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About the Program | Faculty | Students | Reading Series | Calendar | Writers' Resources

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About the Creative Writing Program

It is the writer's privilege to help man endure by lifting his heart, by reminding him of the courage and honor and hope and pride and compassion and pity and sacrifice which have been the glory of his past. The [writer's] voice need not merely be the record of man, it can be one of the props, the pillars to help him endure and prevail.
--WILLIAM FAULKNER 

The undergraduate Creative Writing Program at Emory celebrates its 18th birthday this year. In this program, students can approach the study of literature in a creative way - through their own writing - as well as by the more traditional method of critical analysis and reading.  Students may also pursue their personal interests and investigate specific genres, including poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction, playwriting and screenwriting.

Please note that ALL Creative Writing courses are permission-only.

CREATIVE WRITING MAJOR REQUIREMENTS:

CREATIVE WRITING WORKSHOPS

Creative Writing majors must complete five writing workshops (20 credits). Either Honors or one independent study can count as one workshop. At least two workshops must be taken in the same genre (fiction, poetry, playwriting, screenwriting, creative non-fiction); students are encouraged to continue study in the same genre as the Intro but this is not a requirement.

All students, including majors and non-majors, must take one 200 level Intro (either 270, 271, or 272 before advancing to Intermediate 300 level workshops.

270 is an introductory course that covers two genres of the instructor's choosing, from either poetry, fiction, playwriting, screenwriting, or creative non-fiction.

Students who have completed the 200 level requirement may move into any Intermediate workshop.

The instructor of each intermediate workshop will assess all students in the workshop for readiness to take Advanced level workshops in the same genre or in another genre which the instructor teaches. Any instructor who wishes to recommend a student for an Advanced workshop in a genre which she or he does not teach may recommend this student to a member of the faculty who teaches in that genre. The instructor in the genre will in that case make his or her own determination of the student's readiness for advanced work.

Only students who receive this positive assessment of readiness will enter Advanced workshops.

LITERATURE REQUIREMENT (ENG 300 or above)

Six 300 level English courses (24 credits)

At least two courses concentrating mainly on poetry.

At least two courses concentrating mainly on prose.

At least two courses in writing of the 19 th century or earlier.

Dramatists may substitute works of drama for some part of the poetry or prose requirement but not for all of either; this is to be worked out between student and advisor.

Each major's advisor will exercise discretion in allowing credit for these categories since many courses mix poetry, prose, and drama. Advisors may allow credit for one 200 level English course from the approved list of those courses acceptable for the English major

During the academic year, the program also sponsors the Creative Writing Reading Series, a special feature that brings nationally prominent writers to campus for workshops and public readings. Three visiting writers come to Emory each semester, and the events are free and open to the public.  Awards Night, which caps the Reading Series by celebrating the work of student writers, has hosted a series of acclaimed writers, including Czeslaw Milosz, Robert Stone, Kurt Vonnegut, Michael Ondaatje, Grace Paley, David Henry Hwang, Alice McDermott, Peter Carey, Philip Levine, Edmund White and Richard Powers.  Other writers who have been part of the series are novelists Allan Gurganus, Tim O'Brien, John Edgar Wideman, Ursula Le Guin, Ernest J. Gaines, Leslie Silko, Gloria Naylor, Colson Whitehead, Chang-rae Lee, Edward P. Jones, Geraldine Brooks and William Styron and Dorothy Allison; poets Rita Dove, Yusef Komunyakaa, Gwendolyn Brooks, Robert Pinsky, A.R. Ammons, Louise Glück, Jorie Graham, Charles Simic and Ellen Bryant Voigt; playwrights Margaret Edson, Naomi Wallace, Paula Vogel, John Guare, and José Rivera; and non-fiction writers Clifford Geertz, Samuel F. Pickering, and Janisse Ray. 

For further information on the Creative Writing Program and the Creative Writing Readings Series, please call 404-727-4683 or email creativewriting@emory.edu.