university courses creative writing

35 Best Colleges for Creative Writing – 2024

April 12, 2024

Bookworms and aspiring writers can pursue an undergraduate degree in creative writing where they will tackle coursework covering the reading and writing fiction, nonfiction, and poetry as well as the theory and history of the craft. While becoming the next J.K Rowling, Stephen King, or Margaret Atwood may be the goal, holders of creative writing degrees end up on a variety of career paths. This can include: publishing, editing, journalism, web content management, advertising, or for those who “make it” as writers—the next generation of literary superstars. Our list of Best Colleges for Creative Writing goes beyond the most famous writer factories like the University of Iowa and Columbia University, providing you with 35 institutions known for their stellar programs in this field.

Finally, note that although some of the colleges featured below do not offer a formal major in creative writing, their undergraduate offerings in this subject area are so strong that they warrant inclusion on our list.

Methodology 

Click here to read our methodology for the Best Colleges for creative writing.

Best Creative Writing Colleges

Here’s a quick preview of the first ten creative writing institutions that made our list. Detailed profiles and stats can be found when you scroll below.

1) Columbia University

2) Brown University

3) Johns Hopkins University

4) University of Chicago

5) Washington University in St Louis

6) Emory University

7) Stanford University

8) Northwestern University

9) Duke University

10) Yale University

All of the schools profiled below have stellar reputations in the field of creative writing and commit substantial resources to undergraduate education. For each of the best colleges for creative writing, College Transitions will provide you with—when available—each school’s:

• Cost of Attendance
• Acceptance Rate
• Median  SAT
• Median  ACT
• Retention Rate
• Graduation Rate

We will also include a longer write-up of each college’s:

• Academic Highlights – Includes facts like student-to-faculty ratio, average class size, number of majors offered, and most popular majors.
• Professional Outcomes – Includes info on the rate of positive outcomes, companies employing alumni, and graduate school acceptances.

Columbia University

• New York, NY

Academic Highlights: Columbia offers 100+ unique areas of undergraduate study as well as a number of pre-professional and accelerated graduate programs.  Class sizes at Columbia are reasonably small and the student-to-faculty ratio is favorable; however, in 2022, it was revealed that the university had been submitting faulty data in this area. It is presently believed that 58% of undergraduate courses enroll 19 or fewer students. The greatest number of degrees are conferred in the social sciences (22%), computer science (15%), engineering (14%), and biology (7%).

Professional Outcomes: Examining the most recent graduates from Columbia College and the Fu Foundation School of Engineering & Applied Science, 73% had found employment within six months, and 20% had entered graduate school. The median starting salary for graduates of Columbia College/Columbia Engineering is above $80,000. Many graduates get hired by the likes of Amazon, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Google, Citi, McKinsey, and Microsoft.

• Enrollment: 8,832
• Cost of Attendance: $89,587
• Median SAT: 1540
• Median ACT: 35
• Acceptance Rate: 4%
• Retention Rate: 98%
• Graduation Rate: 95%

Brown University

• Providence, RI

Academic Highlights: Students must choose one of 80+ “concentration programs,” but there are no required courses. Class sizes tend to be small—68% have fewer than twenty students—and 35% are comprised of nine or fewer students. Biology, economics, computer science, mathematics, and engineering are among the most popular areas of concentration at Brown; however, it is hard to distinguish any one program, because Brown possesses outstanding offerings across so many disciplines.

Professional Outcomes: Soon after receiving their Brown diplomas, 69% of graduates enter the world of employment. Companies employing the greatest number of Brown alums include Google, Microsoft, Goldman Sachs, Amazon, Morgan Stanley, Apple, McKinsey & Company, and Bain & Company. The Class of 2022 saw 27% of graduates go directly into graduate/professional school. Right out of undergrad, Brown students boasted an exceptional 81% admission rate to med school and an 81% admission rate to law school.

• Enrollment: 7,639
• Cost of Attendance: $84,828
• Median SAT: 1530
• Acceptance Rate: 5%
• Retention Rate: 99%
• Graduation Rate: 96%

Johns Hopkins University

• Baltimore, MD

Academic Highlights: With 53 majors as well as 51 minors, JHU excels in everything from its bread-and-butter medical-related majors to international relations and dance. Boasting an enviable 6:1 student-to-faculty ratio and with 78% of course sections possessing an enrollment under 20, face time with professors is a reality. Many departments carry a high level of clout, including biomedical engineering, chemistry, English, and international studies. Biology, neuroscience, and computer science, which happen to be the three most popular majors, can also be found at the top of the national rankings.

Professional Outcomes: The Class of 2022 saw 94% of graduates successfully land at their next destination within six months of exiting the university; 66% of graduates entered the world of employment and a robust 19% went directly to graduate/professional school. The median starting salary across all majors was $80,000 for the Class of 2022. JHU itself is the most popular choice for graduate school. The next most frequently attended institutions included Columbia, Harvard, Yale, and MIT.

• Enrollment: 6,044
• Cost of Attendance: $86,065
• Acceptance Rate: 7%
• Retention Rate: 97%

University of Chicago

• Chicago, IL

Academic Highlights: There are 53 majors at UChicago, but close to half of all degrees conferred are in four majors: economics, biology, mathematics, and political science, all of which have particularly sterling reputations. Economics alone is the selection of roughly one-fifth of the undergraduate population. Over 75% of undergrad sections have an enrollment of nineteen or fewer students, and undergraduate research opportunities are ubiquitous as 80% of students end up working in a research capacity alongside a faculty member.

Professional Outcomes: On commencement day, 99% of the Class of 2023 were employed or continuing their education. Business and financial services (30%) and STEM (12%) were the two sectors that scooped up the most graduates, but public policy and consulting were also well-represented. The most popular employers of recent grads include Google, JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, McKinsey & Company, Bank of America, Citi, and Accenture. For those heading to grad school, the top seven destinations are Yale, Columbia, Penn, MIT, Stanford, UCLA, and Johns Hopkins.

• Enrollment: 7,653 (undergraduate); 10,870 (graduate)
• Cost of Attendance: $89,040

Washington University in St. Louis

• St. Louis, MO

Academic Highlights : WashU admits students into five schools, many of which offer nationally recognized programs: Arts & Sciences, the Olin School of Business, the School of Engineering & Applied Sciences, and the Art of Architecture programs housed within the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts. The most commonly conferred degrees are in engineering (13%), social sciences (13%), business (13%), biology (11%), and psychology (10%). 66% of classes have fewer than 20 students, and over one-quarter have single-digit enrollments. 65% double major or pursue a minor.

Professional Outcomes: The Class of 2022 sent 52% of grads into the workforce and 28% into graduate and professional schools. Companies employing the highest number of WashU grads feature sought-after employers such as Amazon, Bain, Boeing, Deloitte, Google, IBM, Goldman Sachs, and Microsoft. Of the employed members of the Class of 2022 who reported their starting salaries, 79% made more than $60k. The universities welcoming the largest number of Bears included the prestigious institutions of Caltech, Columbia, Harvard, Penn, Princeton, and Stanford.

• Enrollment: 8,132 (undergraduate); 8,880 (graduate)
• Cost of Attendance: $83,760
• Median ACT: 34
• Acceptance Rate: 11%
• Retention Rate: 96%
• Graduation Rate: 93%

Emory University

• Atlanta, GA

Academic Highlights: This midsize university offers a diverse array of majors (80+) and minors (60+), and 30% of Emory students pursue more than one area of study. Over half of Emory’s student body works directly with a faculty member on academic research and 58% of courses have class sizes of under twenty students. Ultimately, the greatest number of students go on to earn degrees in the social sciences (15%), biology (14%), business (14%), health professions (12%), and mathematics (9%).

Professional Outcomes: Shortly after graduation, 66% of 2022 grads were already employed, and 96% had arrived at their next destination. The top employers of recent Emory grads include Deloitte, Epic, ScribeAmerica, Meta, Morgan Stanley, and Cloudmed. Graduates of the Goizueta Business School found strong starting salaries with an average of $81k.  In the last few years, multiple Emory grads/alums received acceptance letters from the following top law schools like Columbia, Berkeley, and Georgetown. Med school acceptances included Duke, Johns Hopkins, and Vanderbilt.

• Enrollment: 7,101
• Cost of Attendance: $83,702
• Median SAT: 1500
• Median ACT: 33
• Retention Rate: 95%
• Graduation Rate: 90%

Stanford University

• Palo Alto, CA

Academic Highlights: Stanford has three undergraduate schools: the School of Humanities & Sciences, the School of Engineering, and the School of Earth, Energy, and Environmental Sciences. 69% of classes have fewer than twenty students, and 34% have a single-digit enrollment. Programs in engineering, computer science, physics, mathematics, international relations, and economics are arguably the best anywhere. In terms of sheer volume, the greatest number of degrees are conferred in the social sciences (17%), computer science (16%), engineering (15%), and interdisciplinary studies (13%).

Professional Outcomes: Stanford grads entering the working world flock to three major industries in equal distribution: business/finance/consulting/retail (19%); computer, IT (19%); and public policy and service, international affairs (19%). Among the companies employing the largest number of recent grads are Accenture, Apple, Bain, Cisco, Meta, Goldman Sachs, Google, McKinsey, Microsoft, and SpaceX. Other companies that employ hundreds of Cardinal alums include LinkedIn, Salesforce, and Airbnb. Starting salaries for Stanford grads are among the highest in the country.

• Enrollment: 8,049 (undergraduate); 10,236 (graduate)
• Cost of Attendance: $87,833

Northwestern University

• Evanston, IL

Academic Highlights : Northwestern is home to six undergraduate schools, including Medill, which is widely regarded as one of the country’s best journalism schools. The McCormick School of Engineering also achieves top rankings, along with programs in economics, social policy, and theatre. The social sciences account for the greatest number of degrees conferred (19%), followed by communications/journalism (13%), and engineering (11%). 45% of classes have nine or fewer students enrolled; 78% have fewer than twenty enrollees. 57% of recent grads had the chance to conduct undergraduate research.

Professional Outcomes: Six months after graduating, 69% of the Class of 2022 had found employment and 27% were in graduate school. The four most popular professional fields were consulting (18%), engineering (18%), business/finance (16%), and communications/marketing/media (13%). Employers included the BBC, NBC News, The Washington Post , NPR, Boeing, Google, IBM, Deloitte, PepsiCo, Northrop Grumman, and Goldman Sachs. Across all majors, the average starting salary was $73k. Of those headed straight to graduate school, engineering, medicine, and business were the three most popular areas of concentration.

• Enrollment: 8,659 (undergraduate); 14,073 (graduate)
• Cost of Attendance: $91,290
• Graduation Rate: 97%

Duke University

Academic Highlights: The academic offerings at Duke include 53 majors, 52 minors, and 23 interdisciplinary certificates. Class sizes are on the small side—71% are nineteen or fewer, and almost one-quarter are less than ten. A stellar 5:1 student-to-faculty ratio helps keep classes so reasonable even while catering to five figures worth of graduate students. Computer Science is the most popular area of concentration (11%), followed by economics (10%), public policy (9%), biology (8%), and computer engineering (7%).

Professional Outcomes: At graduation, approximately 70% of Duke diploma-earners enter the world of work, 20% continue into graduate schools, and 2% start their own businesses. The industries that attract the largest percentage of Blue Devils are tech (21%), finance (15%), business (15%), healthcare (9%), and science/research (6%). Of the 20% headed into graduate school, a hefty 22% are attending medical school, 18% are in PhD programs, and 12% are entering law school. The med school acceptance rate is 85%, more than twice the national average.

• Enrollment: 6,640
• Cost of Attendance: $85,238
• SAT Range: 1490-1570
• ACT Range: 34-35
• Acceptance Rate: 6%

Yale University

• New Haven, CT

Academic Highlights: Yale offers 80 majors, most of which require a one- to two-semester senior capstone experience. Undergraduate research is a staple, and over 70% of classes—of which there are over 2,000 to choose from—have an enrollment of fewer than 20 students, making Yale a perfect environment for teaching and learning. Among the top departments are biology, economics, global affairs, engineering, history, and computer science. The social sciences (26%), biology (11%), mathematics (8%), and computer science (8%) are the most popular areas of concentration.

Professional Outcomes: Shortly after graduating, 73% of the Yale Class of 2022 had entered the world of employment and 18% matriculated into graduate programs. Hundreds of Yale alums can be found at each of the world’s top companies including Google, Goldman Sachs, McKinsey & Company, Morgan Stanley, and Microsoft. The most common industries entered by the newly hired were finance (20%), research/education (16%), technology (14%), and consulting (12%). The mean starting salary for last year’s grads was $81,769 ($120k for CS majors). Nearly one-fifth of students immediately pursue graduate school.

• Enrollment: 6,590 (undergraduate); 5,344 (graduate)
• Cost of Attendance: $87,705
• Graduation Rate: 98%

Hamilton College

• Clinton, NY

Academic Highlights: The student-to-faculty ratio is 9:1, and without any pesky graduate students to get in the way, face time with professors is a regular occurrence. In fact, 28% of all classes have nine or fewer students; 72% have nineteen or fewer. Economics, government, and biology are among the strongest and most popular majors; other standout programs include public policy, mathematics, and environmental studies. Thirty percent of students earn social science degrees, with biology (13%), visual and performing arts (9%), physical science (7%), and foreign languages (7%) next in line.

Professional Outcomes: Examining the 491 graduates in Hamilton’s Class of 2022, an enviable 97% wasted no time landing jobs, graduate school acceptances, or fellowships. The most commonly entered industries were finance (17%), education (13%), business (12%), and science/tech (11%). Only 17% of 2022 graduates went directly into an advanced degree program. In one recent year, 33% of Hamilton grads were studying a STEM field, 22% were in the social sciences, 17% pursued a health care degree, and 5% went to law school.

• Enrollment: 2,075
• Cost of Attendance: $82,430
• Median SAT: 1490
• Acceptance Rate: 12%
• Graduation Rate: 92%

Princeton University

• Princeton, NJ

Academic Highlights: 39 majors are available at Princeton. Just under three-quarters of class sections have an enrollment of 19 or fewer students, and 31% have fewer than ten students. Princeton is known for its commitment to undergraduate teaching, and students consistently rate professors as accessible and helpful. The Engineering Department is widely recognized as one of the country’s best, as is the School of Public and International Affairs.

Professional Highlights: Over 95% of a typical Tiger class finds their next destination within six months of graduating. Large numbers of recent grads flock to the fields of business and engineering, health/science, & tech. Companies presently employing hundreds of Tiger alumni include Google, Goldman Sachs, Microsoft, McKinsey & Company, Morgan Stanley, IBM, and Meta. The average salary ranges from $40k (education, health care, or social services) to $100k (computer/mathematical positions). Between 15-20% of graduating Tigers head directly to graduate/professional school.

• Enrollment: 5,604 (undergraduate); 3,238 (graduate)
• Cost of Attendance: $86,700

Carnegie Mellon University

• Pittsburgh, PA

Academic Highlights: There are a combined 80+ undergraduate majors and 90 minors available across the six schools. Impressively, particularly for a school with more graduate students than undergrads, CMU boasts a 6:1 student-to-faculty ratio and small class sizes, with 36% containing single digits. In a given school year, 800+ undergraduates conduct research through the University Research Office. The most commonly conferred degrees are in engineering (21%), computer science (16%), mathematics (12%), business (10%), and visual and performing arts (9%).

Professional Outcomes: By the end of the calendar year in which they received their diplomas, 66% of 2022 grads were employed, and 28% were continuing to graduate school. The companies that have routinely scooped up CMU grads include Google, Meta, Microsoft, Apple, Accenture, McKinsey, and Deloitte. With an average starting salary of $105,194, CMU grads outpace the average starting salary for a college grad nationally. Of those pursuing graduate education, around 20% typically enroll immediately in PhD programs.

• Enrollment: 7,509
• Cost of Attendance: $84,412

University of Iowa

• Iowa City, IA

Academic Highlights: 200+ undergraduate majors, minors, and certificate programs are available across eight colleges, including the Tippie College of Business, which has a very strong reputation. The most commonly conferred degree is business (24%), with parks and recreation (10%), social sciences (8%), health professions (8%), engineering (7%), and communication & journalism (5%) next in popularity. Over half of its undergraduate sections enroll 19 or fewer students, and 30% of undergrads conduct or assist research.

Professional Outcomes: 96% of Class of 2022 grads found their first job or advanced degree program within six months of receiving their diploma. The most commonly entered industries were healthcare (23%), entertainment/the arts (14%), finance and insurance (11%), and marketing/PR (10%). Companies that employ hundreds of alumni include Wells Fargo, Collins Aerospace, Principal Financial Group, Amazon, Accenture, and Microsoft. The median salary for 2022 grads was $50,000. 28% of recent graduates went directly into graduate school; 76% remained at the University of Iowa.

• Enrollment: 22,130 (undergraduate); 7,912 (graduate)
• Cost of Attendance: $28,846-$32,259 (in-state); $50,809-$54,822 (out-of-state)
• Median SAT: 1240
• Median ACT: 25
• Acceptance Rate: 85%
• Retention Rate: 89%
• Graduation Rate: 73%

Emerson College

Academic Highlights: All 26 majors offered by the school have some element of performance or artistry and include highly unique academic concentrations such as comedic arts, sports communication, and musical theater. Emerson has a 15:1 student-to-faculty ratio and 69% of courses seat fewer than 20 students. The Journalism and Communications Studies programs rank among the top in the country. By sheer popularity, the top majors are film/video production, journalism, marketing, theater arts, and creative writing.

Professional Outcomes: Within six months of leaving Emerson, 61% of recent grads were employed, 4% were enrolled in graduate school, and 35% were still seeking their next landing spot. Top employers include the Walt Disney Company, Warner Media, Sinclair Broadcast Group, and CNN. The average full-time salary for employed grads is $40,255. Of those entering a master’s program, the bulk stay put, pursuing a master’s at Emerson in an area like writing for film and television, creative writing, or journalism.

• Enrollment: 4,149
• Cost of Attendance: $73,000
• Median SAT: 1360
• Median ACT: 31
• Acceptance Rate: 43%
• Retention Rate: 86%
• Graduation Rate: 77%

University of Southern California

• Los Angeles, CA

Academic Highlights : There are 140 undergraduate majors and minors within the Dornsife College of Arts & Sciences alone, the university’s oldest and largest school. The Marshall School of Business, Viterbi School of Engineering, and programs in communication, the cinematic arts, and the performing arts are highly acclaimed. Popular areas of study are business (22%), social sciences (11%), visual and performing arts (11%), communications/journalism (9%), and engineering (8%). Most courses enroll 10-19 students, and USC does an excellent job facilitating undergraduate research opportunities.

Professional Outcomes: 96% of undergrads experience positive postgraduation outcomes within six months of earning their degree. The top five industries entered were finance, consulting, advertising, software development, and engineering; the median salary across all majors is an astounding $79k. Presently, between 300 and 1,500 alumni are employed at each of Google, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, KPMG, Goldman Sachs, and Meta. Graduate/professional schools enrolling the greatest number of 2022 USC grads include NYU, Georgetown, Harvard, Stanford, Pepperdine, and UCLA.

• Enrollment: 20,699 (undergraduate); 28,246 (graduate)
• Cost of Attendance: $90,921
• Median SAT: 1510

Cornell University

Academic Highlights: A diverse array of academic programs includes 80 majors and 120 minors spread across the university’s seven schools/colleges. Classes are a bit larger at Cornell than at many other elite institutions. Still, 55% of sections have fewer than 20 students. Most degrees conferred in 2022 were in computer science (17%), engineering (13%), business (13%), and biology (13%). The SC Johnson College of Business houses two undergraduate schools, both of which have phenomenal reputations.

Professional Outcomes: Breaking down the graduates of the College of Arts and Sciences, the largest school at Cornell, 68% entered the workforce, 28% entered graduate school, 1% pursued other endeavors such as travel or volunteer work, and the remaining 3% were still seeking employment six months after receiving their diplomas. The top sectors attracting campus-wide graduateswere financial services (18%), technology (17%), consulting (15%), and education (10%). Of the students from A&S going on to graduate school, 15% were pursuing JDs, 5% MDs, and 22% PhDs.

• Enrollment: 15,735
• Cost of Attendance: $88,150
• Median SAT: 1520

Oberlin College

• Oberlin, OH

Academic Highlights: Over 40 majors are available at Oberlin, which is an extremely strong provider of a liberal arts education. 79% of classes had 19 or fewer students enrolled. The greatest number of degrees conferred are typically in music, political science, biology, psychology, and history. The Conservatory of Music has a worldwide reputation, and programs in the natural sciences are similarly strong, leading to remarkable medical school acceptance rates and a high number of future PhD scientists and researchers.

Professional Outcomes: Within six months, 74% of recent grads found employment, 17% enrolled in graduate school, and just 5% were still seeking employment. Multiple recent grads were hired by Google, Netflix, and Sony Pictures. Over the last few years, multiple students have gone on to pursue advanced degrees at Harvard, Stanford, MIT, Brown, Columbia, Princeton, and the University of Michigan. Oberlin also has a reputation for churning out future PhDs and, is among the top 20 schools (per capita) across all disciplines in producing graduates who go on to earn their doctoral degrees.

• Enrollment: 2,986
• Cost of Attendance: $85,496
• Median SAT: 1400-1540
• Median ACT: 32-34
• Acceptance Rate: 33%
• Retention Rate: 87%
• Graduation Rate: 83%

University of Pittsburgh

Academic Highlights: Pitt admits freshmen to the Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences, the College of Business Administration, the Swanson School of Engineering, and the School of Nursing. Pitt’s engineering and business schools are top-rated and among the most commonly chosen fields of study. Premed offerings are also top-notch, with majors in the health professions (12%), biology (11%), psychology (9%), and computer science (9%) rounding out the list of most popular majors. Pitt has a strong 13:1 student-to-faculty ratio; 42% of sections have an enrollment of under twenty students.

Professional Outcomes: Within a few months of graduating, 94% of 2022 grads entered full-time employment or full-time graduate or professional school. Engineering, nursing, business, and information sciences majors had 73-86% employment rates while other majors tended to flock to graduate school in large numbers. Employers scooping up the highest number of grads in one recent year included the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (170), PNC (57), BNY Mellon (36), and Deloitte (19). Median starting salaries fluctuated between $37k-65k depending on major.

• Enrollment: 20,220 (undergraduate); 9,268 (graduate)
• Cost of Attendance: $38,034-$43,254 (in-state); $56,400-$66,840 (out-of-state)
• Acceptance Rate: 50%
• Retention Rate: 92%
• Graduation Rate: 84%

Swarthmore College

• Swarthmore, PA

Academic Highlights: Swarthmore offers forty undergraduate programs and runs 600+ courses each academic year. Small, seminar-style courses are the norm—an outstanding 33% of sections enroll fewer than ten students, and 70% contain a maximum of nineteen students. Social science degrees are the most commonly conferred, accounting for 24% of all 2022 graduates. Future businessmen/women, engineers, and techies are also well-positioned, given Swat’s incredibly strong offerings in economics, engineering, and computer science.

Professional Outcomes: 68% of Class of 2022 grads entered the workforce shortly after graduation. Popular industries included education (17%), consulting (16%), and financial services (13%); the median starting salary was $60,000. Google is a leading employer of Swarthmore grads followed by Amazon, Goldman Sachs, IBM, and a number of the top universities.  18% of 2022 grads pursued advanced degrees, with 35% pursuing a PhD, 35% entering master’s programs, 10% heading to law school, and 7% matriculating into medical school.

• Enrollment: 1,625
• Cost of Attendance: $81,376
• Graduation Rate: 94%

Bryn Mawr College

• Bryn Mawr, PA

Academic Highlights: On the home campus, undergraduates can choose from 35 majors and 50 minors. Roughly 35% of the student body earns degrees in the natural sciences or mathematics, a figure four times the national average for women. By volume, the most popular majors are mathematics, psychology, biology, English, and computer science. An 8:1 student-to-faculty ratio leads to small class sizes with 74% of sections having fewer than twenty students, and 24% of sections enrolling nine students or fewer.

Professional Outcomes: One year after receiving their diplomas, 57% of Bryn Mawr graduates had found employment and a robust 28% had already entered graduate school. Most of the organizations employing the greatest number of alumni are universities and hospital systems, although Google, Accenture, JPMorgan Chase, and Vanguard do employ a fair number of Bryn Mawr graduates. Among recent grads pursuing further education, 63% were in master’s programs, 13% were already working on their PhD, and 10% were in medical school.

• Enrollment: 1,409
• Cost of Attendance: $79,880
• Median SAT: 1400
• Acceptance Rate: 31%
• Retention Rate: 90%

Wellesley College

• Wellesley, MA

Academic Highlights: There are 50+ departmental and interdisciplinary majors. Thirty-six percent of course sections have single-digit enrollments while 77% have 19 or fewer students. In addition, opportunities for participation in research with faculty members abound. Most programs possess sterling reputations, including chemistry, computer science, neuroscience, and political science, but the Department of Economics shines most brightly, leading many into PhD programs and high-profile careers. Economics, biology, and computer science are the most frequently conferred degrees.

Professional Outcomes : Six months after graduating, 97% of the Class of 2022 had achieved positive outcomes. Of the 76% of grads who were employed, 24% were working in the finance/consulting/business fields, 17% in education, 17% in internet and technology & engineering, and 15% in healthcare/life sciences. Top employers included JPMorgan Chase, Google, Boston Children’s Hospital, and Goldman Sachs. The average starting salary for one recent cohort was a solid $63k. Of the 20% of 2022 grads who directly entered an advanced degree program, common schools attended included Harvard, Columbia, Brown, Stanford, MIT, and Emory.

• Enrollment: 2,447
• Cost of Attendance: $84,240
• Acceptance Rate: 14%

Colby College

• Waterville, ME

Academic Highlights: Offering 56 majors and 35 minors, Colby provides a classic liberal arts education with a high degree of flexibility and room for independent intellectual pursuits. A 10:1 student-to-faculty ratio is put to good instructional use as roughly two-thirds of courses have fewer than 19 students. Being a true liberal arts school, Colby has strengths across many disciplines, but biology, economics, and global studies draw especially high praise. These programs along with government and environmental science attract the highest number of students.

Professional Outcomes: Within six months of graduation, 93% of the Class of 2022 had either obtained jobs or were enrolled full-time in a graduate program. Eighteen percent of graduates enter the financial industry and large numbers also start careers in education, with government/nonprofit, STEM, and healthcare next in popularity. The Medical school acceptance rate over the past five years is 68%, nearly double the national average.

• Enrollment: 2,299
• Cost of Attendance: $86,720
• Average SAT: 1485
• Average ACT: 33
• Acceptance Rate: 8%
• Retention Rate: 93%
• Graduation Rate: 87%

University of Michigan

• Ann Arbor, MI

Academic Highlights: There are 280+ undergraduate degree programs across fourteen schools and colleges, and the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts (LSA) enrolls the majority of students. The Ross School of Business offers highly rated programs in entrepreneurship, management, accounting, and finance. The College of Engineering is also one of the best in the country. By degrees conferred, engineering (15%), computer science (14%), and the social sciences (11%) are most popular. A solid 56% of classes have fewer than 20 students.

Professional Outcomes: Within three months of graduating, 89% of LSA grads are employed full-time or in graduate school, with healthcare, education, law, banking, research, nonprofit work, and consulting being the most popular sectors. Within three months, 99% of Ross grads are employed with a median salary of $90k. Top employers include Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, EY, Morgan Stanley, PwC, Deloitte, and Amazon.  Within six months, 96% of engineering grads are employed (average salary of $84k) or in grad school. General Motors, Ford, Google, Microsoft, Apple, and Meta employ the greatest number of alumni.

• Enrollment: 32,695 (undergraduate); 18,530 (graduate)
• Cost of Attendance: $35,450 (in-state); $76,294 (out-of-state)
• Median SAT: 1470
• Acceptance Rate: 18%

Bucknell University

• Lewisburg, PA

Academic Highlights: Over 60 majors and 70 minors are on tap across three undergraduate schools: the College of Arts & Sciences, Freeman College of Management, and the College of Engineering. Getting well-acquainted with your professors is easy with a 9:1 student-faculty ratio, and class sizes are reasonably small. The greatest number of degrees are conferred in the areas of the social sciences (26%), engineering (14%), business (14%), biology (11%), and psychology (9%).

Professional Outcomes: Nine months after graduation, 94% of the Class of 2022 had launched their careers or entered graduate school. Financial services is the most common sector for Bucknell grads to enter, attracting 24% of alumni. Across all disciplines, the average salary for a Class of 2022 grad was $69,540. Bucknell saw 18% of 2022 grads go directly into an advanced degree program. Bison alumni heading to graduate school predominantly pursue degrees in the medical field, social sciences, business, or engineering.

• Enrollment: 3,747
• Cost of Attendance: $80,890
• Median SAT: 1380
• Median ACT: 32
• Retention Rate: 91%

Haverford College

• Haverford, PA

Academic Highlights: Haverford offers 31 majors, 32 minors, 12 concentrations, and eleven consortium programs—areas of study that can be pursued at partner campuses. The school’s 9:1 student-to-faculty ratio and exclusive emphasis on undergraduate education lead to exceptionally intimate classes, 33% of which have fewer than 10 students, and 72% have fewer than 20. The most popular areas of study at Haverford include the social sciences (24%), biology (14%), psychology (11%), physical sciences (10%), computer science (9%), and mathematics (7%).

Professional Outcomes: Six months after leaving Haverford, 63% of the Class of 2022 had found employment, 19% had enrolled in graduate school, and 9% were still job hunting. Employers hiring multiple recent Haverford grads include Epic, JP Morgan Chase Bank, Boston Consulting Group, Goldman Sachs, the National Institutes of Health, and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Of the 19% of 2022 grads who elected to continue their education, the most commonly entered fields of study were STEM (51%) and medicine/health (15%).

• Enrollment: 1,421
• Cost of Attendance: $87,180
• Graduation Rate: 91%

Colorado College

• Colorado Springs, CO

Academic Highlights: Rather than the typical semester schedule, Colorado College operates on the “block plan,” a series of eight three-and-half-week periods during which students take only one course. You won’t find a more intimate liberal arts college than CC. Classes have a cap of 25 students, and no more than a handful of courses exceed that figure. The average class consists of 16 students. In terms of sheer volume, most degrees are conferred in the social sciences (28%), biology (17%), natural resources and conservation (8%), and physical science (6%).

Professional Outcomes: Among the Class of 2022, an impressive 99% arrived successfully at their next destination within six months of earning their diploma. The largest number of graduates who pursue employment end up in the fields of education, technology, health care, the arts, and government.  The bachelor’s degree earned at Colorado College is unlikely to be the last degree a graduate will earn. Five years after graduation, the typical cohort sees 70-90% of its members having either completed or finishing an advanced degree.

• Enrollment: 2,180
• Cost of Attendance: $87,128
• Acceptance Rate: 16%
• Graduation Rate: 86%

Brandeis University

• Waltham, MA

Academic Highlights: Brandeis offers 43 majors, the most popular of which are in the social sciences (18%), biology (17%), business (10%), psychology (8%), public administration (8%), and computer science (7%). The student-faculty ratio is 11:1, and 60% of courses contain nineteen or fewer students. Departments with a particularly strong national reputation include economics, international studies, and sociology as well as all of the traditional premed pathways including biology, and chemistry.

Professional Outcomes: Within six months of graduation, 98% of the Class of 2022 had found their way to employment (59%), graduate school (35%), or another full-time activity like travel or volunteer work (4%). Members of the Class of 2022 were hired by Red Hat, Deloitte, Nasdaq, NPR, and McKinsey & Company. The average starting salary for recent grads is $61k. A large contingent of grads elects to continue at Brandeis for graduate school. Many others go to BU, Columbia, Duke, Harvard, and Yale.

• Enrollment: 3,687
• Cost of Attendance: $86,242
• Median SAT: 1440
• Acceptance Rate: 39%

Macalester College

• St. Paul, MN

Academic Highlights: Students can choose from roughly 40 majors and over 800 courses that are offered each academic year . Being an undergraduate-only institution, Macalester students enjoy the full benefits of the school’s 10:1 student-to-faculty ratio. The average class size is only 17 students, and 14% of class sections have single-digit enrollments. Macalester possesses strong offerings across many different disciplines. Programs in economics, international studies, and mathematics are among the best anywhere.

Professional Outcomes: Six months after graduating, 95% of the Macalester Class of 2022 had found employment, graduate school, or a fellowship. Employers of recent grads include ABC News, Google, Goldman Sachs, Dow Chemical Company, McKinsey & Company, the ACLU, the National Cancer Institute, and National Geographic . Across all sectors, the average starting salary for recent grads was above $62k. Sixty percent of Mac grads pursue an advanced degree within six years of earning their bachelor’s.

• Enrollment: 2,175
• Cost of Attendance: $79,890
• Median SAT: 1430
• Acceptance Rate: 28%
• Retention Rate: 88%

Barnard College

Academic Highlights: Barnard has a 10:1 student-faculty ratio, and a sensational 71% of courses are capped at nineteen or fewer students; 18% have fewer than ten. Many get the chance to engage in research alongside a professor as 240+ undergraduates are granted such an opportunity through the Summer Research Institute each year. Barnard’s most popular majors, by number of degrees conferred, include economics, English, political science, history, psychology, neuroscience, computer science, and art history.

Professional Outcomes: Six months after graduation, 91% of 2022 Barnard grads had found employment or were enrolled in a graduate program. JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Blackrock, Citibank, and Morgan Stanley all appear on the list of the top fifteen employers of Barnard alumni. Within ten years of graduation, over 80% of Barnard alums eventually enroll in graduate school. Those entering graduate school flock in large numbers to Columbia, with 112 heading there over the last three years.

• Enrollment: 3,442
• Cost of Attendance: $90,928
• Acceptance Rate: 9%

Georgetown University

• Washington, D.C.

Academic Highlights: The student-faculty ratio is 11:1, and 60% of classes enroll fewer than 20 students. While some classes are a bit larger, only 7% cross the 50-student threshold. Those desiring to join the world of politics or diplomacy are in the right place. The Government and International Affairs programs are among the best in the country. The greatest number of degrees are conferred in the social sciences (38%) followed by business (20%), interdisciplinary studies (8%), and biology (7%).

Professional Outcomes: Within six months of graduating, 75% of members of the Class of 2022 entered the workforce, 19% went directly into a graduate or professional program of study, and 3% were still seeking employment. The Class of 2022 sent massive numbers of graduates to a number of major corporations including JPMorgan Chase (22), Citi (21), BOA (18), Morgan Stanley (16), and EY (10). Those attending grad school stay at Georgetown or flock to other elite schools like Columbia and Harvard.

• Enrollment: 7,900
• Cost of Attendance: $85,000

Elon University

Academic Highlights: Students choose from 70 majors and can add a number of interesting minors like adventure-based learning, coaching, and multimedia authoring. Elon’s 11:1 student-to-faculty ratio leads to an average class size of 20 students; 51% of sections contain fewer than 20 students. The areas in which the greatest number of degrees are conferred are business (29%), journalism/communication (20%), social sciences (8%), the visual and performing arts (6%), and psychology (6%).

Professional Outcomes: Results of a survey administered nine months after graduation found that 96% of the Class of 2022 had found employment, a graduate school, or an internship. Top employers of recent Elon graduates include Bloomberg, Deloitte, EY, Google, Goldman Sachs, Red Ventures, and Wells Fargo. Recent business grads enjoyed a median salary of $61k while communications majors earned $47k. Just under one-quarter of recent grads gained acceptance into graduate/professional school and many remain at Elon.

• Enrollment: 6,337
• Cost of Attendance: $66,657
• Median SAT: 1260
• Median ACT: 28
• Acceptance Rate: 78%

DePauw University

• Greencastle, IN

Academic Highlights: No matter which of the 40+ majors you pursue at DePauw, you will enjoy the benefits of small class sizes and face time with faculty. A 9:1 student-to-faculty ratio and the fact that only four class sections in the whole university enroll more than 29 students assures that. The greatest number of DePauw undergrads earn degrees in the social sciences (17%), biology (10%), the visual/performing arts (9%), communication/journalism (8%), and computer science (6%).

Professional Outcomes: The university’s “Gold Commitment” guarantees that all grads will land at their next destination within six months, or they will be provided with an entry-level professional opportunity or an additional tuition-free semester. Top employers of DePauw grads include Eli Lilly and Company, IBM, Northern Trust Corporation, AT&T, and Procter & Gamble. Tigers applying to graduate and professional schools experience high levels of success. Of medical school applicants who earned a 3.6 GPA and scored in the 80th percentile on the MCAT, 90% are accepted to at least one institution.

• Enrollment: 1,752
• Cost of Attendance: $74,400
• Acceptance Rate: 66%
• Graduation Rate: 79%

University of Washington – Seattle

• Seattle, WA

Academic Highlights: 180+ undergraduate majors are offered across thirteen colleges/schools. Personal connections with professors abound as 55% of grads complete a faculty-mentored research project. The College of Engineering, which includes the College of Computer Science & Engineering, is one of the best in the nation; UW also boasts strong programs in everything from business to social work to environmental science. The most popular degrees are the social sciences (13%), biology (12%), computer science (11%), and business (8%).

Professional Outcomes: Within months of graduation, 73% of Class of 2022 grads were employed and 17% were continuing their education. The most popular employers of the Class of 2022 included Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Boeing, and KPMG. Across all living alumni, 6,000+ work for Microsoft, and 4000+ work for each of Boeing and Amazon. Of those headed to graduate/professional school, just over half remain in state, mostly at UW itself. Large numbers of 2022 grads also headed to Columbia, Johns Hopkins, and USC.

• Enrollment: 36,872 (undergraduate); 16,211 (graduate)
• Cost of Attendance: $34,554 (in-state); $63,906 (out-of-state)
• Median SAT: 1420
• Acceptance Rate: 48%
• Retention Rate: 94%

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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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Certificate in Creative Writing

About the Online Creative Writing Certificate

The Certificate in Creative Writing offers an innovative, collaborative course of study for those who have always wanted to unlock their creativity. Each online course is designed as a workshop in which you explore new ideas, tackle new writing tools, generate original insights and discover your own powers of expression. You create, collaboratively discuss and revise your original writing with feedback from your instructors and your peers. You also engage with a range of assigned readings and multimedia that inform and grow your innovative practice.

The Certificate in Creative Writing offers both basic and advanced workshops and appeals to students new to creative writing as well as students with writing experience who want to learn new skills. Through a series of online courses in fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, and screenwriting, the Certificate in Creative Writing focuses on creative writing as a form of critical thinking as a way to reimagine audience and as a space of innovation. Taught by professionals in the field, our courses cultivate both individual and group learning, providing an overview of the field as well as deep dives into literary genres. These online creative writing courses are designed as hands-on, intensive study of the subtleties and power of language.

Creative Writing Certificate Requirements

The Certificate in Creative Writing is a 4-course, 4 c.u.* credit program of study taught by University of Pennsylvania faculty. To earn a certificate, students complete any four courses offered, in any order.  Students who complete the basic certificate may pursue an advanced certificate (6-course, 6 c.u.*) by adding two additional creative writing courses.

Flexible Course Schedule and Tuition

Penn LPS Online courses in the Certificate in Creative Writing are offered in accelerated 8-week terms and full terms. Courses in the online certificate program are largely asynchronous with some optional synchronous sessions to be scheduled by the instructors.

You have the option to enroll in individual creative writing courses without committing to the entire online certificate, enjoying the flexibility and expertise offered by Penn LPS Online to suit your schedule and interests. Visit the Cost of Attendance page for course tuition and fee rates.

Watch a video of a recent virtual information session to hear from the program team about the Certificate in Creative Writing.

If you are having trouble viewing this video, watch it on YouTube .

*Academic credit is defined by the University of Pennsylvania as a course unit (c.u.). A course unit (c.u.) is a general measure of academic work over a period of time, typically a term (semester or summer). A c.u. (or a fraction of a c.u.) represents different types of academic work across different types of academic programs and is the basic unit of progress toward a degree. One c.u. is usually converted to a four-semester-hour course.

The Certificate in Creative Writing prepares you to:

• Understand how text conveys meaning across a variety of literary genres and styles
• Explore how to use innovation, flexibility, and collaboration to cultivate a creative writing practice
• Create, revise and edit your original writing in multiple literary genres, including poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and screenwriting

Online Creative Writing Courses

Certificate students who complete four of the online courses listed below earn a Certificate in Creative Writing. Those students are then eligible to pursue an Advanced Certificate in Creative Writing by taking two additional courses.

• CRWR 1010: The Craft of Creative Writing
• CRWR 1600: Modern and Contemporary US Poetry
• CRWR 2010: Poetry Workshop
• CRWR 2400: The Art of Editing
• CRWR 2500: Writing and Meditation
• CRWR 2600: Fiction Workshop
• CRWR 2800: Narrative Collage
• CRWR 3000: Writing About Place
• CRWR 3200: Screenwriting
• CRWR 3600: Advanced Nonfiction *
• CRWR 3700: Journalism

*This course may not be offered every academic year. Check the course page or our course guide to see when upcoming terms are added.

Courses are subject to change.

See Course Tuition

Meet The Faculty

Julia Bloch

• Faculty Director, Penn LPS Online Certificate in Creative Writing
• Director, Creative Writing Program

• Director, Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing

Laynie Browne

• Poet, prose writer, teacher and editor

Scott Burkhardt

• Lecturer in cinema and media studies

Christy Davids

• Teacher, poet and assistant editor at The Conversant

Lise Funderburg

• Lecturer in creative writing

• 2017-2018 Digital Studies Fellow at Rutgers University-Camden

Dick Polman

• Povich Writer-in-Residence at the Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing (CPCW)

• Writer, editor, teacher

Zachary Tyler Vickers

Careers related to creative writing.

The Certificate in Creative Writing is designed to enhance your writing and storytelling skills and provide a framework for a creative process that can be applied to a myriad of professional roles including:

• Advertising copywriter
• Fundraising/development consultant
• Author and journalist

• 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 Application Deadline: 11:59 pm ET on Sunday, April 7, 2024. Spring 2025 Application Deadline: TBD

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

Our online submission manager (link below) will open for Fall 2024 applications on Friday, March 22 , 2024.

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

The botany of desire by michael pollan (2001).

A Life Apart by Neel Mukherjee (2010)

The Last Shot: City Streets, Basketball Dream by Darcy Frey (2004)

Open City by Teju Cole (2011)

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 Sunday, April 7) 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 Sunday, April 7)

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 Sunday, April 7)

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 CKR. Introduction to Playwriting: Workshop

Instructor: Sam Marks TBD | Location: TBD Enrollment: Limited to 12 students This workshop is an introduction to writing for the stage through intensive reading and in-depth written exercises. Each student will explore the fundamentals and possibilities of playwriting by generating short scripts and completing a one act play with an eye towards both experimental and traditional narrative styles. Readings will examine various ways of creating dramatic art and include work from contemporary playwrights such as Ayad Aktar, Clare Barron, Aleshea Harris, Young Jean Lee, and Taylor Mac, as well established work from Edward Albbe, Caryl Churchill, Suzan Lori-Parks, and Harold Pinter. Supplemental Application Information:  No experience in writing the dramatic form is necessary. Please submit a 5-10 page writing sample (preferably a play or screenplay, but all genres are acceptable and encouraged). Also, please write a few sentences about a significant theatrical experience (a play read or seen) and how it affected you.

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 Sunday, April 7)

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 Sunday, April 7)

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 Sunday, April 7) 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 Sunday, April 7) 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 Program

Linda A. Cicero | Stanford News Service

Cultivating the power of individual expression within a vibrant community of writers

It’s here that I fell deeper and deeper in love with writing, and I can say without a shadow of doubt that I met mentors, peers, and friends for life. The generosity with which the Creative Writing Program has shaped me will sustain—it’s truly been life-changing.

Creative Writing Minor

Discover your writing prowess and push the imaginative bounds of prose, poetry, and screenwriting with our undergraduate minor.

Stegner Fellowship

An opportunity for promising writers to develop their craft in the company of peers and under the guidance of Stanford faculty.

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Meet the faces of Creative Writing--the faculty, lecturers, staff, and visiting writers who guide and support our students and fellows.

In the Spotlight

12th Annual Poetry Into Film Contest

The 12th Annual Poetry Into Film Contest is accepting submissions for the best short film inspired by a poem.

Katherine Wolkoff

Remembering Louise Glück

The Nobel laureate, 2003-2004 Poet Laureate of the United States, and former visiting professor at Stanford died last week at 80.

Jemimah Wei

Finding solace in humor at the first Stegner Fellow reading of the year

“It’s okay, you can make a lot of noise if you want!” said poet Joseph Rios as he encouraged the audience of the first Stegner Fellow reading of the 2023-2024 academic year.

Recent News

Associate Professor of English, Kirstin Valdez Quade awarded John S. Guggenheim Fellowship

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Spring 2024 Course Preference Form

Take a course with Arthur Sze, the Mohr Visiting Poet - submit course application for English 192V!

Upcoming events.

A Conversation and Book Signing with Adam Mansbach

Adam Mansbach  is a novelist, screenwriter, cultural critic and humorist. He is the author of the #1  New York Times  …

• Lane Lecture Series

Reading with Carmen Maria Machado, part of the Lane Lecture Series

The Creative Writing Program is pleased to announce the next event in the Lane Lecture Series: A Reading with Carmen Maria…

Colloquium with Carmen Maria Machado, part of the Lane Lecture Series

The Creative Writing Program is pleased to announce the next event in the  Lane Lecture Series: A Colloquium with Carmen Maria Machado…

The Fight Journal

When I Waked, I Cried To Dream Again

Things I Didn’t Do with This Body

All the Yellow Suns

So We Can Know: Writers of Color on Pregnancy, Loss, Abortion, and Birth (Ed. Aracelis Girmay)

Winter Stranger

Creative Writing

One of the nation's most prestigious open-enrollment creative writing programs..

Whether you're looking to improve your writing for personal fulfillment, want to be published, or are preparing to apply to an MFA program, the Writers' Program can help you achieve your goals. You will find a supportive community of instructors, academic counselors and fellow students to help you on your journey.

We offer a wide range of open-enrollment courses, all of which may be taken individually. A guide on where to get started is provided below.

We also offer a fully customizable 21-unit Certificate in Creative Writing  where you can develop professional creative writing skills in the genre of your choice.

What do you want to create?

See All Courses

Creative Writing Certificate

Develop your skills in the genre of your choice, including fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, and more.

This customizable program culminates in a capstone project where you will make significant progress on a polished collection of work.

Taught by a prestigious roster of instructors who are published writers and active professionals, courses can be taken onsite, online, or a combination of both.

Annual Writers Studio

4-day in-person, intensive workshops in Creative Writing & Screenwriting.

Perfect for both aspiring and experienced writers looking for new inspiration.

August 1-4, 2024 Registration opens Monday, February 5

Writers' Program Consultations

If you have a completed draft of a manuscript and need feedback for your work, you may consider a one-on-one consultation with a Writers’ Program instructor.

Consultations give you a full cover-to-cover read of your work, a written evaluation, and a follow-up conversation in person, via phone, or web chat.

Expect more from your education.

MFA, fiction writer, author of the story collection Once Removed (UGA Press) and winner of the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction. 

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Writers' Program Network of Writers (WP NOW)

Stay immersed in the Writers' Program community. Our optional membership program offers exclusive access to a range of discounts and benefits, including members-only networking, professional development opportunities, and course discounts. 

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My UCLA Extension coursework, teachers, and colleagues have shaped my writing life, fueled the creation of my novel, and provided continual inspiration.

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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 as a:

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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Results for Undergraduate Creative writing Courses

92 universities offer 362 undergraduate courses

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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

Short and part-time courses with Oxford University

Need an extra push to finish your novel, poem or play? Want to explore new genres? Whether you're a beginner wondering where to start, or an experienced writer looking to extend your craft, we have a course for you.

Short courses

Our  short courses in creative writing  include in person and online live-time weekly classes, day and weekend schools and flexible online courses.

Courses cover all genres: fiction, poetry, memoir, creative nonfiction, drama, writing for young adults and critical reading. There are courses for beginners and options for those with experience. Class sizes are kept small to maximise interaction between you, your classmates and your tutor.

Credit earned from some of our short courses is transferable towards our  Certificate of Higher Education  – a part-time undergraduate course in which you study a main subject discipline, but also undertake study in other academic subjects.

• View all short courses in creative writing
• Ways to study: how our short courses work

Summer schools

Join us for one of our Oxford  creative writing summer courses , and spend a week or longer immersed in your craft. Accredited and non-accredited options are available; courses take place at Rewley House and at Oxford's historic colleges.

• Creative writing summer courses

Part-time Oxford University qualifications

From undergraduate level to advanced postgraduate study.

• The  Undergraduate Diploma in Creative Writing  is a two-year part-time course that helps you to strengthen your ability in four major areas of literary activity — prose, poetry, drama and analytical reading — while letting you specialise in the genre of your choice. Choose from two study options: regular in-person meetings in Oxford or mostly online, with a summer school in Oxford.
• The  Certificate of Higher Education  is a flexible, part-time programme which lets you study a main subject discipline (such as creative writing) while also undertaking study in other academic subjects. Ideal for lifelong learners, you can study what you want, when you want, how you want. The credits you obtain from taking short online courses, weekly classes and attendance at the Oxford University Summer School for Adults all count towards your final award.
• Delve deeper into creative writing with our MSt in Creative Writing – a two-year, part-time master's programme offering a unique combination of high contact hours, genre specialization, and critical and creative breadth, delivered in a clustered learning format of five residences, two guided retreats and one placement over two years.

Student spotlights

Charles bush.

Charles Bush published his debut young-adult novel thanks to the skills and experience gained from completing the Undergraduate Certificate of Higher Education.

Tahmina Maula

Tahmina worked as a senior manager in education before taking a career break to undertake the Undergraduate Diploma in Creative Writing.

Daisy Johnson

While studying the MSt in Creative Writing Daisy worked on a collection of short stories which would later become her debut book.

Upcoming courses

Trollope, eliot, dickens and hardy: reading victorian fiction (online).

• Wed 17 Apr 2024 – 28 Jun 2024

Reading and Writing Poetry

• Mon 22 Apr 2024 – Mon 08 Jul 2024
• 10 meetings
• 7:00 – 9:00pm

Logos: A Theory of Everything

• Tue 23 Apr 2024 – 28 May 2024
• 2:00 – 3:15pm

The Sleep of Reason: Popular Science Fiction Cinema since 'Blade Runner' (1982)

• Tue 23 Apr 2024 – Tue 25 Jun 2024

Thomas Hardy

• 2:00 – 4:00pm

Part-time award programmes

Part-time creative writing award-bearing courses for those looking to gain an Oxford qualification.

Undergraduate Diploma in Creative Writing

Mst in creative writing, undergraduate certificate of higher education.

Rice English integrates creative and critical practice through training in close reading, analytical writing, cultural history, and craft/form. Our faculty research and pedagogy cover the breadth of the study of British and American literatures and cultures ranging from the medieval era to the present.

Welcome (Start Here)

Creative writing @ rice.

Creative Writing has always played an influential role in the intellectual development of our undergraduates’ curiosity, imagination, and desire for collaboration. The discipline will enhance your skills for inquiry and independent research, enlarge your capacities for imaginative thinking and idea generation, and expand your knowledge of genre, literary history, poetics, and narrative form. As a member of our artistic and intellectual community, you will have the opportunity to work alongside other emerging writers to understand, investigate, and influence the most pressing social, political, environmental, and spiritual issues of contemporary life.

The Department of English offers two credentials in Creative Writing: the Minor in Creative Writing (6 courses) and t he Major Concentration in Creative Writing (11 courses). As Creative Writing faculty, we are committed to expanding and deepening your investigations through a dynamic curriculum that goes beyond introductory courses in Fiction, Non-Fiction, and Poetry to include offerings in literary translation, screenwriting, cultural criticism, food writing, the graphic novel, podcasting, nature writing, narrative medicine, literary journalism, book arts, as well as courses in literary editing and publishing. Our students are able to build upon their work in the classroom through collaborations within the Digital Humanities, the Medical Humanities, Environmental Studies, The School of Architecture, The Shepherd School of Music, The Moody Center for the Arts, The Visual and Performing Arts, and other academic units across campus, Houston, and beyond. At the upper level, topics courses in the poetry chapbook, the novel and the novella, and screenwriting allow interested students to steer longer-form projects toward publication and to use their final products as part of applications to a variety of graduate programs and professions. Regardless of career path, Creative Writing graduates leave Rice equipped with the formal writing, editing, and communication skills that are increasingly valuable in today’s idea-driven fields.

Legacy & Mission

Rice University has a long tradition of producing and supporting award-winning authors including Larry McMurtry (Class of 1960), the only author to have won a Pulitzer Prize and an Academy Award; Joyce Carol Oates, who first began work on her National Book Award-winning novel, Them , while a Ph.D. student at Rice University; William Broyles Jr. (Class of 1966) founding editor of Texas Monthly , editor of Newsweek and co-author of the Academy Award-nominated best-adapted screenplay, Apollo 13 , as well as the creator of the television series, China Beach , and the original screenplay, Castaway . Faculty past and present include a MacArthur Fellow, New York Times Best-Selling authors, a two-time finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, recipients of fellowship grants from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Whiting Foundation, the Academy of American Poets, the Mellon Foundation and PEN America. Our recent graduates have gone on to study at top-ranked MFA programs such as USC, UCLA’s School of Theater, Film, and Television, The New School, Ohio State, and the University of Houston, among others. As stewards of this important tradition, we seek to honor, uphold and expand the influence and presence of Creative Writing on campus, and to elevate the voices of others - at Rice, across Houston, and throughout the wider world.

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Free online English Literature / Creative Writing courses

Creative writing and critical reading

This free course, Creative writing and critical reading, explores the importance of reading as part of a creative writer’s development at the postgraduate level. You will gain inspiration and ideas from examining other writers’ methods, as well as enhancing your critical reading skills. Examples will cover the genres of fiction, creative ...

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Writing what you know

Do you want to improve your descriptive writing? This free course, Writing what you know, will help you to develop your perception of the world about you and enable you to see the familiar things in everyday life in a new light. You will also learn how authors use their own personal histories to form the basis of their work.

Level: 1 Introductory

Start writing fiction

Have you always wanted to write, but never quite had the courage to start? This free course, Start writing fiction, will give you an insight into how authors create their characters and settings. You will also be able to look at the different genres for fiction.

Exploring books for children: words and pictures

Many people have fond memories of the stories they encountered in childhood, perhaps especially of those wonderful picture books and illustrated tales which fired our young imaginations and transported us to magical worlds. To an adult’s eye, some picture books may seem remarkably simple, even oversimplified. However, in this free course, ...

Level: 2 Intermediate

Reading Shakespeare's As You Like It

Do you enjoy watching Shakespeare's plays and like the idea of finding out more about them? This free course, Reading Shakespeare's As You Like It, will guide you through some of the most important speeches and scenes from one of Shakespeare's best-loved comedies.

Icarus: entering the world of myth

This free course, Icarus: entering the world of myth, will introduce you to one of the best-known myths from classical antiquity and its various re-tellings in later periods. You will begin by examining how the Icarus story connects with a number of other ancient myths, such as that of Theseus and the Minotaur. You will then be guided through an...

Sam Selvon, The Lonely Londoners

This free course concentrates on Sam Selvon's twentieth-century novel, The Lonely Londoners. It considers the depiction of migration in the text as well as Selvon's treatment of memory as a vital part of the migrant's experience.

Introducing Virgil’s Aeneid

This free course offers an introduction to the Aeneid. Virgil’s Latin epic, written in the 1st century BCE, tells the story of the Trojan hero Aeneas and his journey to Italy, where he would become the ancestor of the Romans. Here, you will focus on the characterisation of this legendary hero, and learn why he was so important to the Romans of ...

Exploring Thomas Hardy's Far From the Madding Crowd

This free course, Exploring Thomas Hardy's Far From the Madding Crowd, is designed to tell you something about Hardy's background, and to introduce you to the pleasures of reading a nineteenth-century novel. Why do we believe in fictional characters and care about what happens to them? You will discover some of the techniques that Hardy ...

John Webster, The Duchess of Malfi

This free course, John Webster, The Duchess of Malfi, concentrates on Acts 1 and 2 of John Webster's Renaissance tragedy, The Duchess of Malfi. It focuses on the representation of marriage for love and the social conflicts to which it gives rise. The course is designed to hone your skills of textual analysis.

Christopher Marlowe, Doctor Faustus

What does Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus tell us about the author and the time at which the play was written? This free course, Christopher Marlowe, Doctor Faustus, will help you to discover the intricacies of the play and recognise how a knowledge of the historical and political background of the time can lead to a very different ...

Approaching poetry

Do you want to get more out of your reading of poetry? This free course, Approaching poetry, is designed to develop the analytical skills you need for a more in-depth study of literary texts. You will learn about rhythm, alliteration, rhyme, poetic inversion, voice and line lengths and endings. You will examine poems that do not rhyme and learn ...

Approaching prose fiction

Do you want to get more out of your reading? This free course, Approaching prose fiction, is designed to develop the analytical skills you need for a more in-depth study of literary texts. You will learn about narrative events and perspectives, the setting of novels, types of characterisation and genre.

Approaching plays

Do you want to get more out of drama? This free course, Approaching plays, is designed to develop the analytical skills you need for a more in-depth study of literary plays. You will learn about dialogue, stage directions, blank verse, dramatic structure and conventions and aspects of performance.

Approaching literature: reading Great Expectations

This free course, Approaching literature: reading Great Expectations, considers some of the different ways of reading Great Expectations, based on the type of genre the book belongs to. This is one of the most familiar and fundamental ways of approaching literary texts. The novel broadens the scope of study of a realist novel, in both literary ...

The poetry of Sorley MacLean

Sorley MacLean (1911-1996) is regarded as one of the greatest Scottish poets of the twentieth century. This free course, The poetry of Sorley MacLean, will introduce you to his poetry and give you an insight into the cultural, historical and political contexts that inform his work. MacLean wrote in Gaelic and the importance of the language to ...

Exploring Virginia Woolf’s Between the Acts

This free course introduces Virginia Woolf’s last novel, Between the Acts (1941), with the aim of understanding how she writes about time, memory, and ideas about identity. It also considers why Woolf’s fiction is often considered difficult. Selected extracts from her essays on writing help to clarify some of these perceived difficulties, ...

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Creative Writing

About this program.

Have you longed to explore your creative potential?

Embrace the unknown and start your journey here. As part of one of the largest Creative Writing programs in Canada, you can learn the essentials of excellent writing and put them into practice. Whether you aspire to write a novel or short story, explore poetry, pen a script or screenplay, or explore other writing styles, we have the courses you need to improve your skills.

Class sizes and writers workshops are kept small to ensure you receive the individual attention you need to help your writing thrive, whether you take your class in-class or online. 

Courses in the genres listed below can be applied to the Certificate in Creative Writing

• Creative Non-Fiction
• Escritura Creativa en Español
• Literary Fiction
• Multi-genre
• Poetry and Songwriting
• Popular Fiction
• Stage and Screenwriting
• U of T Summer Writing School
• Writing for Children

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Department Website

Students must complete the Oakland University General Education Requirements, General College of Arts and Sciences Requirements , College of Arts and Sciences College Exploratory Requirement , Major Requirements, and an appropriate number of free elective classes to meet the overall credit requirement for the degree (in most cases a minimum of 124; some degrees may require a greater number).

As a general rule, no more than eight credits of coursework used to satisfy one major, minor or concentration may be applied toward another, but exceptions to this rule may be allowed with the written approval of the program coordinators.

Schedule of Classes

Specific offerings for each semester may be found in the Schedule of Classes .

General Education Requirements

In order to graduate on-schedule without taking additional courses, it is highly recommended that students meet with an Undergraduate Academic Adviser concerning the selection of all of their general education courses.

Each candidate for an Oakland University baccalaureate will need to satisfactorily complete approved courses in each of the following areas: Foundations, Explorations, and Integration. For details, refer to the General Education Requirements section of the catalog.

Requirements for the liberal arts major in creative writing, B.A. specialization in fiction

The creative writing major with a specialization in fiction requires a total of 44 credit hours, including five creative writing workshops (20 credits), two cognate courses (8 credits), and either four English electives or three English electives and an additional creative writing workshop (16 credits). One of the creative writing workshops must be a 4000-level course; this class will provide a capstone experience and require a creative thesis. Students are encouraged to take at least three of their five required workshop classes before taking the capstone.

Students must earn at least a B- in each creative writing workshop course and earn a grade of C in each literature course to have it count toward the major. Students who don’t earn at least a B- in a creative writing workshop course must retake that course to earn that grade minimum before proceeding on to the next course in the sequence. Only one 1000-level course will be accepted for credit in the major. The 44 credits (exclusive of composition courses used to satisfy the university writing proficiency requirement) are distributed as follows: 

1. Introductory course

• CW 2100 - Introduction to Prose and Poetry Writing (4)

2. Required courses

• CW 3200 - Workshop in Fiction (4)
• CW 4200 - Advanced Workshop in Fiction (4)

3. Two additional workshop courses, chosen from

• CW 2400 - Intro to Screen/TV Writing (4)
• CW 2500 - Introduction to Memoir and Essay (4)
• CW 3300 - Workshop in Poetry (4)
• CW 3400 - Screenwriting (4)
• CW 3500 - Workshop Memoir and Essay (4)
• CW 3600 - Playwriting (4)
• CW 4300 - Advanced Workshop in Poetry (4)
• CW 4400 - Advanced Screenwriting (4)
• CW 4500 - Advanced Workshop Memoir and Essay (4)
• CW 4600 - Advanced Playwriting (4)

4. Two courses from the fiction cognates listed below

• ENG 3250 - British and Commonwealth Literature since 1900 (4)
• ENG 3330 - The English Novel (4)
• ENG 3430 - American Literature 1920-1950 (4)
• ENG 3440 - American Literature 1950 to the Present (4)
• ENG 3600 - Fiction (4)
• ENG 3700 - Modern Fiction (4)
• ENG 3705 - Contemporary Fiction (4)

5. Sixteen elective credits

• 8 of these elective credits must be taken at the 3000 level, and cannot include CW courses.
• 12 of these elective credits must be from the following group: FLM 2100   , FLM 2320   , all ENG courses.
•  Students may use the remaining 4 elective credits to take: another CW course, or another ENG course.
• ENG 2100    can replace one of these 3000-level electives.

6. At least twenty credits in English courses must be taken at Oakland.

7. an introductory two-semester sequence in a foreign language, or one semester of a foreign language at the 1150 level or higher with a minimum grade of c.

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Creative Writing Academic Certificate

Grow as a Writer and a Reader

• calendar Program Duration: Short-Term
• Graduation cap Degree Type: Academic Certificate
• clock Total Credit Hours: 33

About This Certificate

You will take literature and creative writing courses; have opportunities to interact with visiting writers; and attend readings, workshops, festivals, and other special events. Throughout this program, you will learn techniques necessary for the mastery of the craft of creative writing, improve your creative writing skills through feedback and continued revision, and gain insight into local and national resources for writers and the publication process. Our program culminates in a capstone course, Portfolio Development, which is designed to help you prepare to apply to four-year writing programs and develop manuscripts for publication.

Quick Information

• Online Learning 70% or Greater
• General Contact Call (215) 751-8414

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Public research university in Philadelphia, offering diverse programs and a vibrant campus experience.

Course Sequence

The certificate program in Creative Writing is a 33-credit program designed to help students grow as writers and readers. Guided by our accomplished faculty, students will take a sequence of literature and creative writing courses, have opportunities to interact with visiting writers, and attend readings, workshops, festivals and other special events. The program culminates in a capstone course, Portfolio Development, designed to help students prepare to apply to four-year writing programs and develop manuscripts for publication. Students earning the certificate in Creative Writing may elect to continue their education at the College by earning the A.A. degree in Liberal Arts by completing 28 additional credits.

Upon completion of this program graduates will be able to:

• Examine literature as a model for their original work.
• Understand and use techniques necessary for the mastery of the craft of creative writing.
• Improve their creative writing skills through feedback and continued revision.
• Gain insight into local and national resources for writers and the publication process.
• Complete a portfolio of original work for publication or submission to other creative writing programs.

Career Outlook

Median Salary of a English Language and Literature Teachers, Postsecondary

Number of Jobs in the Region

10-year Job Outlook in the Region for First-Line Supervisor of Construction Trades and Extraction Workers

English Language and Literature Teachers, Postsecondary

Teach courses in English language and literature, including linguistics and comparative literature. Includes both teachers primarily engaged in teaching and those who do a combination of teaching and research.

Starting Pay: $46,727

Typical Tasks

• Prepare, rewrite, and edit copy to improve readability, or supervise others who do this work.
• Verify facts, dates, and statistics, using standard reference sources.
• Read copy or proof to detect and correct errors in spelling, punctuation, and syntax.
• Develop story or content ideas, considering reader or audience appeal.
• Review and approve proofs submitted by the composing room prior to publication production.

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Let's get started.

The English department’s creative writing minor is a rigorous immersion in the craft of writing fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction, and will assist those who wish to pursue careers in writing, editing, and publishing; those who wish to teach creative writing; those who wish to study literature and various forms of writing from the vantage point of the writer; and those who wish to augment their academic study with an emphasis on creative writing. The minor sharpens students’ reading, writing, and editing skills; introduces them to various genres; and helps them to understand the nature, process, and publication of creative writing. Additionally, the creative writing minor provides opportunities for participants to hone analytic, presentational, cognitive, and creative skills related to reading, writing, analyzing, and presenting written texts.

General Requirements

The English Creative Writing minor requires a minimum of 21 credit hours of ENGL course work, 9 of which must be upper-division (3000+ level). All courses must be completed with a grade of C- or better.

Course Requirements

Core courses.

Complete all of the following:

• ENGL 2030 - Introduction to Creative Writing - Poetry
• ENGL 2040 - Introduction to Creative Nonfiction
• ENGL 2050 - Introduction to Creative Writing - Fiction

Intermediate Genre Courses

Complete one course from your genre of specialization:

• ENGL 3030 - Intermediate Creative Writing - Poetry
• ENGL 3040 - Intermediate Creative Nonfiction
• ENGL 3050 - Intermediate Creative Writing: Fiction

Advanced Genre Course

• ENGL 4100 - Advanced Fiction Writing
• ENGL 4125 - Advanced Poetry Writing
• ENGL 4150 - Advanced Creative Nonfiction Writing

Exploration in Creative Writing Course

Complete one of the following courses:

• ENGL 3060 - Special Topics in Creative Writing
• ENGL 3170 - riverrun Literary and Arts Journal

English Elective

• Complete one 2000- or 3000-level unused English elective.

Note 1 : ENGL 3060 and 3170 are strongly recommended, but not required.

Note 2: Non-English majors are encouraged to contact the Creative Writing Coordinator for guidance on their choice of elective.

Note 3: English majors do not need to take the elective. English majors may complete the minor with 18 credit hours.

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CRWR 199. Special Studies: [Topic]. 1-5 Credits.

Repeatable up to six times.

CRWR 225. Kidd Workshop I. 4 Credits.

Introduction to an intensive, yearlong sequence devoted to the study and practice of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction.

CRWR 230. Introduction to Poetry Writing. 4 Credits.

Introduction to forms and techniques of writing poetry.

CRWR 235. Kidd Workshop II Poetry. 4 Credits.

Second in a yearlong sequence devoted to the studying and practicing poetry and fiction, with an emphasis on poetry. Projects include beginning to develop an individual line of inquiry as well as workshopping original poetry. Prereq: CRWR 225 with a grade of B- or better.

CRWR 240. Introduction to Fiction Writing. 4 Credits.

Introduction to forms and techniques of writing fiction.

CRWR 244. Introduction to Literary Nonfiction. 4 Credits.

Introduction to techniques of writing creative nonfiction (the literary essay). Development of a critical appreciation of the art of writing.

CRWR 245. Kidd Workshop II: Fiction. 4 Credits.

Second class in a yearlong sequence devoted to studying and practicing poetry and fiction, with an emphasis on fiction. Projects include beginning to develop an individual line of inquiry as well as workshopping original fiction. Prereq: CRWR 225 with a grade of B- or better.

CRWR 330. Intermediate Poetry Writing. 4 Credits.

Intermediate-level study of poetry writing. Repeatable twice for a maximum of 12 credits. Prereq: one from CRWR 230 , CRWR 235 with a grade of B– or better.

CRWR 335. Kidd Workshop III: Poetry. 4 Credits.

Third class in a yearlong sequence devoted to studying and practicing poetry and fiction, with a special emphasis on poetry. Projects include completing the individual line of inquiry, an original portfolio, and the Kidd Workshops student anthology. Prereq: CRWR 235 with a Grade of B- or better.

CRWR 336. Intermediate Creative Writing: Literary Nonfiction. 4 Credits.

Intermediate-level study of literary nonfiction writing. Repeatable twice for a maximum of 12 credits. Prereq: one from CRWR 240 , CRWR 244 , CRWR 245 with a grade of B– or better.

CRWR 340. Intermediate Fiction Writing. 4 Credits.

Intermediate-level study of fiction writing. Repeatable twice for a maximum of 12 credits. Prereq: one from CRWR 240 , CRWR 244 , CRWR 245 with a grade of B– or better.

CRWR 345. Kidd Workshop III: Fiction. 4 Credits.

Third class in a yearlong sequence devoted to studying and practicing poetry and fiction, with a special emphasis on fiction. Projects include completing the individual line of inquiry, an original portfolio, and the Kidd Workshops student anthology. Prereq: CRWR 245 with a Grade of B- or better.

CRWR 399. Special Studies: [Topic]. 1-5 Credits.

CRWR 405. Writing and Conference: [Topic]. 1-21 Credits.

Repeatable.

CRWR 407. Seminar: [Topic]. 1-5 Credits.

CRWR 410. Experimental Course: [Topic]. 1-5 Credits.

CRWR 413. Literature for Poets. 4 Credits.

Advanced discourse on issues and principles related to the craft of poetry. Repeatable twice for a maximum of 12 credits. Prereq: one from CRWR 330 , CRWR 335 with a grade of B– or better. Students majoring in English, journalism, or comparative literature may also enroll with instructor approval.

CRWR 414. Literature for Fiction Writers. 4 Credits.

Advanced discourse on issues and principles related to the craft of fiction. Repeatable twice for a maximum of 12 credits. Prereq: One from CRWR 336 , CRWR 340 , CRWR 345 with a grade of B– or better. Students majoring in English, journalism, or comparative literature may also enroll with instructor approval.

CRWR 435. Advanced Poetry Writing. 4 Credits.

Advanced workshop in the writing of poetry. Repeatable twice for a maximum of 12 credits. Prereq: One from CRWR 330 , CRWR 335 with a grade of B– or better.

CRWR 445. Advanced Fiction Writing. 4 Credits.

Advanced workshop in the writing of fiction. Repeatable twice for a maximum of 12 credits. Prereq: One from CRWR 336 , CRWR 340 , CRWR 345 with a grade of B– or better.

CRWR 503. Thesis. 1-16 Credits.

CRWR 507. Seminar: [Topic]. 1-5 Credits.

CRWR 601. Research: [Topic]. 1-16 Credits.

CRWR 605. Writing and Conference: [Topic]. 1-16 Credits.

CRWR 607. Seminar: [Topic]. 1-5 Credits.

Selected seminars offered each year. Repeatable when topic changes.

CRWR 608. Workshop: [Topic]. 1-16 Credits.

CRWR 609. Terminal Project. 1-16 Credits.

CRWR 610. Experimental Course [Topic]. 1-5 Credits.

Repeatable when topic changes.

CRWR 635. MFA Poetry Workshop. 6 Credits.

Concentration on student writing in a workshop setting. Open only to students admitted to creative writing master of fine arts program in poetry. Repeatable five times for a maximum of 36 credits.

CRWR 645. MFA Fiction Workshop. 6 Credits.

Concentration on student writing in a workshop setting. Open only to students admitted to creative writing master of fine arts program in fiction. Repeatable five times for a maximum of 36 credits.

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How Creative Writing Courses Changed Russian Literature Today

with Maya Kucherskaya This event is co-sponsored by the Comparative Literature and Literary Theory Program and Comparative Literature Theorizing Series.

Monday, April 15, 2024 - 5:00pm

Williams Hall Cherpack Lounge (5th Floor)

In the late 2010s, creative writing courses experienced a real boom in Russia, which significantly changed the image of modern Russian literature. The lecture focuses on the impact of mass literary education on post-Soviet Russian literature (in particular, the plots and content of recent novels), book publishing, the system of literary awards as well as Russian university programs.

Maya Kucherskaya is a Russian writer, literary critic and literary scholar. She received her first PhD in Russian Literature from the Moscow State University of 1997. In 1999, she received her PhD in Slavic Languages and Literatures from UCLA. Maya Kucherskaya is the author of many novels, collections of stories, and various scholarly articles and book reviews. Her first book Sovremennyi paterik. Chtenie dlia vpavshikh v unynie (translated into English as Faith and Humor: the Notes from Muscovy in 2011 by Alexei Bayer) was awarded the Bunin Prize in 2006.  In 2013, her novel Tetia Motia [Aunt Motia] was included in the short list of the Big Book Award and the Yasnaya Polyana Award. In 2021, Kucherskaya published a biography of Nikolay Leskov titled Prozevannyi genii [The Missed Genius]. The book received second place in the Big Book Award and was shortlisted for the Reader Award — a literary award from the Russian library community. Kucherskaya is also a co-author of Donna Tanya. Sto let schast'ia — a documentary film about the granddaughter of Nikolai Leskov, ballerina Tatyana Leskova. In 2015, Kucherskaya founded Creative Writing School in Moscow, and in 2017 she opened an MA program in Creative Writing at the HSE University. Currently, she teaches Russian Literature and Creative Writing at the HSE University.

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Department Office

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Kristen Ghodsee (215) 746-0174

Graduate Chair

Kevin M.F. Platt 746 Williams Hall (215) 908-1685 [email protected]

Undergraduate Chair

D. Brian Kim Williams Hall 752 [email protected]

Advent 2024 English and Creative Writing Classes

Other pages in this section:

English Courses

English 101 will set you to work planning, writing, and revising essays of various lengths, practicing a handful of essential skills that make for clear and persuasive writing.  Though every English 101 features a play by Shakespeare, the content of each courses differs widely, from medieval poetry to contemporary drama, from African-American memoir to speculative fiction.   

This iteration of Representative Masterpieces will include close study of Homer’s Iliad , Vergil’s Aeneid , Beowulf , and The Inferno of Dante. The course thus follows the development of the epic form from its origins in oral poetry through its refinement as literary art, and more importantly from its emergence from the heroic ethics of the ancient world and transformations at the hands of Christian writers.

This course focuses on several early works from different literary genres (but excluding the epic) manifestly part of “the cultural imaginary” of writers such as Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, Margaret Cavendish, Mary Shelley, Toni Morrison, and Wendell Berry. First-hand knowledge of such works both enhances one’s ability to identify and understand literary subtexts, and also trains students to be attentive to the productive ways that later writers responded to and repurposed these premodern literary touchstones. Using English translations, we will be reading and thinking critically about Plato’s “Parable of the Cave” from the Republic and “Ladder of Love” from the Symposium ; Euripides’s Alcestis , Medea , and Bacchae ; Cicero’s On Duties , On Friendship , and Scipio's Dream ; Virgil’s Georgics [Poem of the Land]; Apuleius’s The Golden Ass ; Ovid’s Metamorphoses ; and the courtly romances of Marie de France. This course involves student-centered constructivist and collaborative classroom exercises (“capers”), as well as individual presentations and formal “write-ups.” A good time will be had by all.

“A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.” (Marcus Garvey)

Wait a minute: English languages? What does that mean?

From a basic perspective, we share one English: we can effectively transmit meaning from one to another. Yet variations in our own use of English reveal that what we might conceive of as one language is not so easily limited. In this course, we’ll study the English language(s) from a variety of perspectives: historical linguistics, sociolinguistics, and psycholinguistics. In doing so, we’ll come to understand how our English(es) have been used as a means not simply for communication but for expressing both power and empowerment.

ChatGPT, in its Gen-Z voice, offers this recommendation: “Yo, I'm totally vibing with this class! It's gonna be lit and give me some serious brain workout, you know? Can't wait to dive in and see what's up. Gonna be mad interesting, for real.”

This course explores our place in the world through three complementary activities: reading, writing, and meditation. We will read together a wide selection of poems offering diverse views of “nature” and our relationship to the earth, taking into account African-American and Indigenous views as well as the European perspective that has long been dominant. We will also undertake a range of contemplative practices, including walking and sitting meditation, outdoors when possible.  Through journal-keeping and poetic experiments as well as formal essays and presentations, students will articulate their discoveries and hone their skills as readers and observers, both of poetry and of the natural world.

There is no responsible way to approach the study of Chaucer’s works without attending to the intersection between language, bodies, gender, and desire within them. As “the father of English poetry,” Chaucer plants his poetic feet in the relationships between the genders, in how we view bodily pleasures (or their absence), in the way language circulates in the social space between bodies, and in how we approach questions of bodily subjectivity from the pagan past to his Christian present. This is true when Chaucer writes about romantic or sexual love, but it is also true when he writes about religion, politics, history, animal fables, and dream visions. In this class, we will consider how the study of (often deeply troubling pieces of) Chaucer’s work should energize our contemporary assumptions and questions about gender and sexuality even as we become familiar with Chaucer’s historical contexts, his language, and his engagement with the literary innovations of his day. Because this is an upper-level class, all of our reading will be in the original Middle English, and so we will begin with a series of lessons on the language. No previous experience with Middle English is expected or required. By the end of the class, however, we will all be comfortable with reading (and reading aloud) the language of Chaucer’s 14th century London.  

Advent 2024 our focus for “Shakespeare 1” will be six plays written and performed between 1594 and 1599, the years just after Shakespeare had published his two long narrative poems (when London’s theatres were closed due to the bubonic plague) and before his company, The Lord Chamberlain's Men (in which Shakespeare was an actor, playwright, and shareholder), moved to the newly constructed Globe Theatre. Although these six plays continue to have perennial appeal in their own right, we will also investigate the historical contexts associated with their composition and staging—especially Shakespeare’s aesthetic tendency toward lyricism, a term and theme we will need to explore and define before we can examine how it informs and animates his plays written between 1594-99. Although his great tragedies¬–other than Romeo and Juliet (1595) which we will read this term–come after his prolific lyrical period, he continued to experiment with several different dramatic forms including the insertion of high tragic elements within madcap comedies such as The Comedy of Errors, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Midsummer Night’s Dream , and The Merchant Of Venice . Finally, we will study the historical tragedy Richard II, one of Shakespeare’s only plays written entirely in verse, which is deeply concerned with issues of royal succession at a time when childless Queen Elizabeth I was approaching the end of her life and a long, glorious reign.

This course involves student-centered constructivist and collaborative classroom exercises (“capers”) including team performances of select episodes and scenes, as well as individual presentations and formal “write-ups.” The one-night-a-week class structure is ideal for allowing us to dive deeply into each of these plays in a serious and sustained way, including playing out various possible stagings of the same episode or scene to discern what exactly the text is asking actors to emphasize and to highlight in their performance. No prior acting experience is required or assumed, for as the closing couplet of The Comedy of Errors puts it so well:

“We came into the world like brother and brother, And now let's go hand in hand, not one before another.”

In English 359, we read the poetry of sixteenth-century England. Amidst dramatic shifts in religion and politics, a variety of notable poetic styles flourished in this era: the sonnets of Wyatt and Surrey, imitated from Italian models; the amatory sequences of Sidney, Shakespeare, and Spenser, telling the story of love through delicious languor and rapt immobility; and the mythological epyllia (brief epics) of Shakespeare and Marlowe. The course culminates in a complete reading of Book I of Spenser’s Faerie Queene, a chivalric romance that evokes an idealized vision of the middle ages even as it breaks new ground in the representation of contemporary history.

The eighteenth-century British novel was at heart experimental, riffing on but also departing from previous literary forms. This survey invites us to explore the early British novel in all its multifarious inventiveness as we read and discuss works by Daniel Defoe, Henry Fielding, Lawrence Sterne, Frances Burney, Ann Radcliffe, and Jane Austen. Particular attention will be paid to the way the early novel interrogates concepts of gender and sexuality. 

Spanning the 18th, 19th, and 20th century, this course explores the relationship between the British empire and literatures written in English. Through colonial and postcolonial novels, poems, imperial romances, travel narratives, and essays, the course analyzes how Britain's territorial and ideological expansion abroad shaped the form and content of English literary expression. Balancing historical context and close analysis of novels, films, and critical texts, the course will consider how empire has affected literature and literary study and how these fictions of empire continue to shape the contemporary world. Readings will include works from Chinua Achebe, Joseph Conrad, Daniel Defoe, E. M. Forster, H. Rider Haggard, Jean Rhys, Olive Schreiner, and Rabindranath Tagore. 

Coming of age during the American and French revolutions, William Blake was an original multimedia artist who saw the imagination as the key to liberation, both for the individual and for society.  In this seminar, we will dive deeply into his poetry and visual art, while at the same time looking at their political and cultural context. Engagement with literary criticism and theory will enable students to take their own place in the scholarly conversion surrounding this unique and challenging author. 

“Poetry fettered, fetters the human race. Nations are destroyed or flourish in proportion as their poetry, painting, and music are destroyed or flourish.”--Blake

Victorian literature is famously preoccupied with the past: memory and personal experience, national history, nostalgia, and repressed trauma. At the same time, Victorian culture encouraged a robust faith in various visions of progress: the possibility of self-determination, advances in science and technology, and the growth of England as a nation. In this survey of Victorian poetry and non-fiction prose, we will read works of literary and intellectual significance by writers whose preoccupations ranged widely—from romantic desire to evolutionary science, from religious belief to the rise of capitalism. Yet they all grappled with the relationship between art, individuals, and the ever-changing society they inhabited. As we put these fascinating works in dialogue with one another, we will pay special attention to their representations of individual and collective pasts, presents, and futures.

This course, the first half of the two-semester survey of American literature before the twentieth century, begins with the earliest writings in English by European explorers and colonizers and follows the slow emergence of distinctive political, moral and literary traditions that were recognizably American. It thus features, along with poetry and fiction, a good deal of nonfiction writing in the form of essays, memoirs, and sermons. The course culminates with the period usually called “the American Renaissance,” a thirty-year span just before the Civil War in which internationally important works were created by such writers as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Edgar Allan Poe, Frederick Douglass, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, and Walt Whitman.

This course will be a stone’s skip across British poetry, fiction, and drama from around 1900 to the present moment. Using and breaking a variety of familiar forms, tropes, and conventions, the writers of this period work to understand and represent the practice of modern warfare, the disintegration of the British Empire, the rise of the English welfare state, and the slippery concept of "Britishness" itself. The survey explores these historical and cultural contexts, observes the different kinds of critical attention these genres demand, and emphasizes the practice of close reading. Students will have some choice about the forms of work they undertake. 

In this course, we’ll explore literary and cultural representations of the US South from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present. We’ll focus especially on the ways in which the South has long been conceived as “queer”—that is, deviant from national normativity and home to perversity of all kinds. Our syllabus will include works by William Faulkner, Zora Neale Hurston, Tennessee Williams, Carson McCullers, Truman Capote, and Randall Kenan (among many others). We’ll discuss intersections among categories of race, class, gender, and sexuality and consider the relationship between literary canon formation and the mythology of the South. 

What precipitated Ralph Ellison penning The Invisible Man ? How did we get to moving, daring women’s fiction like Sula by Toni Morrison? African American Literature is a rich tradition, as artistic as it is political, as inward facing as it is socially responsible. Forces of antiblackness have long considered the act of writing a threshold of humanity—even and especially when writing was illegal for African Americans; however, writers like poet Phyllis Wheatley have eloquently exceeded that benchmark. Black letters, then, are conscious extensions of not only cultural identities but the fullness of Black humanity, which writers from Frederick Douglass to Toni Cade Bambara commit to representing through a diversity of stories. In this course, we trace the beginning of the African American Literary Tradition, reading classic novels and landmark essays that all center the same question: what is the point and potential of Black writing?

An advanced research methods and composition course required for students pursuing honors in the department. The class will introduce students to the process of conducting independent research in the field of English and will provide experience with the most common research tools and methods used by scholars of literary analysis. We will discuss argumentative structures, disciplinary conventions, and work together in a collegial and cooperative environment that gives students experience with scholarly collaboration. Class sessions will be devoted to giving students in-class writing time, offering peer critiques, reflecting on the nature of scholarly writing, and working through exercises to develop and discover students’ individual voices and analytic priorities. In addition, students will work closely with their thesis advisor throughout the term as part of the course requirements, meeting with their advisor regularly outside of class for individual guidance and feedback about their project. By the end of the semester, students will have produced an initial rough draft of their thesis project that will then be revised in a more leisurely manner, under the supervision of their thesis advisor, during the following term. 

Admission to the class is granted by the department. To be selected, students must submit an abstract of their intended project over the summer and the department will approve the abstracts they believe will produce successful honors theses. 

Creative Writing Courses

Discussions will center on students' poems. Selected readings are assigned to focus on technical problems of craftsmanship and style.

If you’re dreaming up ways to tell new stories, the Beginning Fiction Workshop provides a welcoming space to explore techniques to hone your skills as a writer of fiction. You will read a diverse array of stories while we create a common language to aid us in discussion of the stories we study and create. You will write through generative exercises and build toward your own stories. Each writer will uncover their writing voice while becoming a part of the larger writing community. Together, we will become studied observers and generous participants in the writing and reading of fiction. 

Are you a fan of The Flight Attendant or House of Cards ? Do you love Raya and the Last Dragon, Encanto , or Turning Red ? What do they all have in common? They were all written by playwrights. Whether you are a fiction writer interested in improving your dialogue, a poet who wants to explore narrative, a theatre geek who wants to see their work come to life, or someone simply interested in trying something new, Beginning Playwriting Workshop is an excellent opportunity to explore dramatic writing in a safe and supportive environment. Emphasis is placed on promoting growth as a writer. A variety of foundational texts are read in order to develop an understanding of basic dramatic structure. Each play is chosen to address a corresponding skill, such as dramatic tension, subtext, dialogue, exposition, or character. Weekly writing exercises are assigned to work in concert with the plays we read. By reading plays and dissecting the form and content, students have an opportunity to develop their analytic skills, which can then be applied to their own work. In addition to short writing exercises, students will also complete either two 10-minute plays or a one-act play.

Craft-based instruction in specific formal issues in the tradition of poetry. Students will read poems through the lens of technique and craft, studying how writers utilize certain forms. The class will also focus on the generation of creative work, adhering to the forms discussed in class. Prerequisite: WRIT 205 or WRIT 206 or WRIT 207 or WRIT 208.

In this iteration of the forms course, we will focus on the novel. Over the course of the semester, we will study a range of contemporary novels, looking at story structure, elements and expectations of genre conventions, character development, and explorations of conceits and themes. We will also focus on the generation of our own concept, working to create between 50 and 75 pages of the opening of the novel, while also building a comprehensive outline, character sheet, and researching our setting. We will also spend time on the professional aspects of pitching a novel to an agent. 

Building on the skills learned in Beginning Playwriting, students in Intermediate Playwriting will explore plays that utilize a non-linear story structure.  The semester will begin with readings from contemporary playwrights like Tony Kushner, Paula Vogel, Katori Hall, and Lauren Yee, as we continue to discuss craft. By reading plays and dissecting the form and content, student have an opportunity to develop their analytic skills which will serve them well as they begin examining their own work.  Students will apply the skills they have learned as they write their own original one-act play (30-60 pages).

In the advanced workshop, students focus on their capstone project, sharing that work with peers in a workshop setting. The course requires students to work with the professor to develop specific reading lists with the goal of shaping their own capstone project. The primary focus of the workshop is the creation and critique of their own work and the work of their peers. Prerequisite: WRIT 306.

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2024 creative writing award winners, april 11, 2024.

Quantá Holden | Duke English | Digital Communication Specialist

The English Department at Duke University is honored to announce the winners of the 2024 Creative Writing Contests and Creative Writing Scholarships. Annually, the department administers creative writing contests to recognize fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry works by English majors and non-major undergraduates. 

The English Department is honored to announce the winners of its 2024 writing contests. The department administers writing contests to recognize fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, and critical writing by English majors and non-major undergraduates. 

Congratulations to all of this year's winners! 

Anne Flexner Memorial Award for Fiction Family members and friends of former English student Anne Flexner (1945) established the Anne Flexner Memorial Award for Creative Writing to recognize undergraduates for their work in fiction and poetry. 

Makee Gonzalez Anderson ’24  -  “Here, in the Past Tense” Second Prize: Emma Huang, ’25  -  "ABEL’S PLACE"

Reynolds Price Award for Fiction The Reynolds Price Fiction Award was established in memory of the distinguished novelist, essayist, poet, and public intellectual Reynolds Price, a graduate of Duke and professor in the English Department for over 50 years.  Tomas Esber, ’24  -  “Ridgewood” Second Prize: Matthew Chen, ’26  -  “ABC” & “Chair"

CREATIVE NONFICTION

George P. Lucaci Award for Creative NonFiction This award was created to encourage creative nonfiction writing and honor George P. Lucaci, a former Duke student who has actively supported undergraduate creative writing in the English Department for many years. 

Ruby Wang, ’24  -  “Blood Orison” Second Prize: Rowan Huang, ’24  -  “Arms Outstretched"

Academy of American Poets Prize Founded in 1934 in New York City, the Academy of American Poets is the largest membership-based nonprofit organization advocating for American poets and poetry.  Its mission is to support American poets at all stages of their careers and foster contemporary poetry appreciation.  Nima Babajani-Feremi, ’24  -  “Dreams to Persepolis” Honorable Mention: Tyler King, ’25  -  "NO QUARTER"

Anne Flexner Memorial Award for Poetry   Family members and friends of former English student Anne Flexner (1945) established the Anne Flexner Memorial Award for Creative Writing to recognize undergraduates for their work in fiction and poetry.   Jocelyn Chin, 24 -   “Endurance” Second Prize:   Arielle Stern, ’25  -  "The Poem as Event"

Terry Welby Tyler, Jr. Award for Poetry This award was established by the family of Terry Welby Tyler, Jr., who would have graduated with the class of 1997 to recognize and honor outstanding undergraduate poetry.  Arim Lim, ’26  -  "Archeopteryx"

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Program Description

The Master of Arts in Professional Writing (MAPW) degree is an interdisciplinary professional graduate degree program that prepares candidates for a wide variety of writing‑related positions in academia, business, publishing, screenwriting and the literary arts. Course work in three concentrations–applied writing, composition and rhetoric, and creative writing–allows students to gain theoretical and practical knowledge in various fields of professional writing. As students become experienced in producing and analyzing the business, technical, journalistic, and creative texts in these three concentrations, they develop a sophisticated understanding of style, structure, and audience. MAPW students will become writing professionals who can move in many directions during their careers; they will become flexible writers who can tune into the writing conventions of a given genre, adapting their writing style to the requirements of various rhetorical contexts in today’s print, electronic and multimodal environments.

Additional resources of special importance to the program faculty and students are the Kennesaw State University Writing Center, the Kennesaw Mountain National Writing Project and the Georgia Writers Association.

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Admission, Enrollment, and Graduation Policies

Admission requirements.

To be considered for MAPW admission, applicants must submit the following credentials to the KSU Admission Office in addition to the general  Admissions    requirements:

• “Statement of Purpose” addressing their preparation for and goals for the MAPW program and a rationale for the choice of concentration and support areas;
• One copy of representative writing samples from both the concentration and the support area, not to exceed 25 pages;
• Have earned or be in the process of completing a baccalaureate degree from an accredited college or university with a minimum 3.0 grade point average on a 4.0 scale;
• having substantially published or produced with an established professional or non-profit venue; or having substantially participated in writing a significant document with an established business, non-profit or government agency; or
• having had entry-level experiences in the professional fields as a writer, editor, script coordinator, writing teacher, or the like; or
• having received a recommendation after either a face to face, telephone or tele-conference interview with a panel of three outside reviewers who are MAPW alumni or MAPW Community Board members or a combination of these selected by the program director;

An applicant who has been previously accepted into or completed a graduate program at an accredited college or university (including previous acceptance in the MAPW), as evidenced by official transcripts is exempt from the GRE and the optional requirements.

• Applicants may submit up to 3 optional letters of recommendation.

Admission Criteria for Unique Cases

Currently, there are no exceptions to the admission requirements.

Transfer Credit

Up to nine hours of graduate work from other accredited institutions may be transferred. To be transferred, course work from other institutions must correspond to Kennesaw State’s MAPW curriculum. Students will need to provide course descriptions and syllabi wherever possible, and the amount of credit granted will be at the discretion of the program director. A minimum grade of “B” is required for any course transferred. Such course work may be no more than five years old.

Graduation Requirements

MAPW candidates must petition to graduate at least one semester prior to completion of program requirements. Before MAPW students can petition to graduate, they must have a cumulative grade point average of at least 3.0. The student should print the form located on the MAPW web site at:  www.mapw.hss.kennesaw.edu .

The student must obtain the MAPW graduate director’s signature before submitting the petition to the business office and registrar. For more information, please view the corresponding section of Academic Policies:  5.0 PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS & GRADUATION   .

Program Course Requirements

Core course (3 credit hours).

• PRWR 6000:Intro to Professional Writing

Major Concentration and Support Area (27 Credit Hours)

Two options exist for completing this portion of the program: 1. Option 1 includes the Major Concentration (15 hours), each student selects one concentration from the three offered below and takes five courses from this concentration. In the Support Area, each student also selects one of the remaining two concentrations as the support area. The student must take three courses (9 hours) from this second concentration to satisfy the support area requirement. In addition, the student will take one elective (3 hours).

2. Option 2 includes the Major concentration (15 hours) and two courses from each of the other two concentrations (12 hours) allowing students to study all three areas of professional writing offered in the MAPW program.

Applied Writing

• PRWR 6100:Readings for Writers
• PRWR 6200:Contemporary Rhetoric and its Applications
• PRWR 6240:Technical Writing
• PRWR 6255:Grant & Proposal Writing
• PRWR 6260:Managing Writing in Organizations
• PRWR 6280:Business and Technical Editing
• PRWR 6410:Feature Writing
• PRWR 6440:Professional and Academic Editing
• PRWR 6520:Creative Nonfiction Writing I
• PRWR 6550:Document Design and Desktop Publishing
• PRWR 6570:Writing for Social Media
• PRWR 6760:World Englishes
• PRWR 6800:Careers in Professional Writing
• PRWR 6810:Publishing in the 21st Century
• PRWR 6850:Web Content Development
• PRWR 6860:Intercultural Communication in Context
• PRWR 7520:Creative Nonfiction Writing II
• PRWR 7550:Advanced Applied Writing
• PRWR 7600:MAPW Practical Internship
• PRWR 7810:Research Methods for Writers
• PRWR 7900:Special Topics
• PRWR 7950:MAPW Directed Study

Composition and Rhetoric

• PRWR 6150:Rhetorical Theory
• PRWR 6300:Understanding Writing as Process
• PRWR 6500:Composition Theory and Pedagogy
• PRWR 6650:Introduction to Literacy Studies
• PRWR 6750:Teaching Writing to Speakers of Other Languages
• PRWR 7800:Teaching Assistant Practicum I
• PRWR 7801:Teaching Assistant Practicum II

Creative Writing

• PRWR 6455:The Genres of Creative Writing
• PRWR 6460:Fiction Writing I
• PRWR 6470:Poetry Writing I
• PRWR 6480:Playwriting I
• PRWR 7460:Fiction Writing II
• PRWR 7470:Poetry Writing II
• PRWR 7480:Playwriting II
• STVW 6490:Screenwriting I
• STVW 6495:TV Writing: Half-Hour
• STVW 6496:TV Writing: One-Hour
• STVW 7490:Screenwriting II
• STVW 7495:TV Writing II
• STVW 7496:TV Writers Room

MAPW Capstone Project (6 Credit Hours)

• PRWR 7960:MAPW Capstone Project

Program Total (36 Credit Hours)

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• Victor Mukhin

Victor M. Mukhin was born in 1946 in the town of Orsk, Russia. In 1970 he graduated the Technological Institute in Leningrad. Victor M. Mukhin was directed to work to the scientific-industrial organization "Neorganika" (Elektrostal, Moscow region) where he is working during 47 years, at present as the head of the laboratory of carbon sorbents.     Victor M. Mukhin defended a Ph. D. thesis and a doctoral thesis at the Mendeleev University of Chemical Technology of Russia (in 1979 and 1997 accordingly). Professor of Mendeleev University of Chemical Technology of Russia. Scientific interests: production, investigation and application of active carbons, technological and ecological carbon-adsorptive processes, environmental protection, production of ecologically clean food.   

Title : Active carbons as nanoporous materials for solving of environmental problems

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