Creative Writing Program

The Bachelor of Arts with a Creative Writing option encourages students to actively pursue their own writing while engaging the work of writers from diverse cultures and time periods. The goal is for students to refine their individual skills, informed by a broad aesthetic and cultural background. Students may choose from workshops in poetry, fiction, autobiography, and nature writing, up to 18 hrs for the writing workshop program. This work may culminate in a creative project, a compilation of the student’s own poetry, fiction, or nonfiction. Students will find that the campus literary and arts magazine, Broadside, is entirely edited and designed by our strong community of student writers and visual artists. That coalition of writers and artists also organizes and directs its own series of student readings and art displays. Complementing these student efforts, the English Department sponsors a Visiting Writers Series which brings to campus both emerging and established writers such as John Updike, Rita Dove, Robert Coover, Yusef Komunyakaa, Philip Levine, David Wojahn, William Matthews, Briget Pegeen Kelly, Michael Van Walleghen, Edward Hirsch, Larry Heineman, and Maura Stanton, all of whom meet with students and workshops in addition to the usual public reading of their work.

Additionally, the creative writing program sponsors three significant awards for student writers, acknowledging the high quality of student creative work on campus and fostering a sense of community among these students.

Creative Writing Faculty

Dr. Demetrice A. Worley
Dr. Kevin Stein
Dr. Thomas Palakeel
Professor Lee Newton
Professor George Chambers