character strongly desires to go out; the second desperately wants the first to stay home. Emphasize visual elements as well as dialogue. Please use screenplay format. (2-5 pages in length)
• Most Challenging Moment: (must be upload in PDF format) Convey in writing the greatest challenge you have faced and how you responded to it. The challenge may be of any kind you care to write about -physical, emotional, moral, creative, personal, professional or some other sort. (1-2 pages in length)
• Commitment Prompt: (must be upload in PDF format) When did you want to be a writer?  Why do you want to be a writer? What keeps you writing?  (No more than 300 words)
• Writing Sample: (must be upload in PDF format) One sample of your creative writing. This may be an excerpt with a note explaining the context. Writing in script form is not required. Please only include original material-do not submit a television spec episode of an existing television show. (Maximum of 10 pages. If you send more than 10, only the first 10 will be read)
• Creative Portfolio List (must be upload in PDF format) The Creative Portfolio List is a list of all significant creative projects in which the applicant has participated, noting the role the applicant has played. Formal recognition such as awards, publications, and exhibitions should also be noted.
• July 2019,  A Day in the Life,  digital video, 12 minutes. Position: writer/director. A documentary on a homeless Iraq vet who has lived on the streets since his return from the military. Created for senior-year multimedia term project, San Raphael High School, Miami, Florida.
• March 2020,  Doorways,  a series of 5 black-and-white photographs. Position: photographer. "Second Prize Winner" in the Des Moines Sunday Journal photo contest.
• February 2021,  Cellomorphosis,  short story. Position: writer. A variation on the novella by Franz Kafka; published in Writing, vol. IV, 2021, at Amherst College, Amherst, Massachusetts.

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CREATIVE WRITING WORKSHOP

This workshop is designed for those with little or no experience in creative writing but eager to give it a try! During our four weeks together, we’ll fully immerse ourselves in the art and craft of creative writing, working collaboratively and doing activities designed to ignite our imaginations. Each week will offer the opportunity to experiment with four genres: the personal essay (also known as the “college application essay”), creative nonfiction, flash fiction, and the short story, respectively. In the process, we’ll learn about the literary techniques of accomplished writers, learn to “read like a writer” and “write like a reader,” and even take a field trip or two to find our inspiration in the city of Los Angeles. You’ll also receive constructive feedback from peers and your instructors to help you to discover your own writing voice. Let’s write!

PROGRAM DATES June 16 – July 13, 2024

PREREQUISITES None

RECOMMENDED International students who are non-native English speakers need meet the program’s English Requirement

DAILY SCHEDULE & ACTIVITIES MONDAY – FRIDAY 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Classes in session 12:00 p.m. – 1:30 p.m. Lunch 1:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. Classes in session

COURSE OVERVIEW

• Produce a portfolio of your own work, including a polished personal essay suitable for college applications
• Meet other writers and share your work in a collaborative workshop environment
• Learn the benefits of revision and see the evolution of your writing
• Take creativity-inspiring field trips to artistic venues in L.A.
• Gain skills and craft approaches you can carry into your future writing life

Topic of Study

• Personal essay
• Creative nonfiction
• Flash fiction
• Short story
• Literary techniques of accomplished authors

HEAR FROM OUR FORMER STUDENTS

2024-2025 Academic Bulletin

Creative writing minor.

The creative writing minor provides students advanced training in specific genres of writing, such as poetry, fiction and creative nonfiction. Courses include creative writing classes and upper-level English classes, for a well-rounded introduction to the field of creative writing. This minor is especially beneficial to students with primary studies in theater and dance, media arts, marketing, public relations and journalism, among other fields.    

Minor Requirements (18 Hours)

Creative Writing and Publishing | UniSC | University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia

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Creative Writing and Publishing Major Minor

If you have a way with words and a passion for language, then consider studying Creative Writing and Publishing. Learn to master the art of storytelling and work towards your dream career as an author, editor, freelancer, or communications strategist.

Your studies will equip you with the skills to succeed in a broad range of publishing contexts. Experiment with different genres of writing, including novels, short stories, poetry and screenwriting, with all creative outcomes being workshopped by supportive peers and enthusiastic staff.

There will be multiple opportunities for publication during your studies. You will be mentored by a team of published authors, editors and researchers who bring real-world industry experience to the classroom.

Previous USC graduates have achieved publishing success and are now recognised as award-winning Australian authors.

View the full range of Creative Industries majors and minors .

The Creative Writing and Publishing Major can be selected in the   Bachelor of Creative Industries , Bachelor of Communication , Bachelor of Design , Bachelor of Business/Bachelor of Creative Industries , Bachelor of Arts , and select double degrees that include the Bachelor of Arts.

The Creative Writing and Publishing Minor can be selected in the Bachelor of Creative Industries , Bachelor of Communication , Bachelor of Design , Bachelor of Arts , and any double degree that includes the Bachelor of Arts.

For a major in Creative Writing and Publishing, students must successfully complete 8 courses:

For a minor in Creative Writing and Publishing, students must successfully complete 4 courses:

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How to Write the USC Supplemental Essays 2023-2024

The University of Southern California has a few supplemental essays and creative short answers that students must complete. Your essays are one of the only opportunities you’ll have to show an admissions officer who you are beyond the numbers, and with USC’s many different prompts, it’s clear this school wants you to seize that opportunity.

Here are our tips for responding to the USC essays in a way that will help your application stand out!

Read these USC essay examples written by real students to inspire your own writing. 

USC Supplemental Essay Prompts

All applicants.

Prompt 1: Describe how you plan to pursue your academic interests and why you want to explore them at USC specifically. Please feel free to address your first- and second-choice major selections (250 words).

Prompt 2 (optional): Starting with the beginning of high school/secondary school, if you have had a gap where you were not enrolled in school during a fall or spring term, please address this gap in your educational history. You do not need to address a summer break (250 words).

Short Answer Prompts: Respond to all the prompts below (100 characters unless otherwise specified)

• Describe yourself in three words (25 characters each)
• What is your favorite snack?
• Best movie of all time
• If your life had a theme song, what would it be?
• What TV show will you binge watch next?
• Which well-known person or fictional character would be your ideal roommate?
• Favorite Book
• If you could teach a class on any topic, what would it be?

Viterbi School of Engineering Applicants

Prompt: The student body at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering is a diverse group of unique engineers and computer scientists who work together to engineer a better world for all humanity. Describe how your contributions to the USC Viterbi student body may be distinct from others. Please feel free to touch on any part of your background, traits, skills, experiences, challenges, and/or personality in helping us better understand you. (250 words)

Engineering and Computer Science Applicants

Prompt: The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and their 14 Grand Challenges go hand-in-hand with our vision to engineer a better world for all humanity. Engineers and computer scientists are challenged to solve these problems in order to improve life on the planet. Learn more about the NAE Grand Challenges at http://engineeringchallenges.org and tell us which challenge is most important to you, and why. (250 words)

Dornsife Applicants

Prompt: Many of us have at least one issue or passion that we care deeply about — a topic on which we would love to share our opinions and insights in hopes of sparking intense interest and continued conversation. If you had ten minutes and the attention of a million people, what would your talk be about? (250 words)

All Applicants, Prompt 1

Describe how you plan to pursue your academic interests and why you want to explore them at usc specifically. please feel free to address your first- and second-choice major selections (250 words)..

The tricky bit about this prompt is that it essentially combines the “ Why This Major ” and “ Why This College ” essay archetypes into one essay with a strict cap of 250 words. That’s a lot of information in not a whole lot of space, which might feel overwhelming. The first thing you should do is figure out the content of your essay.

Step One: Think about your academic interests (i.e. your majors). 

• How did your interests develop? 
• Why are you passionate about your interests? 
• What are your goals within your interests?
• How will pursuing your major help you achieve your goals in life? 

Step Two: Think about the answers to those questions in relation to USC. 

• How will USC help you to further develop your interests? 
• What resources does the university have that will help you achieve your goals? 

While your essay should explore resources that will aid in your academic pursuits, you should also keep it as specific to USC as possible—this essay should not be able to be copied and pasted for any other university! Here’s an example of how to achieve the specificity you need:

Bad: USC is a great school, located in the beautiful city of Los Angeles, with unparalleled academics and renowned instructors.

Why is this bad? This sentence could just as easily apply to UCLA. Without the bit about Los Angeles, the reasoning could even apply to any decent school in existence.

Good: At USC, I plan to participate in the Joint Educational Project (JEP) to find a community of students who, like me, are passionate about the intersections of teaching and social justice. Through JEP, I will be able to actively use the teaching principles I learn in my classes about the Dynamics of Early Childhood.

Why is this good? It references a unique resource at USC and relates to the student’s academic interests.

The Final Step: Write a cohesive essay that tells admissions officers why you are pursuing your field and why USC is the right place for you to pursue it. Some examples could include:

• An Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering student who was obsessed with the launching of the Antares rocket, movies like Gattaca and The Martian , and their physics summer camp as a middle schooler. They could describe their goal of working for NASA, then discussing their interest in the USC Rocket Propulsion Laboratory (RPL).
• An English student who ultimately wants to write romance novels discussing the Creative Writing Hour series that is hosted by English faculty. They might want to reference some of the big-name professors at USC—like Maggie Nelson, Aimee Bender, Dana Johnson, and T.C. Boyle—who have inspired their love of writing.
• A Fine Arts applicant mentioning the Fisher Museum of Art that is on USC’s campus. It was after a school field trip to the Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) that they first tried working with graphite and learned of their life goals. They know the power of art museums for inspiration and are excited to have a constant source of inspiration just minutes away.

If you are worried about the word count, one way to maximize the little space you have is to find a way to relate your first- and second-choice majors. This way, your explanations of each wouldn’t read like separate essays; rather, they would be telling different parts of the same story. A student with a first-choice major in Physics and a second-choice major in English might want to write about their ultimate goal of writing Science Fiction novels. A student with a first-choice major in History and a second-choice major in East Asian Languages and Culture might write about their goal of curating Asian American history museums.

Make sure you focus on your academic interests/goals and tell admissions officers the ways that USC will help your academic dreams come true, and you will be set!

All Applicants, Prompt 2 (optional)

Starting with the beginning of high school/secondary school, if you have had a gap where you were not enrolled in school during a fall or spring term, please address this gap in your educational history. you do not need to address a summer break (250 words). .

USC’s second prompt is optional and won’t apply to most students. However, if you do have a gap in your educational history, then be sure to use this space to address it. Give a brief explanation of the reasoning for the gap—be it illness, a move, etc.—as well as an overview of how you spent this time outside of school. 

For example, let’s say your family moved across the country and you took a term off during the transfer. You can describe your role in the move (perhaps you were in charge of organizing a yard sale), why the circumstances warranted an educational gap (maybe the new school doesn’t allow mid-term transfers), and any other projects or commitments to which you dedicated your time. 

Ideally, you want to demonstrate how you made the most of this time off and why the time off was necessary.

All Applicants, Short Answer Prompts

Respond to all the prompts below (100 characters unless otherwise specified), 1. describe yourself in three words (25 characters each), 2. what is your favorite snack, 3. best movie of all time, 4. dream job, 5. if your life had a theme song, what would it be, 6. dream trip, 7. what tv show will you binge watch next, 8. which well-known person or fictional character would be your ideal roommate, 9. favorite book, 10. if you could teach a class on any topic, what would it be.

In this section, USC lets you have a little fun. The questions ask for short, rapid-fire responses that give you the opportunity to let your individuality shine.

The most important thing to keep in mind with the short answer supplements is that USC is asking you to provide new information that sheds light on different aspects of your personality. 

Don’t repeat tidbits you’ve already mentioned, although you can and should develop new angles of themes you’ve already established. Most importantly, have fun in this section! If you’re having fun writing it, chances are your admissions officer will have fun reading it.

You can leave descriptions or notes in your responses, though remember that you have 100 characters max. If your choices are more offbeat, we recommend giving a brief description, as your admissions officer certainly won’t have the time to look things up. If your choices are pretty well-known, you can still leave a note about why you chose them (as in the sample response to #8). It’s another opportunity to share your personality, which is valuable!

• Describe yourself in three words (25 characters max each).

Example: Cinephile. Cynophile. Logophile. 

Tip: Be creative!

Example: My Gram’s Lebuchken, tiny gingerbread-esque German cakes that my family devours each holiday season.

Tip: This is an opportunity to show your roots or quirky favorites. Make your response more interactive by including descriptive words that appeal to the senses, especially taste and smell. Also, if you’re using another language or describing a less common food, feel free to provide a short description or explanation so that someone who’s never heard of it before can still imagine it. 

Example: October Sky; Homer’s rockets remind me of my own homemade science creations, like my DIY lava lamp.

Tip: A lot of applicants will write Harry Potter . Be genuine in your response, but take this opportunity to stand out rather than providing a generic answer. 

Example: A math professor; sharing my love of topology to positively shape students’ view of the subject. 

Example: Crossword Puzzle Writer; my mornings aren’t complete without a cup of OJ and my daily brain teaser.

Tip: If you go with a serious answer, make a clear connection to your major to show that you’re focused on your academic path. Don’t give a generic answer like “doctor” or “lawyer;” talk about what specialty or subfield interests you most. That said, you could also go for a more lighthearted answer, like a crossword puzzle writer, to use the space to show personality.

Example: The [TV show] Intro; I’d like to think of myself as a [character], but I have to admit I’m more of an [character]. 

Example: Happy Birthday by AJR – a catchy tune with funny/sarcastic lyrics about the reality of modern life.

Tip: Just as with the best movie prompt, you may want to avoid mainstream selections and instead put forward a title that says something about you. What song would you want the admissions officer to play while reading your application? Make sure the song you choose is appropriate. 

Example: Road trip around Iceland’s perimeter; stops include Thingvellir National Park and the Geysir Springs.

Tip: Be more specific than simply “Hawaii” or “Europe.” Also, just as with all the prompts, you want to convey something about yourself in your response, so avoid mainstream or overly luxurious answers.

Example: Aggretsuko (anime about a red panda who relieves job stress by singing death metal at karaoke bars)

Tip: Follow similar guidelines to the theme song prompt—mainstream selections are fine and are potentially relatable to the reader, but that quirkier show you have your eye on might make for a more fun response. If your selection is lesser-known, consider adding a brief description.

Example: Rory Gilmore – there definitely won’t be a shortage of coffee or good conversation.

Tip: It’s okay to go with a more well-known character here, since that will allow the reader to relate. It’s just important to use that extra space to elaborate on why you’d want to live with this person.

• Favorite book

Example: Shoe Dog by Phil Knight – I read the entire book in my favorite pair of Air Max 97s.

Tip: Follow the same advice for best movie of all time.

Example: SETI: Using the Drake Equation to Find E.T., complete with a field trip to outer space!

Tip: You can have some fun with this prompt; try thinking outside the box of the generic “Intro to Calculus.” You can also have the class relate back to your intended major, though that’s not absolutely necessary.

The student body at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering is a diverse group of unique engineers and computer scientists who work together to engineer a better world for all humanity. Describe how your contributions to the USC Viterbi student body may be distinct from others. Please feel free to touch on any part of your background, traits, skills, experiences, challenges, and/or personality in helping us better understand you. (250 words)

USC’s engineering school is extremely competitive to get into, forcing admissions officers to choose between many qualified applicants who look relatively similar on paper. This essay wants to get down to the heart of why they should pick you over others. 

The most important word in this prompt that should job out to you is “contributions”. In this essay, you need to convey what you will bring to the engineering community that is unique. You might be saying to yourself “what can I contribute to an established university?”, but there’s actually a lot to work with here. The prompt gives suggestions of sources that could contribute to your uniqueness so let’s look at some examples of traits and how they relate to contribution to USC.

Trait: You’re from a coastal town in Florida that is experiencing flooding.

Contribution: You plan to join the Structures and Material Lab in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering to discover which materials are erosion-resistant.

Trait: You’re the only daughter among four brothers.

Contribution: Since you’re no stranger to asserting your voice as a woman in a male-dominated setting, you want to become a mentor through the Women in Science and Engineering’s Young Researchers Program and encourage female high schoolers to pursue STEM.

Trait: You have OCD.

Contribution: Rather than being a hindrance, you channel your obsessive tendencies into meticulously completing complex calculations which you are excited to do as an Aerospace Engineering major.

Trait: You started an iPhone repair business out of your garage in high school.

Contribution: Your experience working with technology has given you insight into specific aspects of hardware design that could be improved that you plan to experiment with under the supervision of X professor.

As you can see from these examples, there are many ways to approach what you can contribute to the Viterbi community. When it comes to actually writing this in your essay, you should start by highlighting the unique aspect of yourself that you are choosing to focus on with a short anecdote. For example, the student writing about being from a coastal town might open with a vivid description of the damage caused by erosion from the most recent flood.

Once you’ve caught the reader’s attention and communicated what your unique background is, explain how that has positioned you to bring something special to the USC community. It’s important to be as detailed as possible by including specific programs or institutes, professors, classes, or research projects you are interested in. You can also mention more than one way that you will contribute—just ensure that each one is fully fleshed out.

Finally, end your essay with a concise conclusion. This might look like returning back to your anecdote from the beginning, talking about your future plans and how USC will get you there, or something else entirely. 

The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and their 14 Grand Challenges go hand-in-hand with our vision to engineer a better world for all humanity. Engineers and computer scientists are challenged to solve these problems in order to improve life on the planet. Learn more about the NAE Grand Challenges at http://engineeringchallenges.org and tell us which challenge is most important to you, and why. (250 words)

Before you can start answering this prompt, you need to do a little research! Once you go to the website linked above, click on the Challenges button at the top of the page and it will take you to the 14 Grand Challenges that engineers across the globe are committed to addressing. These challenges are broken up into four categorical themes (Sustainability, Health, Security, and Joy of Living) and they range from providing access to clean water to improving urban infrastructure to engineering better medicines to preventing nuclear terror attacks.

Your job is to pick one of these challenges that speaks the most to you. Keep in mind, we didn’t say pick the challenge you think is the “trendiest” or the admissions officers would be most impressed by; in order to write a successful and engaging essay your genuine passion and fascination with the issue has to come through. 

Once you have a challenge in mind, now you have to connect it to you. This is where you will bring in your previous experiences, your academic interests, and personal anecdotes to demonstrate why that particular issue resonates with you. For example, maybe you picked Manage the Nitrogen Cycle because your favorite memories from when you were little were gardening with your grandma which started your fascination with how plants sustain themselves and interact with the environment.

It’s important to connect to the challenge with both past experiences and future goals. So, continuing the nitrogen cycle example, maybe your dream one day is to own your own farm that is pesticide-free, so you are passionate about engineering nitrogen-free fertilizers. They don’t all have to be this personal—it’s just as valid to say you are committed to providing clean water because you dream of a world where no one is denied basic human rights like water—but you should have some explanation of the impact overcoming one of these challenges would have on you and the broader community. This helps demonstrate to the admissions officers that you appreciate the weight of these issues.

One thing to remember that trips up some students: you aren’t asked to solve the challenge in this essay. Although you can definitely contribute ideas you have, especially if you have previous experiences that relate to addressing the issue, it’s not required. The major point of this essay is to learn more about global issues you care about and why you are choosing to address them through an engineering perspective.

Many of us have at least one issue or passion that we care deeply about — a topic on which we would love to share our opinions and insights in hopes of sparking intense interest and continued conversation. If you had ten minutes and the attention of a million people, what would your talk be about? (250 words)

This prompt requires less deep thought than the former. The “education” prompt asks students to think deeply about a question they have probably never thought about before, while this prompt asks you “what are you thinking about all the time?”  

If an idea comes to mind when you first read this prompt, that’s probably where you should start. USC is not looking for wild answers where students turn the holes in swiss cheese into a complex metaphor—they really just want to hear what you care about. That being said, what you care about can totally be weird or nuanced, as long as your interest in the subject tells admissions officers something about you.

Some examples of how you could work this prompt:

• Writing about a social justice issue. Introducing a specific anecdote (that you would introduce during your hypothetical talk). Providing insightful and unique commentary on the issue—whether that be how we got here or where we should go from here.
• Writing about a school of thought in science or philosophy. Explaining the importance of certain types of questions. Giving specific examples (historical, fictional, and anecdotal) that show that you have thought through the importance of rationalism, taoism, sensationalism, or any other school.
• Writing about a lecture on a specific book. Discussing how White Teeth, Giovanni’s Room, or Moby Dick tells multiple important life lessons in one pretty package. Drawing connections between the fictional world and the real world.
• Writing about the valuable lessons that can be learned from another culture. Introducing stories from your past that show the value of Japanese respect, Persian hospitality, or Indian selflessness. Recognizing negative aspects of cultures, but recognizing the lessons that can be learned when you take the time to learn them.

While these are just some examples, this prompt leaves the door open for you to explore whatever you care about. Because this essay is the simpler option, make sure that your writing is impeccable if you choose this second prompt. Engage with anecdotes and a unique personal voice to keep your essay engaging. Don’t give the reader the option to stop reading!

Where to Get Your USC Essays Edited

Do you want feedback on your USC essays? After rereading your essays countless times, it can be difficult to evaluate your writing objectively. That’s why we created our free Peer Essay Review tool , where you can get a free review of your essay from another student. You can also improve your own writing skills by reviewing other students’ essays. 

If you want a college admissions expert to review your essay, advisors on CollegeVine have helped students refine their writing and submit successful applications to top schools. Find the right advisor for you to improve your chances of getting into your dream school!

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Middle, High School Students Invited to Participate in Summer Writing Camps Presented by UCM's Greater Kansas City Writing Project

By Janice Phelan, April 26, 2024

The Greater Kansas City Writing Project (GKCWP) and the University of Central Missouri (UCM) will present two four-day summer camps focusing on creative writing, sharing and friendship. Designed for students in middle and high school, the 2024 Young Writers Camps will be offered from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. July 9-12 at UCM’s Missouri Innovation Campus in Lee’s Summit and from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. July 16-19 at the Anita Gorman Discovery Center in Kauffman Legacy Park in Kansas City. The unique camps, offered since 1983 by GKCWP and UCM, provide a creative and supportive environment for young people. Each session is developed and led by experienced teachers of writing. The camps are created for students who already love writing and want to enjoy writing more. At the end of each session, young writers will share their favorite pieces with friends and families at an open mic celebration. Summer Writing Camp participants include a diverse group of young people ranging from students working on their first novel to aspiring poets to writers seeking motivation and encouragement for a variety of projects. Students enrolling by May 1 will qualify for the $225 early-bird registration fee. Cost is $275 for registration after May 1. For more information and to register, visit this webpage . 

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