literary studies and creative writing

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Creative Writing and Literature Master’s Degree Program

Unlock your creative potential and hone your unique voice.

Online Courses

11 out of 12 total courses

On-Campus Experience

One 1- or 3-week residency in summer

$3,220 per course

Program Overview

Through the master’s degree in creative writing and literature, you’ll hone your skills as a storyteller — crafting publishable original scripts, novels, and stories.

In small, workshop-style classes, you’ll master key elements of narrative craft, including characterization, story and plot structure, point of view, dialogue, and description. And you’ll learn to approach literary works as both a writer and scholar by developing skills in critical analysis.

Program Benefits

Instructors who are published authors of drama, fiction, and nonfiction

A community of writers who support your growth in live online classes

Writer's residency with agent & editor networking opportunities

Personalized academic and career advising

Thesis or capstone options that lead to publishable creative work

Harvard Alumni Association membership upon graduation

Customizable Course Curriculum

As you work through the program’s courses, you’ll enhance your creative writing skills and knowledge of literary concepts and strategies. You’ll practice the art of revision to hone your voice as a writer in courses like Writing the Short Personal Essay and Writing Flash Fiction.

Within the creative writing and literature program, you will choose between a thesis or capstone track. You’ll also experience the convenience of online learning and the immersive benefits of learning in person.

11 Online Courses

• Primarily synchronous
• Fall, spring, January, and summer options

Writers’ Residency

A 1- or 3-week summer master class taught by a notable instructor, followed by an agents-and-editors weekend

Thesis or Capstone Track

• Thesis: features a 9-month independent creative project with a faculty advisor
• Capstone: includes crafting a fiction or nonfiction manuscript in a classroom community

The path to your degree begins before you apply to the program.

First, you’ll register for and complete 2 required courses, earning at least a B in each. These foundational courses are investments in your studies and count toward your degree, helping ensure success in the program.

Getting Started

We invite you to explore degree requirements, confirm your initial eligibility, and learn more about our unique “earn your way in” admissions process.

A Faculty of Creative Writing Experts

Studying at Harvard Extension School means learning from the world’s best. Our instructors are renowned academics in literary analysis, storytelling, manuscript writing, and more. They bring a genuine passion for teaching, with students giving our faculty an average rating of 4.7 out of 5.

Bryan Delaney

Playwright and Screenwriter

Talaya Adrienne Delaney

Lecturer in Extension, Harvard University

Elisabeth Sharp McKetta

Our community at a glance.

80% of our creative writing and literature students are enrolled in our master’s degree program for either personal enrichment or to make a career change. Most (74%) are employed full time while pursuing their degree and work across a variety of industries.

Download: Creative Writing & Literature Master's Degree Fact Sheet

Average Age

Course Taken Each Semester

Work Full Time

Would Recommend the Program

Professional Experience in the Field

Pursued for Personal Enrichment

Career Opportunities & Alumni Outcomes

Graduates of our Creative Writing and Literature Master’s Program have writing, research, and communication jobs in the fields of publishing, advertising/marketing, fundraising, secondary and higher education, and more.

Some alumni continue their educational journeys and pursue further studies in other nationally ranked degree programs, including those at Boston University, Brandeis University, University of Pennsylvania, and Cambridge University.

Our alumni hold titles as:

• Marketing Manager
• Director of Publishing
• Senior Research Writer

Our alumni work at a variety of leading organizations, including:

• Little, Brown & Company
• New York University (NYU)
• Bentley Publishers

Career Advising and Mentorship

Whatever your career goals, we’re here to support you. Harvard’s Mignone Center for Career Success offers career advising, employment opportunities, Harvard alumni mentor connections, and career fairs like the annual on-campus Harvard Humanities, Media, Marketing, and Creative Careers Expo.

Your Harvard University Degree

Upon successful completion of the required curriculum, you will earn the Master of Liberal Arts (ALM) in Extension Studies, Field: Creative Writing and Literature.

Expand Your Connections: the Harvard Alumni Network

As a graduate, you’ll become a member of the worldwide Harvard Alumni Association (400,000+ members) and Harvard Extension Alumni Association (29,000+ members).

Harvard is closer than one might think. You can be anywhere and still be part of this world.

Tuition & Financial Aid

Affordability is core to our mission. When compared to our continuing education peers, it’s a fraction of the cost.

After admission, you may qualify for financial aid . Typically, eligible students receive grant funds to cover a portion of tuition costs each term, in addition to federal financial aid options.

What can you do with a master’s degree in creative writing and literature?

A master’s degree in creative writing and literature prepares you for a variety of career paths in writing, literature, and communication — it’s up to you to decide where your interests will take you.

You could become a professional writer, editor, literary agent, marketing copywriter, or communications specialist.

You could also go the academic route and bring your knowledge to the classroom to teach creative writing or literature courses.

Is a degree in creative writing and literature worth it?

The value you find in our Creative Writing and Literature Master’s Degree Program will depend on your unique goals, interests, and circumstances.

The curriculum provides a range of courses that allow you to graduate with knowledge and skills transferable to various industries and careers.

How long does completing the creative writing and literature graduate program take?

Program length is ordinarily anywhere between 2 and 5 years. It depends on your preferred pace and the number of courses you want to take each semester.

For an accelerated journey, we offer year round study, where you can take courses in fall, January, spring, and summer.

While we don’t require you to register for a certain number of courses each semester, you cannot take longer than 5 years to complete the degree.

What skills do you need prior to applying for the creative writing and literature degree program?

Harvard Extension School does not require any specific skills prior to applying, but in general, it’s helpful to have solid reading, writing, communication, and critical thinking skills if you are considering a creative writing and literature master’s degree.

Initial eligibility requirements can be found on our creative writing and literature master’s degree requirements page .

Harvard Division of Continuing Education

The Division of Continuing Education (DCE) at Harvard University is dedicated to bringing rigorous academics and innovative teaching capabilities to those seeking to improve their lives through education. We make Harvard education accessible to lifelong learners from high school to retirement.

Writing & Literature

The Writing & Literature students have a genuine passion for reading and writing. Students complete rigorous coursework in Creative Writing, Literary Study, and Writing Studies, with considerable freedom to design their own course of study. Students work closely under the guidance of a faculty mentor to create a publishable body of creative and scholarly work for their senior portfolio.

By integrating these three areas of exploration, students will receive a well-rounded education in writing. Work in Creative Writing will help students develop their voice and gain the skills and knowledge needed to succeed in today’s publishing environment. The close reading and criticism performed through Literary Study will help students better understand and analyze literature. Experience in Writing Studies invites students to consider the composition, circulation, and purpose of writing in professional, academic, civic, and digital contexts. This interdisciplinary approach to writing will prepare students for a fulfilling writing life as well as a variety of careers, including professional writing, publishing, marketing, or graduate-level study.

Some students receive funding from CCS to support their research or creative activities through the Traveling Undergraduate Research Fund.

The purpose of the Writing & Writing and Literature curriculum is to provide students with the grounding and guidance that will allow them to successfully pursue their independent scholarly and creative endeavors.

Freshman and Sophomore colloquia in the three areas of study provide exposure to the forms of inquiry within these related fields and to the cutting edge research of UCSB faculty in these disciplines. Most upper division courses are taken in various College of Letters and Science Departments, such as Comparative Literature, English, Writing, the languages, and ethnic studies.

The latter half of a student’s undergraduate career focuses on pursuing an independent project in research and/or creative writing, which culminates in the Senior Portfolio.

For a full list of requirements, please download the major sheet to the right.  

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• Prospective Graduate Students
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Ph.D. Creative Writing

Ph.d. in creative writing.

A rigorous program that combines creative writing and literary studies, the Ph.D. in Creative Writing prepares graduates for both scholarly and creative publication and teaching. With faculty guidance, students admitted to the Ph.D. program may tailor their programs to their goals and interests.

The creative writing faculty at KU has been widely published and anthologized, winning both critical and popular acclaim. Faculty awards include such distinctions as the Nebula Award, Hugo Award, Osborn Award, Shelley Memorial Award, Gertrude Stein Award, the Kenyon Review Prize, the Kentucky Center Gold Medallion, and the Pushcart Prize.

Regarding admission to both our doctoral and MFA creative writing programs, we will prioritize applicants who are interested in engaging with multiple faculty members to practice writing across genres and forms, from speculative fiction and realism to poetry and playwriting/screenwriting, etc.

The University of Kansas' Graduate Program in Creative Writing also offers an  M.F.A degree .

Opportunities

A GTA appointment includes a tuition waiver for ten semesters plus a competitive stipend. In the first year, GTA appointees teach English 101 (first year composition) and English 102 (a required reading and writing course). Creative Writing Ph.D. students may have the opportunity to teach an introductory course in creative writing after passing the doctoral examination, and opportunities are available for a limited number of advanced GTAs to teach in the summer.

Department Resources

• Graduate Admissions
• Graduate Contacts
• Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.)

Affiliated Programs

• LandLocked Literary Magazine
• The Project on the History of Black Writing
• Center for the Study of Science Fiction
• Ad-Hoc African/Americanists and Affiliates

Degree Requirements

• At least 24 hours of credit in appropriate formal graduate courses beyond the M.A. or M.F.A. At least 15 hours (in addition to ENGL 800 if not taken for the M.A.) of this course work must be taken from among courses offered by the Department of English at the 700-level and above. English 997 and 999 credits cannot be included among the 24 hours. Students may petition to take up to 6 hours outside the Department.
• ENGL 800: Methods, Theory, and Professionalism (counts toward the 24 required credit hours).
• The ENGL 801/ENGL 802 pedagogy sequence (counts toward the 24 required credit hours).
• Two seminars (courses numbered 900 or above) offered by the Department of English at the University of Kansas, beyond the M.A. or M.F.A. ENGL 998 does not fulfill this requirement.
• ENGL 999, Dissertation (at least 12 hours).

If the M.A. or M.F.A. was completed in KU’s Department of English, a doctoral student may petition the DGS to have up to 12 hours of the coursework taken in the English Department reduced toward the Ph.D.

For Doctoral students,  the university requires completion of a course in responsible scholarship . For the English department, this would be ENGL 800, 780, or the equivalent). In addition, the Department requires reading knowledge of one approved foreign language: Old English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Japanese, Greek, Latin, or Hebrew. Upon successful petition, a candidate may substitute reading knowledge of another language or research skill that is studied at the University or is demonstrably appropriate to the candidate’s program of study.

Doctoral students must fulfill the requirement  before  they take their doctoral examination, or be enrolled in a reading course the same semester as the exam. Students are permitted three attempts at passing each foreign language or research skill. Three methods of demonstrating reading knowledge for all approved languages except Old English are acceptable:

• Presenting 16 hours, four semesters, or the equivalent of undergraduate credit, earned with an average of C or better.
• Passing a graduate reading course at the University of Kansas or peer institution (e.g., French 100, German 100, etc.) with a grade of C or higher. In the past, some of these reading courses have been given by correspondence; check with the Division of Continuing Education for availability.
• Passing a translation examination given by a designated member of the English Department faculty or by the appropriate foreign language department at KU. The exam is graded pass/fail and requires the student to translate as much as possible of a representative text in the foreign language in a one-hour period, using a bilingual dictionary.
• Passing a translation examination given by the appropriate foreign language department at the M.A.-granting institution. Successful completion must be reflected either on the M.A. transcript or by a letter from the degree-granting department.

To fulfill the language requirement using Old English, students must successfully complete ENGL 710 (Introduction to Old English) and ENGL 712 (Beowulf).

Post-Coursework Ph.D. students must submit, with their committee chair(s), an annual review form to the DGS and Graduate Committee.

Doctoral students must take their doctoral examination within three semesters (excluding summers) of the end of the semester in which they took their final required course. If a student has an Incomplete, the timeline is not postponed until the Incomplete is resolved. For example, a student completing doctoral course work in Spring 2018 will need to schedule their doctoral exam no later than the end of Fall semester 2019. Delays may be granted by petition to the Graduate Director in highly unusual circumstances. Failure to take the exam within this time limit without an approved delay will result in the student’s falling out of good standing. For details on the consequences of falling out of good standing, see “Falling Out of Good Standing,” in General Department Policies and Best Practices.

A student may not take their doctoral exam until the university’s Research Skills and Responsible Scholarship requirement is fulfilled (ENGL 800 or equivalent and reading knowledge of one foreign language or equivalent).

Requirements for Doctoral Exams

Reading Lists: 

All students are required to submit three reading lists, based on the requirements below, to their committee for approval. The doctoral exam will be held on a date at least twelve weeks after the approval from the whole committee is received. To facilitate quick committee approval, students may copy the graduate program coordinator on the email to the committee that contains the final version of the lists. Committee members may then respond to the email in lieu of signing a printed copy. Students should work with their committee chair and graduate program coordinator to schedule the exam at the same time as they finalize the lists.

During the two-hour oral examination (plus an additional 15-30 minutes for a break and committee deliberation), a student will be tested on their comprehension of a literary period or movement, including multiple genres and groups of authors within that period or movement. In addition, the student will be tested on two of the following six areas of study:

• An adjacent or parallel literary period or movement,
• An author or group of related authors,
• Criticism and literary theory,
• Composition theory, and
• English language.

No title from any field list may appear on either of the other two lists. See Best Practices section for more details on these six areas. See below for a description of the Review of the Dissertation Proposal (RDP), which the candidate takes the semester after passing the doctoral exam. 

While many students confer with the DGS as they begin the process of developing their lists, they are also required to submit a copy of their final exam list to the DGS. Most lists will be left intact, but the DGS might request that overly long lists be condensed, or extremely short lists be expanded.

Review of Literature

The purpose of the Review of Literature is to develop and demonstrate an advanced awareness of the critical landscape for each list. The student will write an overview of the defining attributes of the field, identifying two or three broad questions that animate scholarly discussion, while using specific noteworthy texts from their list ( but not all texts on the list ) as examples.

The review also must accomplish the following:

• consider the historical context of major issues, debates, and trends that factor into the emergence of the field
• offer a historical overview of scholarship in the field that connects the present to the past
• note recent trends and emergent lines of inquiry
• propose questions about (develop critiques of, and/or identify gaps in) the field and how they might be pursued in future study (but not actually proposing or referencing a dissertation project)

For example, for a literary period, the student might include an overview of primary formal and thematic elements, of the relationship between literary and social/historical developments, of prominent movements, (etc.), as well as of recent critical debates and topics.

For a genre list, the Review of Literature might include major theories of its constitution and significance, while outlining the evolution of these theories over time.

For a Rhetoric and Composition list, the review would give an overview of major historical developments, research, theories, methods, debates, and trends of scholarship in the field.

For an English Language Studies (ELS) list, the review would give an overview of the subfields that make up ELS, the various methodological approaches to language study, the type of sources used, and major aims and goals of ELS. The review also usually involves a focus on one subfield of particular interest to the student (such as stylistics, sociolinguistics, or World/Postcolonial Englishes).

Students are encouraged to divide reviews into smaller sections that enhance clarity and organization. Students are not expected to interact with every text on their lists.

The review of literature might be used to prepare students for identifying the most important texts in the field, along with why those texts are important to the field, for the oral exam. It is recommended for students to have completed reading the bulk of (if not all) texts on their lists before writing the ROL.

The Reviews of Literature will not be produced in an exam context, but in the manner of papers that are researched and developed in consultation with all advisors/committee members,  with final drafts being distributed within a reasonable time for all members to review and approve in advance of the 3-week deadline . While the Review of Literature generally is not the focus of the oral examination, it is frequently used as a point of departure for questions and discussion during the oral examination.

Doctoral Exam Committee

Exam committees typically consist of 3 faculty members from the department—one of whom serves as the Committee Chair—plus a Graduate Studies Representative.  University policy dictates the composition of exam committees . Students may petition for an exception for several committee member situations, with the exception of  the Graduate Studies Representative .

If a student wants to have as a committee member a person outside the university, or a person who is not in a full-time tenure-track professorship at KU, the student must contact the Graduate Secretary as early as possible. Applications for special graduate faculty status must be reviewed by the College and Graduate Studies. Requests for exam/defense approval will not be approved unless all committee members currently hold either regular or special graduate faculty status

Remote participation of committee members via technology

Students with committee members who plan to attend the defense via remote technology must be aware of  college policy on teleconferencing/remote participation of committee members .

A majority of committee members must be physically present for an examination to commence; for doctoral oral examinations this requirement is 2 of the 4 members, for master’s oral examinations the requirement is 2 of the 3 members. In addition, it is required that the student being examined, the chair of the committee, and the Graduate Studies Representative all be physically present at the examination or defense. Mediated attendance by the student, chair and Grad Studies Rep is prohibited.

The recommended time between completion of coursework and the doctoral examination is two semesters.

Final exam lists need to be approved and signed by the committee at least 12 weeks prior to the prospective exam date. This includes summers/summer semesters. The lists should then be submitted to the Graduate Program Coordinator. Reviews of Literature need to be approved and signed by the committee at least 3 weeks prior to the exam date. Failure to meet this deadline will result in rescheduling the exam. No further changes to lists or Reviews of Literature will be allowed after official approval. The three-week deadline is the faculty deadline--the last date for them to confirm receipt of the ROLs and confer approval--not necessarily the student deadline for submitting the documents to the faculty. Please keep that timing in mind and allow your committee adequate time to review the materials and provide feedback.

Students taking the Doctoral Exam are allowed to bring their text lists, the approved Reviews of Literature, scratch paper, a writing utensil, and notes/writing for an approximately 5-minute introductory statement to the exam. (This statement does not need to lay out ideas or any aspect of the dissertation project.)

Each portion of the oral examination must be deemed passing before the student can proceed to the Review of the Dissertation Proposal. If a majority of the committee judges that the student has not answered adequately on one of the three areas of the exam, the student must repeat that portion in a separate oral exam of one hour, to be taken as expeditiously as possible.  Failure in two areas constitutes failure of the exam and requires a retake of the whole.  The doctoral examining committee will render a judgment of Satisfactory or Unsatisfactory on the entire examination. A student who fails the exam twice may, upon successful petition to the Graduate Committee, take it a third and final time.

Students cannot bring snacks, drinks, treats, or gifts for committee members to the exam. Professors should avoid the appearance of favoritism that may occur if they bring treats to some student exams but not others.

The doctoral oral examination has the following purposes:

• To establish goals, tone, and direction for the pursuit of the Ph.D. in English for the Department and for individual programs of study;
• To make clear the kinds of knowledge and skills that, in the opinion of the Department, all well-prepared holders of the degree should have attained;
• To provide a means for the Department to assess each candidate’s control of such knowledge and skills in order to certify that the candidate is prepared to write a significant dissertation and enter the profession; and
• To enable the Department to recommend to the candidate areas of strength or weakness that should be addressed.

In consultation with the Graduate Director, a student will ask a member of the Department’s graduate faculty (preferably their advisor) to be the chairperson of the examining committee. The choice of examination committee chair is very important, for that person’s role is to assist the candidate in designing the examination structure, preparing the Review of Literature (see below), negotiating reading lists and clarifying their purposes, and generally following procedures here outlined. The other three English Department members of the committee will be chosen in consultation with the committee chair. (At some point an additional examiner from outside the Department, who serves as the Graduate School representative, will be invited to join the committee). Any unresolved problems in negotiation between a candidate and their committee should be brought to the attention of the Graduate Director, who may choose to involve the Graduate Committee. A student may request a substitution in, or a faculty member may ask to be dismissed from, the membership of the examining committee. Such requests must be approved, in writing, by the faculty member leaving the committee and by the Graduate Director.

Reading Lists

Copies of some approved reading lists and Reviews of Literature are available from the Graduate Secretary and can be found on the U: drive if you are using a computer on campus. Despite the goal of fairness and equity, some unavoidable unevenness and disparity will appear in the length of these lists. It remains, however, the responsibility of the examining committee, and especially the student’s chair, to aim toward consonance with the most rigorous standards and expectations and to insure that areas of study are not unduly narrow.

To facilitate quick committee approval, students may copy the graduate secretary on the email to the committee that contains the final version of the lists and reviews of literature. Committee members may then respond to the email in lieu of signing a printed copy.

Comprehension of a literary period (e.g., British literature of the 18th century; Romanticism; US literature of the 19th century; Modernism) entails sufficient intellectual grasp of both the important primary works of and secondary works on the period or movement to indicate a student’s ability to teach the period or movement and undertake respectable scholarship on it.

Comprehension of an author or group of related authors (e.g., Donne, the Brontës, the Bloomsbury Group, the Black Mountain Poets) entails knowledge, both primary and secondary, of a figure or figures whose writing has generated a significant body of interrelated biographical, historical, and critical scholarship.

Comprehension of one of several genres (the short story, the lyric poem, the epistolary novel). To demonstrate comprehension of a genre, a student should possess sufficient depth and breadth of knowledge, both primary and secondary, of the genre to explain its formal characteristics and account for its historical development.

Comprehension of criticism and literary theory entails a grasp of fundamental conceptual problems inherent in a major school of literary study (e.g., historicist, psychoanalytic, feminist, poststructuralist, etc.). To demonstrate comprehension of that school of criticism and literary theory, a student should be able to discuss changes in its conventions and standards of interpretation and evaluation of literature from its beginning to the present. Students will be expected to possess sufficient depth and breadth of theoretical knowledge to bring appropriate texts and issues to bear on questions of literary study.

Comprehension of composition theory entails an intellectual grasp of fundamental concepts, issues, and theories pertaining to the study of writing. To demonstrate comprehension of composition theory, students should be able to discuss traditional and current issues from a variety of perspectives, as well as the field’s historical development from classical rhetoric to the present.

Comprehension of the broad field of English language studies entails a grasp of the field’s theoretical concepts and current issues, as well as a familiarity with significant works within given subareas. Such subareas will normally involve formal structures (syntax, etc.) and history of the English language, along with other subareas such as social linguistics, discourse analysis, lexicography, etc. Areas of emphasis and specific sets of topics will be arranged through consultation with relevant faculty.

Ph.D. candidates must be continuously enrolled in Dissertation hours each Fall and Spring semester from the time they pass the doctoral examination until successful completion of the final oral examination (defense of dissertation).

• Students enroll for a minimum of 6 hours each Fall and Spring semester until the total of post-doctoral exam Dissertation hours is 18. One hour each semester must be ENGL 999. In order to more quickly reach the 18-hour minimum, and to be sooner eligible for GRAships, it is highly recommended that students enroll in 9 hours of Dissertation in the Spring and Fall semesters. 
• Once a student has accumulated 18 post-doctoral exam  hours, each subsequent enrollment will be for a number of hours agreed upon as appropriate between the student and their advisor, the minimal enrollment each semester being 1 hour of ENGL 999.
• A student must be enrolled in at least one hour of credit at KU during the semester they graduate. Although doctoral students must be enrolled in ENGL 999 while working on their dissertations, per current CLAS regulations, there is no absolute minimum number of ENGL 999 hours required for graduation.
• Students who live and work outside the Lawrence area may, under current University regulations, have their fees assessed at the Field Work rate, which is somewhat lower than the on-campus rate. Students must petition the College Office of Graduate Affairs before campus fees will be waived.

Please also refer to  the COGA policy on post-exam enrollment  or the  Graduate School’s policy .

As soon as possible following successful completion of the doctoral exam, the candidate should establish their three-person core dissertation committee, and then expeditiously proceed to the preparation of a dissertation proposal.  Within the semester following completion of the doctoral exam , the student will present to their core dissertation committee a written narrative of approximately  10-15 pages , not including bibliography, of the dissertation proposal. While the exam schedule is always contingent on student progress, in the first two weeks of the semester in which they intend to take the review , students will work with their committee chair and the graduate program coordinator to schedule the 90-minute RDP. Copies of this proposal must be submitted to the members of the dissertation committee and Graduate Program Coordinator no later than  three weeks prior  to the scheduled examination date.

In the proposal, students will be expected to define: the guiding question or set of questions; a basic thesis (or hypothesis); how the works to be studied or the creative writing produced relate to that (hypo)thesis; the theoretical/methodological model to be followed; the overall formal divisions of the dissertation; and how the study will be situated in the context of prior scholarship (i.e., its importance to the field). The narrative section should be followed by a bibliography demonstrating that the candidate is conversant with the basic theoretical and critical works pertinent to the study. For creative writing students, the proposal may serve as a draft of the critical introduction to the creative dissertation. Students are expected to consult with their projected dissertation committee concerning the preparation of the proposal.

The review will focus on the proposal, although it could also entail determining whether or not the candidate’s knowledge of the field is adequate to begin the composition process. The examination will be graded pass/fail. If it is failed, the committee will suggest areas of weakness to be addressed by the candidate, who will rewrite the proposal and retake the review  by the end of the following semester . If the candidate abandons the entire dissertation project for another, a new RDP will be taken. (For such a step to be taken, the change would need to be drastic, such as a move to a new field or topic. A change in thesis or the addition or subtraction of one or even several works to be examined would not necessitate a new proposal and defense.)  If the student fails to complete the Review of the Dissertation Proposal within a year of the completion of the doctoral exams, they will have fallen out of departmental good standing.  For details on the consequences of falling out of good standing, see “Falling Out of Good Standing,” in General Department Policies and Best Practices.

After passing the Review of the Dissertation Proposal, the student should forward one signed copy of the proposal to the Graduate Program Coordinator. The RDP may last no longer than 90 minutes.

Students cannot bring snacks, drinks, treats, or gifts for committee members to the review. Professors should avoid the appearance of favoritism that may occur if they bring treats to some student exams but not others.

The Graduate Catalog states that the doctoral candidate “must present a dissertation showing the planning, conduct and results of original research, and scholarly creativity.” While most Ph.D. candidates in the Department of English write dissertations of a traditional, research-oriented nature, a creative writing candidate may elect to do a creative-writing dissertation involving fiction, poetry, drama or nonfiction prose.  Such a dissertation must also contain a substantial section of scholarly research related to the creative writing.  The precise nature of the scholarly research component should be determined by the candidate in consultation with the dissertation committee and the Graduate Director. Candidates wishing to undertake such a dissertation must complete all Departmental requirements demanded for the research-oriented Ph.D. degree.

Scholarly Research Component (SRC)

The Scholarly Research Component (SRC) of the creative-writing dissertation is a separate section of the dissertation than the creative work. It involves substantial research and is written in the style of academic prose. It should be 15-20 pages and should cite at least 20 sources, some of which should be primary texts, and many of which should be from the peer-reviewed secondary literature. The topic must relate, in some way, to the topic, themes, ideas, or style of the creative portion of the dissertation; this relation should be stated in the Dissertation Proposal, which should include a section describing the student’s plans for the SRC. The SRC may be based on a seminar paper or other work the student has completed prior to the dissertation; but the research should be augmented, and the writing revised, per these guidelines. The SRC is a part of the dissertation, and as such will be included in the dissertation defense.

The SRC may take two general forms:

1.) An article, publishable in a peer-reviewed journal or collection, on a specific topic related to an author, movement, theoretical issue, taxonomic issue, etc. that has bearing on the creative portion. The quality of this article should be high enough that the manuscript could be submitted to a peer-reviewed publication, with a plausible chance of acceptance.

2.) A survey . This survey may take several different forms:

• A survey of a particular aspect of the genre of the creative portion of the dissertation (stylistic, national, historical, etc.)
• An introduction to the creative portion of the dissertation that explores the influences on, and the theoretical or philosophical foundations or implications of the creative work
• An exploration of a particular technical problem or craft issue that is salient in the creative portion of the dissertation
• If the creative portion of the dissertation includes the results of research (e.g., historical novel, documentary poetry, research-based creative nonfiction), a descriptive overview of the research undertaken already for the dissertation itself
• A combination of the above, with the prior approval of the student’s dissertation director.

The dissertation committee will consist of at least four members—two “core” English faculty members, a third faculty member (usually from English), and one faculty member from a different department who serves as the Graduate Studies representative. The committee may include (with the Graduate Director’s approval) members from other departments and, with the approval of the University’s Graduate Council, members from outside the University. If a student wants to have a committee member from outside the university, or a person who is not in a full-time tenure-track professorship at KU, the student must contact the Graduate Secretary as early as possible. Applications for special graduate faculty status must be reviewed by the College and the Office of Graduate Studies. Requests for defense approval will not be approved unless all committee members currently hold either regular or special graduate faculty status.

The candidate’s preferences as to the membership of the dissertation committee will be carefully considered; the final decision, however, rests with the Department and with the Office of Graduate Studies. All dissertation committees must get approval from the Director of Graduate Studies before scheduling the final oral exam (defense). Furthermore, any changes in the make-up of the dissertation committee from the Review of the Dissertation Proposal committee must be approved by the Director of Graduate Studies.

Once the dissertation proposal has passed and the writing of the dissertation begins, membership of the dissertation committee should remain constant. However, under extraordinary circumstances, a student may request a substitution in, or a faculty member may ask to be dismissed from, the membership of the dissertation committee. Such requests must be approved, in writing, by the faculty member leaving the committee and by the Graduate Director.

If a student does not make progress during the dissertation-writing stage, and accumulates more than one “Limited Progress” and/or “No Progress” grade on their transcript, they will fall out of good standing in the department. For details on the consequences of falling out of good standing, see “Falling Out of Good Standing,” in General Department Policies and Best Practices

Final Oral Exam (Dissertation Defense)

When the dissertation has been tentatively accepted by the dissertation committee (not including the Graduate Studies Representative), the final oral examination will be held, on the recommendation of the Department. While the exam schedule is always contingent on student progress, in the first two weeks of the semester in which they intend to defend the dissertation, students should work with their committee chair and graduate program coordinator to schedule it.

Although the dissertation committee is responsible for certification of the candidate, any member of the graduate faculty may be present at the examination and participate in the questioning, and one examiner—the Graduate Studies Representative—must be from outside the Department. The Graduate Secretary can help students locate an appropriate Grad Studies Rep. The examination normally lasts no more than two hours. It is the obligation of the candidate to advise the Graduate Director that they plan to take the oral examination; this must be done at least one month before the date proposed for the examination.

At least three calendar weeks prior to the defense date, the student will submit the final draft of the dissertation to all the committee members (including the GSR) and inform the Graduate Program Coordinator. Failure to meet this deadline will necessitate rescheduling the defense.  The final oral examination for the Ph.D. in English is, essentially, a defense of the dissertation. When it is passed, the dissertation itself is graded by the dissertation director, in consultation with the student’s committee; the student’s performance in the final examination (defense) is graded by the entire five-person committee

Students cannot bring snacks, drinks, treats, or gifts for committee members to the defense. Professors should avoid the appearance of favoritism that may occur if they bring treats to some student defenses but not others

These sets of attributes are adapted from the Graduate Learner Outcomes that are a part of our Assessment portfolio. “Honors” should only be given to dissertations that are rated “Outstanding” in all or most of the following categories:

• Significant and innovative plot/structure/idea/focus. The writer clearly places plot/structure/idea/focus in context.
• Thorough knowledge of literary traditions. Clear/flexible vision of the creative work produced in relation to those literary traditions.
• Introduction/Afterword is clear, concise, and insightful. A detailed discussion of the implications of the project and future writing projects exists.
• The creative dissertation reveals the doctoral candidate’s comprehensive understanding of poetics and/or aesthetic approach. The application of the aesthetic approach is innovative and convincing.
• The creative dissertation represents original and sophisticated creative work.
• The creative dissertation demonstrates thematic and/or aesthetic unity.

After much discussion about whether the “honors” designation assigned after the dissertation defense should be for the written product only, for the defense/discussion only, for both together, weighted equally, or eradicated altogether, the department voted to accept the Graduate Committee recommendation that “honors” only apply to the written dissertation. "Honors" will be given to dissertations that are rated "Outstanding" in all or most of the categories on the dissertation rubric.

Normally, the dissertation will present the results of the writer’s own research, carried on under the direction of the dissertation committee. This means that the candidate should be in regular contact with all members of the committee during the dissertation research and writing process, providing multiple drafts of chapters, or sections of chapters, according to the arrangements made between the student and each faculty member. Though accepted primarily for its scholarly merit rather than for its rhetorical qualities, the dissertation must be stylistically competent. The Department has accepted the MLA Handbook as the authority in matters of style. The writer may wish to consult also  the Chicago Manual of Style  and Kate L. Turabian’s  A Manual for Writers of Dissertations, Theses, and Term Papers .

Naturally, both the student and the dissertation committee have responsibilities and obligations to each other concerning the submitting and returning of materials. The student should plan on working steadily on the dissertation; if they do so, they should expect from the dissertation committee a reasonably quick reading and assessment of material submitted.

Students preparing their dissertation should be showing chapters to their committee members as they go along, for feedback and revision suggestions. They should also meet periodically with committee members to assess their progress. Prior to scheduling a defense, the student is encouraged to ask committee members whether they feel that the student is ready to defend the dissertation. Ideally, the student should hold the defense only when they have consulted with committee members sufficiently to feel confident that they have revised the dissertation successfully to meet the expectations of all committee members.

Students should expect that they will need to revise each chapter at least once. This means that all chapters (including introduction and conclusion) are shown to committee members once, revised, then shown to committee members again in revised form to assess whether further revisions are needed, prior to the submitting of the final dissertation as a whole. It is not unusual for further revisions to be required and necessary after the second draft of a chapter; students should not therefore simply assume that a second draft is necessarily “final” and passing work.

If a substantial amount of work still needs to be completed or revised at the point that the dissertation defense is scheduled, such a defense date should be regarded as tentative, pending the successful completion, revision, and receipt of feedback on all work. Several weeks prior to the defense, students should consult closely with their dissertation director and committee members about whether the dissertation as a whole is in a final and defensible stage. A project is ready for defense when it is coherent, cohesive, well researched, engages in sophisticated analysis (in its entirety or in the critical introduction of creative dissertations), and makes a significant contribution to the field. In other words, it passes each of the categories laid out in the Dissertation Rubric.

If the dissertation has not clearly reached a final stage, the student and dissertation director are advised to reschedule the defense.

Prior Publication of the Doctoral Dissertation

Portions of the material written by the doctoral candidate may appear in article form before completion of the dissertation. Prior publication does not ensure the acceptance of the dissertation by the dissertation committee. Final acceptance of the dissertation is subject to the approval of the dissertation committee. Previously published material by other authors included in the dissertation must be properly documented.

Each student beyond the master’s degree should confer regularly with the Graduate Director regarding their progress toward the doctoral examination and the doctorate.

Doctoral students may take graduate courses outside the English Department if, in their opinion and that of the Graduate Director, acting on behalf of the Graduate Committee, those courses will be of value to them. Their taking such courses will not, of course, absolve them of the responsibility for meeting all the normal departmental and Graduate School requirements.

Doctoral students in creative writing are strongly encouraged to take formal literature classes in addition to forms classes. Formal literature classes, by providing training in literary analysis, theory, and/or literary history, will help to prepare students for doctoral exams (and future teaching at the college level).

FALL SEMESTER            

• GTAs take 2 courses (801 + one), teach 2 courses; GRAs take 3 courses.
• Visit assigned advisor once a month to update on progress & perceptions. 1st-year advisors can assist with selecting classes for the Spring semester, solidifying and articulating a field of specialization, advice about publishing, conferences, professionalization issues, etc.

SPRING SEMESTER

• GTAs take 2 courses (780/800/880 + one), teach 2 courses. GTAs also take ENGL 802 for 1 credit hour. GRAs take 3 courses.
• Visit assigned advisor or DGS once during the semester; discuss best advisor choices for Year 2.

SUMMER SEMESTER

• Enroll in Summer Institute if topic and/or methodology matches interests.
• Consider conferences suited to your field and schedule; choose a local one for attendance in Year 2 and draft an Abstract for a conference paper (preferably with ideas/materials/ writing drawn from a seminar paper).  Even if abstract is not accepted, you can attend the conference without the pressure of presenting.
• Attend at least one conference to familiarize yourself with procedure, network with other grad students and scholars in your field, AND/OR present a paper.

FALL SEMESTER

• Take 2 courses, teach 2 courses.
• Visit advisor in person at least once during the semester.

WINTER BREAK

• Begin revising one of your seminar papers/independent study projects/creative pieces for submission to a journal; research the journals most suited to placement of your piece.
• Begin thinking about fields and texts for comprehensive examinations.
• Choose an advisor to supervise you through the doctoral examination process.
• Visit assigned 1st-year advisor in person at least once during the semester (at least to formally request doctoral exam supervision OR to notify that you are changing advisors).
• Summer teaching, if eligible.
• Continue revising paper/creative writing for submission to a journal.
• Begin reading for comprehensive exams.
• Attend one conference and present a paper. Apply for one-time funding for out-of-state travel  from Graduate Studies .
• Teach 2 courses; take 997 (exam prep).
• Finalize comps list by end of September; begin drafting rationales.
• Circulate the draft of your article/creative piece to your advisor, other faculty in the field, and/or advanced grad students in the field for suggestions.
• Revise article/creative piece with feedback from readers.
• Teach 2 courses; take 997 or 999 (dissertation hours). Enroll in 999 if you plan to take your comps this semester, even if you don’t take them until the last day of classes.
• Take comps sometime between January and May.
• Summer teaching, if available.
• Submit article/creative work for publication.
• Continuous enrollment after completing doctoral exam (full policy on p. 20)
• Research deadlines for grant applications—note deadlines come early in the year.
• Attend one conference and present a paper.
• Teach 2 courses, take 999.
• Compose dissertation proposal by November.
• Schedule Review of Dissertation Proposal (RDP—formerly DPR).
• Apply for at least one grant or fellowship, such as a departmental-level GRAship or dissertation fellowship. (Winning a full-year, non-teaching fellowship can cut down your years-to-degree to 5 ½, or even 5 years.)
• Conduct research for and draft at least 1 dissertation chapter.
• Conduct research and complete a draft of at least 1 dissertation chapter.
• Revise & resubmit journal article, if necessary.
• Attend 1st round of job market meetings with Job Placement Advisor (JPA) to start drafting materials and thinking about the process.
• Research and complete a draft of at least 1 dissertation chapter, if teaching (1-2 chapters if not).
• Visit dissertation chair  and  committee members in person at least once during the semester.
• Research and complete a draft of at least 1 dissertation chapter (1-2 chapters if not teaching).
• Apply for a departmental grant or fellowship, or, if already held, try applying for one from outside the department, such as those offered by KU’s Hall Center for the Humanities or the Office of Graduate Studies. For  a monthly list of funding opportunities , visit the Graduate Studies website.
• Research and complete a draft of at least 1 dissertation chapter.
• Attend job market meetings with JPA in earnest.
• Apply for external grants, research fellowships, postdoctoral positions with fall deadlines (previous fellowship applications, your dissertation proposal, and subsequent writing should provide a frame so that much of the application can be filled out with the “cut & paste” function).
• Research and complete a draft of at least 1 dissertation chapter (1-2 if not teaching).
• Visit dissertation chair and committee members in person at least once during the semester.
• Polish dissertation chapters.
• Apply for grants and fellowships with spring deadlines.
• Defend dissertation.

Creative Writing Faculty

• Associate Professor

• Professor of English & Environmental Studies

• Assistant Professor

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The Creative Writing and Literature Major is open to ALL LSA students.

Creative Writing and Literature Majors write fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction under the close guidance of faculty mentors, and may workshop their writing with other student writers in small writing seminars. Majors also study the art of writing through the study of literature. Majors specialize in fiction, poetry, or nonfiction early in their studies.

Creative Writing graduates pursue successful careers as writers, editors, educators, advertising professionals, and many other writing related-fields.  Every year our graduates are admitted to competitive graduate school programs in the fine arts, education, law, business, public policy, social work, and other courses of professional study that demand proficient writing skills and creative approaches to problem solving.

RC Creative Writing students have demonstrated unparalled success in the esteemed U of M Hopwood Awards , winning over 100 awards since the 1994-95 school year.

Students meet with the creative writing major advisor when declaring, making course substitutions, discussing transfer/study abroad credit evaluations, internships, preparing major release forms, and information on graduate school study and career paths. 

Although students may pursue study in multiple genres, most specialize in a single genre:

Fiction / Creative Nonfiction

Digital Storytelling

Advising appointments can be made here or by calling RC Academic Services at 763-0032.

Minimum Credits: 28

The major is structured into four genre tracks. In addition to the Fiction / Creative Nonfiction, Poetry, and Digital Storytelling tracks, students may elect a multi-genre track in consultation with their principal writing instructors and the major advisor.

Each track consists of:

Four elective creative writing courses

Five elective upper level literature courses

Fiction / Creative Nonfiction Track

Students complete a minimum of four creative writing courses, at least three of which must be at the 300 level or above and at least three of which must be taken in the RC. A usual track is an introductory course (Narration) and three upper-level courses. Students may count one non-RC creative writing course towards the writing requirement.

Creative Writing Courses: Students may elect any combination of seminars and tutorials from the following:

RCHUMS 220 Narration: Intro to Fiction Writing

RCHUMS 325, 326, 425, 426 Tutorials: Permission of instructor required

RCHUMS 320 Narration: Advanced Fiction Writing

RCHUMS 334 (Section 005) Memoir: Writing from Within

Other departmental offerings listed under RCHUMS 334 or RCCORE 334. Details here.

Literature Electives: Students complete five literature courses, at the 300-level or above. One literature course must focus on either ancient literature or medieval literature (pre-1600). The ancient / medieval requirement may focus on non-Western or Western literature, but must pre-date Shakespeare if a Western literature course is elected. English 367 – Shakespeare’s Plays does not fulfill this requirement, although the course can count towards the literature requirement.

Students are encouraged to take literature courses in the RC Arts and Ideas Major, the  Department of English  or the  Comparative Literature Program . Students majoring in a second language may count one upper-level literature course in that language, or one upper-level literature course completed during a full semester studying abroad in a non-English speaking country. Upper-level literature courses taken abroad also may be counted. All literature courses counted toward the Creative Writing and Literature Major must be at least three (3) credits.

Courses that have been used to meet the requirement in the past include:

RCHUMS 354 Race and Identity in Music

RCHUMS 344 Reason and Passion in the 18th Century

RCHUMS 342 Representing the Holocaust in Literature, Film and the Visual Arts

Other RCHUMS courses listed in the Arts and Ideas in the Humanities major

English 350 Literature in English to 1660 (for ancient/medieval requirement)

English 328 Writing and the Environment

English 379 Literature in Afro-American Culture

Other English Department courses with a literature focus

CLCIV 385 Greek Mythology (for ancient/medieval requirement)  

Asian 314 Strange Ways: Literature of the Supernatural in Pre-modern Japan and China

MEMS 386 Medieval Literature, History and Culture 

Poetry Track

Students complete a minimum of four creative writing courses, at least three of which must be at the 300 level or above and at least three of which must be taken in the RC. A usual track is an introductory course (Writing Poetry) and three upper-level courses. Students may count one non-RC creative writing course towards the writing requirement.

RCHUMS 221 Writing Poetry

RCHUMS 321 Advanced Poetry Writing

RCHUMS 334 Workshop with Incarcerated Poets and Artists

Literature courses listed above under Fiction / Creative Nonfiction

English 340 Studies in Poetry

English 440 Modern Poetry

English 442 Studies in Poetry

Digital Storytelling Track

The digital storytelling track studies the ways story interacts with technology and the effect of digital media on writing and the creative process. Students electing this track pair writing practice with the study of the theory, ethics, and history of digital media.

Creative Writing Courses: At least 4 courses required over two categories 

Creative Writing Courses: choose a minimum of two Residential College creative writing courses that focus on writing fiction, creative nonfiction, or poetry. Only one course in a student’s major plan should be at the 200-level:

Introductory Courses (may elect 1 to count towards major):

Upper-level Courses:

RCHUMS 320 Advanced Narration 

RCHUMS 321 Advanced Poetry Writing 

RCHUMS 325, 326, 425, 426 Creative Writing Tutorials 

Digital Writing / Skills Courses: choose a minimum of two digital storytelling / writing courses at the 300-level or above that focus on digital media and/or electronic literature writing and practice. Courses that have been used to meet the requirement in the past include:

RCCORE 334 (Section 004) Digital Storytelling

English 420 Tech and the Humanities / Electronic Literature

RCSCI 360 (Section 001) Documentary Photography

RCHUMS 325, 326, 425, 426 Creative Writing Tutorials with a focus on writing for, and/or creating, electronic literature or digital media content (permission of instructor required)

Digital Studies Requirement: At least 2 courses required 

Choose a minimum of two digital studies theory courses at the 300-level or above that focus on the theory of digital culture and/or the digital humanities. Courses that have been used to meet the requirement in the past include:

AmCult 358 Topics in Digital Studies

AmCult 360 Radical Digital Media

FTVM 368 Topics in Digital Media Studies

English 405 Theories of Writing

Literature Requirement: At least 3 courses required 

Literature courses must be taken at the 300-level or above. Literature courses should not focus on digital studies but should offer complementary skills and additional context in the art and craft of literature. One course must focus on ancient/medieval literature. For more information on specific literature requirements, please see the Literature section listed under Fiction / Creative Nonfiction.

A student deemed eligible to attempt Honors typically completes the following process:

A student whose overall academic record meets the eligibility criteria for honors and whose creative work models originality and the promise of mastery in their chosen genre may apply for an honors thesis. Honors theses are typically 75-100 pages of polished fiction or creative nonfiction, or a collection of 25 or more poems. The student and their faculty advisor will determine the exact length and content of the final thesis. 

To be eligible to apply for honors, a student must demonstrate exceptional skill in the art and craft of prose, poetry, or creative nonfiction. The student must have completed a minimum of two Residential College creative writing classes, although honors students typically complete three or more by the start of their thesis sequence. The student also must hold a GPA of at least 3.4 overall. 

Students who meet the above criteria are eligible to apply for the honors thesis project in the winter term of their junior year, typically by late March. To apply, students shall submit:

A writing sample (10 pages of prose or 5 poems) that represents the student’s best, most polished work.

A brief statement (1-2 pages) describing the honors project. Applicants should also include the name of a faculty member they wish to request as their thesis advisor.

Questions about the submittal process can be directed to the creative writing major advisor  here

The Honors Committee, consisting of faculty in the Creative Writing program, will judge the student’s work on its quality, originality, and promise of mastery in their chosen genre. The Committee reviews all honors applications after the submission deadline. Students are notified of the Committee’s decision in late March or early April. If the planned project is accepted for honors, the Committee will assign a faculty thesis advisor to the student. 

Honors Theses require a two-semester commitment. Students enroll in RCCORE 490 for the fall term and RCHUMS 426 for the winter term. A passing grade in RCCORE 490 earns a Y grade, indicating that the thesis work will continue into the next semester. At the end of the second term, the Y grade converts to the grade earned in RCHUMS 426. Exceptions to the two-semester requirement are rare but may be discussed with the thesis advisor.

When the honors thesis project is complete (typically the last week of March or the first week of April of the senior year), the student’s honors thesis advisor and one other member of the Residential College’s Creative Writing faculty will determine if the project qualifies for honors and (if so) what level of honors the student receives. Honors thesis students also participate in a public reading with fellow thesis students at the end of the winter term (typically the second week of April).

To download the honors information, click here.

Creative Writing faculty

Laura Kasischke Poetry; Fiction

Christopher Matthews Fiction; Poetry

Sarah Messer Poetry; Creative Nonfiction; Prison Creative Arts Program

Susan Rosegrant Creative Nonfiction; Journalism; Fiction

Laura Thomas Fiction; Creative Nonfiction

A. Van Jordan Poetry, Film Studies

Aisha Sloan Creative Nonfiction, Digital Storytelling

Open to All

You don’t need to be a dedicated major to participate in workshops, tutorials, and classes taught by Creative Writing faculty, which are open to enrollment from all students. If even only for a semester, you wish to explore your interest in writing, consider taking a RC Creative Writing course !

For RC students, creative writing courses fulfill the RC Arts Practicum requirement. For RC and LSA students, RCHUMS 220, RCHUMS 221, and RCHUMS 325 satisfy Creative Expression distribution.

You can participate in the RC Review , our annual student-run journal featuring student poetry, fiction, and visual art. RC students can get a credit for participating in the RC Review.

Or consider joining the RC Creative Writing Forum , which like RC Review, offers RC students a credit, but is open to all for participation.

RC Writers website

Check out the  RC Writers Website,  for the Residential College writing community.

Recent Events

Paths to publication: a conversation with allison epstein and jon michael darga.

Link to the video recording here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6ArrpiEKKc

Love & Zombies & Literature: What makes Genre Writing Literary?

Link to the recording of the webinar on our youtube page: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SD6LC4Zu-0

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Ready Set Study

Creative Writing Vs. Literature

Are you torn between pursuing a major in Creative Writing or Literature? It’s time to shed some light on this eternal debate.

In this article, we’ll delve into the intricacies of these two majors, exploring their curriculum, coursework, and career prospects. Let’s dissect the writing skills developed and the job roles each major offers.

Discover the similarities and differences between Creative Writing and Literature programs, and gain insights into the factors that can help you make an informed decision.

Table of Contents

Key Takeaways

• Creative writing and literature are distinct majors that offer unique perspectives on storytelling.
• Creative writing focuses on crafting original narratives and developing creativity and storytelling skills.
• Literature majors analyze and interpret literary works, developing critical thinking and research skills.
• Creative writing graduates often pursue careers as authors, screenwriters, or content creators, while literature graduates can explore opportunities in teaching, publishing, or research.

Overview of the two majors: Creative Writing and Literature

Creative writing and literature are two distinct majors that offer unique perspectives on the world of storytelling.

While both majors focus on studying and analyzing written works, they differ in terms of the skills developed and job prospects.

In creative writing, students develop their skills in crafting original narratives, honing their creativity, and mastering the art of storytelling. They learn to create engaging characters, build immersive worlds, and evoke emotions through their words.

On the other hand, literature majors delve deep into the analysis and interpretation of literary works. They develop critical thinking, research, and communication skills, as well as a deep understanding of literary traditions and cultural contexts.

In terms of job prospects, creative writing graduates often pursue careers as authors, screenwriters, or content creators, while literature graduates can explore opportunities in teaching, publishing, or research.

Overview of the curriculum and requirements of the two majors

The curriculum and requirements for the two majors differ in terms of the courses students need to take and the skills they need to develop.

When it comes to required reading, creative writing majors focus more on contemporary literature and works within their chosen genre. They analyze and interpret texts not only from a literary perspective but also from a writer’s standpoint, looking at the craft and techniques employed by the authors.

On the other hand, literature majors are exposed to a wider range of literary works from different genres, time periods, and cultures. They critically analyze and interpret texts, delving into themes, symbolism, and social contexts.

Both majors contribute to the development of critical thinking skills, but creative writing majors also prioritize the development of their own unique voice and style as writers.

Overview of coursework and assessments in Creative Writing and Literature

To excel in your studies, you’ll need to complete a variety of assignments and assessments that will test your understanding of the different genres and literary techniques. The coursework in Creative Writing and Literature majors is designed to develop your skills in both reading and writing. In literature courses, you will analyze and interpret various texts, while in creative writing courses, you will have the opportunity to express your own ideas and stories through writing. The teaching methods in these disciplines often involve workshops, where you will receive feedback from both your peers and professors. Technology has had a significant impact on creative writing and literature education, providing new tools and platforms for students to engage with the written word. With the rise of online platforms and digital publishing, students now have more opportunities to share their work and connect with a wider audience.

Comparison of Writing Skills Developed

When comparing writing skills developed in both disciplines, you often notice the differences in analysis and interpretation.

In creative writing, the focus is on self-expression, imagination, and storytelling. Writers in this discipline use various techniques like descriptive language, dialogue, and character development to engage readers.

On the other hand, literature emphasizes critical thinking, analysis, and interpretation of texts. It involves examining themes, symbols, and literary devices within a piece of writing. This analytical approach enhances your ability to think critically, analyze complex ideas, and make connections between different texts.

Both creative writing and literature contribute to the development of your writing skills, but in different ways. Creative writing helps you refine your ability to create compelling narratives, while literature cultivates your analytical and interpretive skills, contributing to a deeper understanding of literary works.

Comparison of Career Opportunities and Job Roles in Creative Writing and Literature

Comparing career opportunities and job roles in creative writing and literature, you’ll notice distinct differences in the types of professions and industries that each field can lead to.

In creative writing, the focus is often on developing writing skills for various forms of media, such as novels, poetry, screenplays, and advertising copy. As a creative writer, you have the potential to work as a novelist, poet, screenwriter, or even in the field of advertising and marketing.

On the other hand, literature emphasizes the study and analysis of written works from different time periods and cultures. This field opens up career prospects in academia as a professor or researcher, as well as in publishing, editing, and literary criticism.

While both fields offer job prospects in writing, creative writing tends to be more versatile in terms of the industries and career paths it can lead to.

Comparison of Salary Potential in Creative Writing and Literature

If you’re considering a career in either creative writing or literature, you’ll be interested to know the differences in salary potential between the two fields. While both fields offer opportunities for artistic expression and storytelling, they differ significantly in terms of earning potential and job market.

Here are four key points to consider:

• Earning Potential: Creative writing careers, such as becoming a novelist or poet, can be financially challenging, with average incomes varying greatly. On the other hand, literature-related careers, such as becoming a professor or literary critic, often offer more stable and higher-paying opportunities.
• Job Market: Creative writing positions are highly competitive, with limited job openings and a high number of aspiring writers. Literature-related careers, however, have a wider range of opportunities, including teaching positions, publishing roles, and research positions.
• Advancement Opportunities: In creative writing, success often depends on individual talent and market demand. Literature-related careers offer more potential for advancement through research, publishing scholarly articles, and gaining recognition in the academic community.
• Industry Stability: The job market for creative writers tends to be more volatile, with fluctuations in demand and trends. Literature-related careers, particularly in academia, offer greater stability due to the enduring importance of literary study.

Considering these factors, it’s essential to weigh the financial prospects and job market conditions when deciding between a career in creative writing or literature.

Similarities between Creative Writing and Literature Programs

As you explore both fields, you’ll notice that creative writing and literature programs share many similarities in terms of the skills and knowledge they provide. In both disciplines, writing techniques are emphasized to develop strong communication skills and the ability to express oneself effectively. Whether you are analyzing a literary text or crafting your own creative piece, critical analysis plays a vital role in both creative writing and literature studies. It allows you to delve deep into the meaning and structure of a text, honing your analytical skills and fostering a deeper understanding of the craft. To illustrate this further, here is a comparison table highlighting the similarities between creative writing and literature programs:

Difference between Creative Writing and Literature programs

When exploring the differences between creative writing and literature programs, you’ll find that the focus in creative writing is on developing your own unique voice and crafting original stories, while in literature programs, the emphasis is on analyzing and interpreting existing literary works.

The difference in teaching methods between these two disciplines has a significant impact on critical thinking. Here are four key points to consider:

• Creative writing programs encourage students to engage in imaginative thinking and explore their own creativity.
• Literature programs, on the other hand, foster critical thinking skills by challenging students to analyze and interpret complex texts.
• Creative writing programs often rely on workshops and peer feedback to enhance writing skills and encourage collaboration.
• Literature programs typically employ lectures, discussions, and close readings to deepen students’ understanding of literary works and develop critical analysis skills.

Factors to consider when choosing a major in Creative Writing vs. Literature

Considering your personal goals and interests, it’s important to weigh the various factors when deciding between a major in creative writing or literature.

When choosing a major, one important factor to consider is the specific skills and knowledge you wish to acquire. A major in creative writing focuses on honing your writing skills and exploring different creative forms, while a major in literature delves into the study of literary works and the analysis of texts.

Another factor to consider is the career opportunities associated with each major. A major in creative writing can open doors to careers in writing, editing, or publishing, while a major in literature can lead to careers in teaching, research, or literary criticism.

Lastly, the importance of experiential learning cannot be overlooked. Both creative writing and literature programs offer opportunities for hands-on experience through workshops, internships, or literary events, which can enhance your skills and broaden your understanding of the field.

Ultimately, the decision between a major in creative writing or literature should align with your passions, career goals, and desired learning experiences.

In conclusion, when considering a major in Creative Writing versus Literature, it is important to take into account various factors such as personal interests, career goals, and financial prospects.

While both majors offer opportunities for developing writing skills and exploring literary works, they differ in terms of curriculum, career paths, and salary potential.

Interestingly, according to a recent study, it was found that graduates with a degree in Creative Writing have a higher job satisfaction rate compared to those with a degree in Literature. This statistic highlights the value of pursuing a major that aligns with one’s passion and creative abilities.

Ultimately, the choice between Creative Writing and Literature should be based on individual aspirations and the desire to make a meaningful impact in the literary world.

School of Arts and Humanities

Literature with creative writing concentration (ba).

Students who complete the major in Literature receive a thorough grounding in literary ideas and methods, competence in particular national literatures, as well as the ability to work across literatures and languages. By engaging literary texts appropriate to one of the country's most diverse campuses, this major teaches both specialized knowledge and the skills to deepen and broaden knowledge of literature that is new or unfamiliar. The ideal graduate would be able to approach an English-language text from anywhere in the world with a set of intelligent questions and the capacity to produce equally intelligent answers to interpretative problems. By selecting a variety of courses from a variety of headings, students are able to combine courses in criticism and interpretation, in writing and translation, and in English and foreign languages. Students may also be certified to teach.

Since the following catalog course descriptions are very general, students are urged to consult the detailed course descriptions available on the web site for the School of Arts and Humanities. At least one-half of the semester credit hours for a major must be taken at UT Dallas.

Unless otherwise noted, courses in Literature are open to all students in the University.

Bachelor of Arts in Literature with Creative Writing Concentration

Degree Requirements (120 semester credit hours) 1

View an Example of Degree Requirements by Semester

FACG> ah-humanities-literary-studies-ba

Professors: Milton A. Cohen @mcohen , Sean J. Cotter @sjc010100 , Fred I. Curchack @curchack , Pamela Gossin @psgossin , Ming Dong Gu @mdg073000 , Dennis M. Kratz @dkratz , Manuel (Manny) Martinez @mlm160630 , Zsuzsanna Ozsváth @zozsvath , David A. Patterson @dxp103120 , Rene Prieto @rxp113230 , Timothy (Tim) Redman @redman , Rainer Schulte @schulte , Theresa M. Towner @tmtowner , Frederick Turner @fturner

Associate Professors: John C. Gooch @jcg053000 , Charles Hatfield @cxh074100 , Jessica C. Murphy @jxm092000

Assistant Professors: Ashley Barnes @axb162631 , Erin Greer @exg180013

Professor Emeritus: Michael S. Simpson @msimpson

Clinical Professor: Dennis Walsh @dpw031000

Clinical Associate Professor: Kenneth Brewer @klb092000

Associate Professors of Instruction: Zafar Anjum @zxa110730 , Lorena Camacho-Guardardo @lxc163230 , Bei Chen @bxc152730 , Peter (Jay) Ingrao @jingrao , Thomas M. Lambert @tml017100 , Christopher (Chris) Ryan @cxr088000 , Sabrina Starnaman @sxs090100

I. Core Curriculum Requirements: 42 semester credit hours 2

Communication: 6 semester credit hours

RHET 1302 Rhetoric

And choose one course from the following:

COMM 1311 Survey of Oral and Technology-based Communication

COMM 1315 Public Speaking

Mathematics: 3 semester credit hours

Select any 3 semester credit hours from Mathematics Core courses

Life and Physical Sciences: 6 semester credit hours

Select any 6 semester credit hours from Life and Physical Sciences Core courses

Language, Philosophy and Culture: 3 semester credit hours

LIT 2331 Introduction to World Literature 3

Or select any 3 semester credit hours from Language, Philosophy and Culture Core courses

Creative Arts: 3 semester credit hours

Select any 3 semester credit hours from Creative Arts Core courses

American History: 6 semester credit hours

Select any 6 semester credit hours from American History Core courses

Government/Political Science: 6 semester credit hours

Select any 6 semester credit hours from Government/Political Science Core courses

Social and Behavioral Sciences: 3 semester credit hours

Select any 3 semester credit hours from Social and Behavioral Sciences Core courses

Component Area Option: 6 semester credit hours

Select any 6 semester credit hours from Component Area Option Core courses

II. Major Requirements: 48-51 semester credit hours beyond Core Curriculum

Major Preparatory Courses: 6-9 semester credit hours beyond Core Curriculum

LIT 2350 Close Reading

Choose 6 semester credit hours from the following three:

LIT 2320 Survey A: Literature in English

LIT 2321 Survey B: Literature in Translation

Concentration Core Course: 3 semester credit hours

CRWT 2301 Introduction to Creative Writing

Major Core Courses: 12 semester credit hours

LIT 3300 Western Literary Tradition

LIT 3339 Writing Literary Studies

LIT 4329 Single Author

LIT 4390 Capstone

Major Distribution and Elective Courses: 12 semester credit hours

3 semester credit hours from the following "Research and Writing" courses:

ARHM 3342 Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies in the Arts and Humanities

LIT 3338 Literary Theory and Aesthetic Philosophy

Any upper-division creative writing workshop (prefix CRWT )

6 semester credit hours from the following "Contexts" course:

LIT 3319 Contexts 4

3 semester credit hours from the following "Comparisons" courses:

LIT 3328 Ethics in Literature

LIT 3334 Literature of Science

CRWT 3330 Translation Workshop

LIT 3337 Comparisons

Creative Writing Concentration Requirements: 15 semester credit hours

12 semester credit hours of upper-division creative writing workshops in at least two genres (e.g., poetry and fiction).

3 semester credit hours of foreign language, upper-division LIT, or CRWT electives.

IV. Elective Requirements: 27-30 semester credit hours

Free Electives: 27-30 semester credit hours

Both upper-division and lower-division courses may be used as electives, but students must complete at least 51 semester credit hours of upper-division courses to qualify for graduation.

Incoming freshmen must enroll and complete requirements of ARHM 1100 . 1

1. Incoming freshmen must enroll and complete requirements of UNIV 1010 and the corresponding school-related freshman seminar course. Students, including transfer students, who complete their core curriculum at UT Dallas must take UNIV 2020.

2. Curriculum Requirements can be fulfilled by other approved courses from institutions of higher education. The courses listed are recommended as the most efficient way to satisfy both Core Curriculum and Major Requirements at UT Dallas.

3. A required Preparatory course that also fulfills a Core Curriculum requirement. Semester credit hours may be counted in Core Curriculum.

4. LIT 3319 may be repeat for credit as topics vary

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Creativity Meets Critical Thinking

Department of english & literary arts, study literature as a site of possibility.

The Department of English & Literary Arts connects historical context to contemporary innovations across writing, research and scholarship. Our faculty, graduate students and undergraduates come together to spark intellectual curiosity and feed literary creation.

Undergraduate English students gain access to leading writers, critics and scholars across diverse fields of study who connect classroom learning to professional experience in editing, publishing, research and creative writing.

Graduate students in the master’s and doctoral programs develop their scholarly and creative interests through seminars and workshops, as well as tutorials and colloquia aimed at in-depth study, teaching mentorship and professional development. Creative writers can serve as readers and editorial staff at Denver Quarterly, a leading voice in avant-garde and experimental writing since 1966.

Degree Programs

Undergraduates can major or minor in English & Literary Arts, with options for distinction and honors in the major. Concentrations in literary studies, English education or creative writing allow majors more fully to develop their interest in a particular subfield.

Graduate students can pursue an MA in our flexible literary studies concentration or develop expertise through our doctoral program in English & Literary Arts. PhD students choose between a concentration in literary studies or creative writing, with further options for writers to specialize in poetry or prose.

Explore Programs

Like literature classes, the creative writing courses at DU are eclectic, interesting and as diverse as the people teaching them. As every instructor approaches the material with their own collection of passions and curiosities, no two sections of creative writing class are the same. Emelia Kamadulski (BA '21) English & Literary Arts

I have been encouraged here to look at my scholarly writing through a creative lens, and at my creative writing through a scholarly one. For me, this has broadened my understanding of what it is possible to study, to think and to write. Zeeshan Reshamwala PhD Candidate, Literary Studies

There has often been a kind of divide and conflict between academic programs and creative writing programs. I don’t know exactly how that began, but I have found over the years that that divide has lessened — practically disappeared — here. Bin Ramke Poet, Professor and Phipps Chair

Publications

Denver quarterly.

Founded in 1966 by John Williams, Denver Quarterly has published major writers at the cutting edge of avant-garde and experimental thought for more than 50 years. The journal, which publishes reviews, poetry, prose and cross-genre writing, is edited by a DU faculty member with the assistance of graduate students.

Scholarly & Creative Publications

Faculty and graduate students publish scholarship and creative works with top journals, magazines and presses. The Department of English & Literary Arts at DU is made up of researchers, scholars and writers whose works span academic and creative publications — and frequently explore where critical and creative work meet.

Foothills Visual and Textual Journal

Foothills, published annually by a staff of undergraduate students at DU, is a longstanding publication that brings textual and visual innovations together. First established in 1946, Foothills is dedicated to the ways in which verbal and artistic creativity vitalizes community.

The Denver School of Forms & Poetics

This two-week summer program connects communities across disciplines, interests and intellectual pursuits. The Denver School of Forms & Poetics brings DU faculty, graduate students and advanced seniors together with guest artists and the broader Denver community. Through a variety of workshops and seminars, the program serves as a forum to explore literary and creative endeavors, and to experience innovations in how such endeavors can interact.

Support innovations in the creative and literary arts

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Go to the graduate admission application to submit your information. For information on admission requirements, visit the graduate academic programs page and locate your program of interest.

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Creative writing and literary studies

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Key resources

• MLA Style Center Writing resources from the Modern Language Association including guides for style, research and writing. It also has formatting information and sample papers in MLA style. Note the 8th Edition.
• The Cambridge Companion to Creative Writing by David Morley (Editor); Philip Neilsen (Editor) ISBN: 9781139028417 Creative writing has become a highly professionalised academic discipline, with popular courses and prestigious degree programmes worldwide. This book is a must for all students and teachers of creative writing, indeed for anyone who aspires to be a published writer. It engages with a complex art in an accessible manner, addressing concepts important to the rapidly growing field of creative writing, while maintaining a strong craft emphasis, analysing exemplary models of writing and providing related writing exercises. Written by professional writers and teachers of writing, the chapters deal with specific genres or forms - ranging from the novel to new media - or with significant topics that explore the cutting edge state of creative writing internationally (including creative writing and science, contemporary publishing and new workshop approaches).
• Key Concepts in Contemporary Literature by John Peck; Steve Padley Key Concepts in Contemporary Literature offers a comprehensive overview of the literature and critical debates of the period since 1945. Setting texts in their historical, political and cultural contexts, it demonstrates how literature has dealt with and been shaped by the changing face of the modern world.
• The Cambridge History of Australian Literature by Peter Pierce (Editor) The Cambridge History of Australian Literature is the most comprehensive volume ever written on Australia's national literature. This authoritative guide spans Australian literary history from colonial origins, encompassing indigenous and migrant literatures, as well as representations of Asia and the Pacific and the role of literary culture in modern Australian society. Bringing together a distinguished line-up of contributors, this volume explores each of the literary modes in an Australian context, including short story, poetry, children's literature, autobiography and fiction. This book is an essential reference for general readers and specialists alike.

Reference resources

• Macquarie Dictionary Online The Macquarie Dictionary & Thesaurus Online features easy, comprehensive and interactive searching of over 121,000 headwords and phrases and over 210,000 definitions, with the ability to search either the dictionary, thesaurus or both.
• Oxford Reference Oxford Reference is the home of Oxford’s quality reference publishing, bringing together over 2 million entries, many of which are illustrated, into a single cross-searchable resource. Newly relaunched with a brand new look and feel, and specifically designed to meet the needs and expectations of reference users, Oxford Reference provides quality, up-to-date reference content at the click of a button. Made up of two main collections, both fully integrated and cross-searchable, Oxford Reference couples Oxford’s trusted A-Z reference material with an intuitive design to deliver a discoverable, up-to-date, and expanding reference resource.
• The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature Based on the bestselling Oxford Companion to English Literature, this is an indispensable guide to all aspects of English literature. Over 4,900 new and revised A to Z entries give unrivalled coverage of writers, works, historical context, literary theory, allusions, characters, and plot summaries.
• Dictionary of Writers and their Works An essential guide to authors and their works that focuses on the general canon of British literature from the fifteenth-century to the present. There is also some coverage of non-fiction such as biographies, memoirs, and science, as well as inclusion of major American and Commonwealth writers.
• Oxford Handbooks Online. Literature Complete searchable texts of the Oxford handbooks in literature. Oxford Handbooks Online (OHO), the home of scholarly research reviews, is an outstanding collection of the best Handbooks in 14 subject areas. The collection of Oxford Handbooks is one of the most prestigious and successful strands of Oxford’s scholarly publishing, containing in-depth, high-level articles by scholars at the top of their field. OHO brings together the world’s leading scholars to discuss research and the latest thinking on a range of major topics. Each Handbook offers thorough introductions to topics and a critical survey of the current state of scholarship in a particular field of study, creating an original conception of the field and setting the agenda for new research. The articles review the key issues and major debates, and provide an original argument for how those debates might evolve.

Researching, writing and referencing help

• Study and assignment skills Develop your study and digital skills and improve your researching, writing and editing.
• Referencing Self-help resources, including examples of how to reference in various styles.
• Academic integrity matters Introduces you to academic integrity and provides resources to support your commitment to academic integrity.
• Systematic-style review This web page will be of interest to anyone conducting or intending to conduct a systematic-style review (e.g., systematic, scoping, integrative, rapid, systematic quantitative literature review, etc.)
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• Last Updated: May 8, 2024 2:00 PM
• URL: https://libraryguides.griffith.edu.au/creative-writing

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Office of Admission

Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts 79 Fifth Avenue, 5th floor  New York, NY 10003  Phone: 212.229.5150 or  800.292.3040 Fax: 212.229.5355 [email protected]

Program Contacts

For general questions about Literary Studies , please email  [email protected] .  Find  Literary Studies faculty and advisors .

Literary Studies Co-Chairs

Literature and Critical Analysis Chair Juan De Castro Professor, Literary Studies [email protected]

Writing Chair Jennifer Firestone Director, Academic Fellows Associate Professor, Literary Studies [email protected]

Departmental Faculty Advisors

Literature and Critical Analysis Departmental Faculty Advisor Juan De Castro Professor, Literary Studies [email protected]

Writing Departmental Faculty Advisor Albert Mobilio Associate Professor, Literary Studies [email protected]

Literature and Critical Analysis Capstone Coordinator  Julie Napolin Associate Professor, Digital Humanities [email protected]

Writing Capstone Coordinator  Wendy Xu Assistant Professor, Writing [email protected]

Student Success Advisor for Literary Studies

Chris McElderry Assistant Director of Student Success Advising at Lang [email protected] 646.909.2260

Virtual Tour

New York City has long been a mecca for writing, publishing, bookselling, and related creative industries. In the Literary Studies program, students hone their skills as writers and editors while considering works of literature—novels, poems, essays, plays, memoirs, epics, mysteries, and more—from the standpoints of craft, history, psychology, textual analysis, politics, technology, and cultural studies.

• Study Options Major

Students interested in Literary Studies explore the curriculum by taking introductory courses in Writing and in Literature and Critical Analysis. They may then choose a concentration in one of these disciplines; some do both. All Literary Studies students take two core courses examining selected texts from the ancient to the contemporary world by junior year. These courses provide all majors with a common language and literary experience.

Major requirements

Writing Concentration

In the Writing concentration, you study the craft and technique of writing fiction, poetry, and nonfiction through carefully designed courses. Students interested in journalism are encouraged to consider Journalism + Design . 

The final semester of students in the Writing Concentration is dedicated to intensive capstone work in your chosen genre and courses in a secondary genre. All writing courses are taught by practicing writers with national reputations, and are based on the following assumptions:

• Writing is a liberal art.
• Writers are, above all, readers.
• Close study of each genre's aesthetic, critical, and historical concepts is essential.
• Writers have a vital relationship to society, culture, and nature that should be explored and expressed through their art.

Literature and Critical Analysis Concentration

In the Literature and Critical Analysis concentration, we study great works past and present, acquiring a broad knowledge of literary history, theory, and criticism. Choosing your own path, you develop advanced skills as a reader, writer, and analytical thinker, in preparation for an independent research essay in your final semester. All literature courses are taught by scholars with national reputations in their field and are based on the following assumptions:

• Reading is a creative act. 
• Literature is a print or manuscript archive of the verbal arts, open to all readers.
• Criticism heightens our experience of the verbal arts and contributes to knowledge.
• Engaging with works of literature deepens our understanding of the world.

Connecting to New York City

While it offers the atmosphere and intimacy of a small college, Eugene Lang College is part of The New School, a major progressive university in New York City. Literary Studies students attend literary readings around the city and take advantage of publishing and writing internships and opportunities to work with professional writers and editors in the nation's literary capital. Additional exposure to the city's vast resources occurs through excursions to archives and class visits by respected local writers, publishers, archivists.

Career Paths

Literary Studies majors go on to work for publishing companies, magazines, websites, and libraries. They pursue careers in writing, nonprofit organizations, journalism, bookselling,  educational institutions, and advanced studies in English, comparative literature, and creative writing.

Consult our  4-Year Lang Career Pathways Map  (PDF) for helpful steps and resources to link your academic journey to your future plans. If you are planning to go on to graduate study, consider applying to the Bachelor's-Master's program , which enables you to earn graduate credits that will apply to both your Lang degree and a master's degree in Creative Publishing and Critical Journalism or in Liberal Studies at The New School for Social Research. 

Outcomes at Lang

Bodies of Water: Literature, Justice & Ecology

The nonfiction literature of bodies of water and watery bodies explores swimming pools, pipelines, borders, beaches, and beverage bottles. We might rethink water through our memories and histories and through those of Harriet Tubman, Herman Melville, Walt Whitman, Rachel Carson, Toni Morrison, Wendy...

Literary Origins and Echoes

This course meets the introductory course requirement for Literary Studies majors and is intended for beginner Literary Studies students. This course introduces students to the origins of literature through an examination of some of the earliest texts that have shaped the literary history of the wor...

New Women, New Myths

In this course, we will look at how women have tinkered with genre as they have rewritten gender scripts of their own. We will read the experimental works of both women of European descent and women of color. Writers may include Virginia Woolf, Angela Carter, Octavia Butler, Nella Larsen, Theresa ...

Literary Studies faculty include leading scholars of English-language and foreign-language literatures as well as renowned authors and writers.

• Meet our faculty

Related Areas Of Study

Undergraduate

• Environmental Studies
• Gender Studies
• Journalism + Design
• Race and Ethnicity

Graduate Programs

• Creative Publishing and Critical Journalism (MA)
• Creative Writing (MFA)
• Liberal Studies (MA)

Lang Alum Ivy Johnson Co-hosts Just Like Honey Reading Series

Johnson, whose Liberal Arts degree focused on literary studies, is a professor of English and ESL at Contra Costa College in the California Bay Area, where they co-host the reading series with their partner in their backyard. 

Lang Alum Tove Danovich Pens Op-Ed for WASHINGTON POST

Danovich (BA Literary Studies) wrote about the impact on our backyards of the USDA's updates to growing zones.

Literary Studies Has an Instagram Account

Follow us to find out about department events and learn about the exciting work our students and faculty are doing!

Upcoming Events

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To apply to any of our undergraduate programs (except the Bachelor's Program for Adults and Transfer Students and Parsons Associate of Applied Science programs) complete and submit the Common App online.

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To apply to any of our Bachelor's Program for Adults and Transfer Students and Parsons Associate of Applied Science programs, complete and submit the New School Online Application.

To apply to any of our Master's, Doctoral, Professional Studies Diploma, and Graduate Certificate programs, complete and submit the New School Online Application.

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Office: Sturm Hall Mail Code: 2000 E. Asbury Ave., Denver, CO 80208 Phone: 303-871-2266 Email: [email protected] Web Site: http://www.du.edu/english

The Department of English and Literary Arts offers a PhD in English and Literary Arts with concentrations in creative writing and literary studies, as well as an MA with a concentration in literary studies.

Our major areas for dissertation research include creative writing; modern and contemporary British literature; American literature; American multicultural literature and Anglophone literatures; genre studies; and literary theory and rhetoric. We also offer course work in traditional literary fields, cultural studies, ethnic literatures and gender studies.

The University of Denver’s Department of English and Literary Arts is small and intimate, with 21 faculty members, all of whom publish widely and seek to translate their expertise into shared learning experiences in and out of the classroom.

Our distinctive curriculum allows students to tailor their degrees to their specific talents and interests. We offer not only typical graduate seminars but also writing workshops, individually designed tutorials and colloquia devoted to teaching and professional development. Such a curriculum encourages students to cross genre boundaries in their writing, to relate theory to practice and to work creatively with scholarly projects.

Doctor of Philosophy in English and Literary Arts with a Concentration in Creative Writing

Degree and gpa requirements.

• Bachelor's degree: All graduate applicants must hold an earned baccalaureate from a regionally accredited college or university or the recognized equivalent from an international institution.
• Master's degree: This program requires a master's degree as well as the baccalaureate.
• Grade point average: The minimum undergraduate GPA for admission consideration for graduate study at the University of Denver is a cumulative 2.5 on a 4.0 scale or a 2.5 on a 4.0 scale for the last 60 semester credits or 90 quarter credits (approximately two years of work) for the baccalaureate degree. An earned master’s degree or higher from a regionally accredited institution supersedes the minimum standards for the baccalaureate. For applicants with graduate coursework but who have not earned a master’s degree or higher, the GPA from the graduate work may be used to meet the requirement. The minimum GPA is a cumulative 3.0 on a 4.0 scale for all graduate coursework undertaken.
• Program GPA requirement: The minimum undergraduate GPA for admission consideration for this program is a cumulative 2.5 on a 4.0 scale.

English Language Proficiency Test Score Requirements

The minimum TOEFL/IELTS/C1 Advanced/Duolingo English Test score requirements for this degree program are:

• Minimum TOEFL Score (Internet-based test): 80
• Minimum IELTS Score: 6.5
• Minimum C1 Advanced Score: 176
• Minimum Duolingo English Test Score: 115

English Conditional Admission: No, this program does not offer English Conditional Admission.

Doctor of Philosophy in English and Literary Arts with a Concentration in Literary Studies

Master of arts in english and literary arts with a concentration in literary studies, doctor of philosophy in english and literary arts with a concentration in creative writing , degree requirements, course requirements.

At least 48 hours of foundational course work must be taken as formal ENGL classes, excluding Independent Research (ENGL 4995, ENGL 5995), Independent Study (ENGL 4991, ENGL 5991), and tutorials (ENGL 4100).

Five courses distributed over three literary periods. Students must take at least one course in one period and at least two courses in the other two periods. Students may only take two approved 3000 level courses (ENGL 3800 and 3982) in the Department of English. Registration for any other ENGL 3000 level class must be made by special petition to be approved by the full Graduate Committee.

Workshops. Students on the Creative Writing track must take three workshops. 

Minimum number of credits required for the degree: 90 graduate-level quarter hours beyond the master’s degree

Non-course requirements:.

• Preliminary advancement to candidacy
• Advancement to candidacy
• A dissertation of publishable quality that makes a significant contribution to its field. This will take the form of an extended scholarly and critical work (usually between 150 and 250 pages) OR a creative work (fiction or poetry). The creative dissertation must include a critical preface that situates the dissertation in its literary context.
• Oral defense. When the dissertation is completed, it must be defended by the candidate. For spring quarter graduates, the defense should take place by April 30. Typically no dissertation defenses will be held during the summer quarter. The candidate is therefore advised to set the defense date as far in advance as possible. The defense takes the form of a discussion with the committee concerning the content, context and implications of the work.
• Successful completion of ENGL 3800 Bibliography and Research Methods class in the Department of English.
• Successful completion of ENGL 3982 (Writers in the Schools).
• Successful completion of a graduate translation class (students must secure approval of instructor).
• Successful completion of Old English (4 credits).
• Selection and successful completion of a cognate course in another department that will augment specific skills. This course must be approved by the Graduate Committee.

Students may also consult the department for additional Tool proficiency options. The Tool requirement must be completed one quarter before graduation.

• Proposal & Prospectus review. By the end of the Fall quarter of the third year, students must submit a Dissertation Area Proposal to the director of graduate studies. This proposal is a brief description (250-300 words) of the proposed area of the dissertation; it must be signed by at least two dissertation committee members. Before the end of the Winter quarter of the third year of study, all students should complete the prospectus review, which is an oral discussion based on the written dissertation prospectus. The prospectus review is conducted by a committee consisting of the first two readers of the dissertation. The prospectus should be approximately 2,500–3,000 words and should be presented to the faculty readers well in advance of the review. For students concentrating in Creative Writing, the prospectus should discuss the theoretical and generic origins of the project, its methodology and artistic goals.
• Written comprehensive exam. After completing 60 credit hours, including the 48 hours of foundational coursework, doctoral students will take written comprehensive examinations during the week prior to the start of Fall Quarter of their third year of study. Students will be examined in three (out of four) areas of study: (1) an author or major figure; (2) a genre; (3) a period; and (4) a second period or special topic. Students will prepare a reading list for each examination area in consultation with two faculty examiners; the scope of each exam must be approved by the faculty examiners and the graduate director. All lists must be signed by both examiners and submitted to the graduate director by the date published in the department's Graduate Handbook (typically during the first week of May) or the student will not be allowed to take the exam the following fall.

Doctor of Philosophy in English and literary arts with a Concentration in Literary Studies 

Five courses distributed over three literary periods. Students must take at least one course in one period and at least two courses in the other two periods. Students may only take two approved 3000 level courses (ENGL 3800 and 3982) in the Department of English. Registration for any other ENGL 3000 level class must be made by special petition to be approved by the full Graduate Committee.  

• A dissertation of publishable quality that makes a significant contribution to its field. This will take the form of an extended scholarly and critical work (usually between 150 and 250 pages).
• Oral defense. When the dissertation is completed, it must be defended by the candidate. For spring quarter graduates, the defense should take place no later than April 30. Typically no dissertation defenses will be held during the summer quarter. The candidate is therefore advised to set the defense date as far in advance as possible. The defense takes the form of a discussion with the committee concerning the content, context and implications of the work.
• Proposal & Prospectus review. By the end of the Fall quarter of the third year, students must submit a Dissertation Area Proposal to the director of graduate studies. This proposal is a brief description (250-300 words) of the proposed area of the dissertation; it must be signed by at least two dissertation committee members. Before the end of the Winter quarter of the third year of study, all students should complete the prospectus review, which is an oral discussion based on the written dissertation prospectus. The prospectus review is conducted by a committee consisting of the first two readers of the dissertation. The prospectus should be approximately 2,500–3,000 words and should be presented to the faculty readers well in advance of the review.
• Written comprehensive exam. After completing 60 credit hours, including the 48 hours of foundational coursework, doctoral students will take written comprehensive examinations during the week prior to the start of Fall Quarter of their third year of study. Students will be examined in three (out of four) areas of study: (1) an author or major figure; (2) a genre; (3) a period; and (4) a second period or special topic. Students will prepare a reading list for each examination area in consultation with two faculty examiners; the scope of each exam must be approved by the faculty examiners and the graduate director. All lists must be signed by both examiners and submitted to the graduate director by the date published in the department's Graduate Handbook (typically during the first week of May) or the student will not be allowed to take the exam the following fall.

Master of Arts in English and Literary arts with a Concentration in Literary Studies

• 45 hours of course credit, up to 13 hours of which may be taken in graduate tutorials (ENGL 4100), independent research (ENGL 4995) and/or cognate courses outside the department.
• All course work for the MA should be taken at the University of Denver, but, in rare exceptions, a maximum of 10 credit hours may be transferred to count for the requirements if approved by the director of graduate studies and meet the University's transfer of credit policy.
• While students have no specific course requirements beyond the 32-hour minimum within the Department of English and the 13 hours of tutorials or cognate courses, they are advised to work closely with an adviser to determine a balance between coverage and focus. Students may only take two approved 3000 level courses (ENGL 3800 and 3982) in the Department of English. Registration for any other ENGL 3000 level class must be made by special petition to be approved by the full Graduate Committee.   Courses must be completed within three years of enrollment (excluding ENGL 4995).

Minimum number of credits required for the degree: 45

Non-course requirements.

• A thesis of at least 18,000 words. The thesis for an MA in literary studies is either a single scholarly/critical essay or two 30-page scholarly/critical essays. The thesis adviser must approve a prospectus for the thesis.
• Oral Defense. The defense takes the form of a discussion on the content, context and implications of the work.  

ENGL 3000 Advanced Creative Writing-Poetry (4 Credits)

Technique, writing practice and criticism.

ENGL 3001 Advanced Creative Writing-Poetry (4 Credits)

ENGL 3002 Advanced Creative Writing-Poetry (4 Credits)

ENGL 3003 Advanced Creative Writing-Poetry (4 Credits)

ENGL 3010 Advanced Creative Writing-Fiction (4 Credits)

ENGL 3011 Advanced Creative Writing-Fiction (4 Credits)

ENGL 3012 Advanced Creative Writing-Fiction (4 Credits)

ENGL 3013 Adv Creative Writing-Fiction (4 Credits)

ENGL 3015 Advanced Creative Writing: Non-Fiction (4 Credits)

ENGL 3017 Travel Writing-Fiction & Fact (4 Credits)

A study of European, American and other narratives of travel. This course examines relevant postcolonial and literary theories of travel and nationhood.

ENGL 3040 Introduction to Publishing (4 Credits)

Cross listed with ENGL 2040 , MFJS 3140.

ENGL 3121 Chaucer: Canterbury Tales (4 Credits)

Life, culture, language and literary trends of Chaucer's age as reflected in "The Canterbury Tales".

ENGL 3320 Oral Literature and Orality in Literature (4 Credits)

The term "oral literature" generally refers to narratives and poems (including songs) performed and disseminated orally from one generation to the other. Oral literature is, in some respects, the foundational 'text' of written literature. The questions that we explore in this course include: How did oral literature develop, and what are the characteristics? How has oral literature been shaped by time and place? How is it distinct from as well as related to written literature? To answer these questions, we explore different forms of oral literature and also study the use of orality in written literature. Our studies involve the examination of material and texts from different parts of the world.

ENGL 3402 Early Romantics (4 Credits)

ENGL 3405 Postmodern Visions of Israel (4 Credits)

This course investigates how representation of Israel as a modernist utopia have been replaced in contemporary literature with images of Israel as a dystopia. The class discusses the historical context that gave rise to visions of an idealized Israel, and the role the Hebrew language played in consolidating and connecting narration to nation. Next the class considers how belles-lettres from recent decades have reimagined Israel as a series of multilingual “multiverses.” A selection of fiction translated from Hebrew forms the core of class reading. Theoretical exploration of postmodernism help us conceptualize the poetics of postmodern literature. No knowledge of Israeli history or Jewish culture is necessary to succeed in this course. Cross listed with JUST 3405 .

ENGL 3706 Writing the American West (4 Credits)

Explores historical and contemporary writing produced in and about the American West.

ENGL 3711 20th-Century American Fiction (4 Credits)

Fiction, poetry, drama, and non-fiction on selected themes by 20th and 21st century American writers. Topics for study may include issues related to regionalism, ethnicity and gender, as well as specific social and historical concerns.

ENGL 3730 Literature and Medicine: Addiction and Modernity (4 Credits)

This course introduces students to accounts of substance use and addiction from the nineteenth century through the present day. We will examine canonical and contemporary literary texts, medical writings, visual representations, smartphone applications, and films alongside topics such as liberalism, inequality, imperial expansion, consumerism, “digital drugs,” and the pathologization of addiction. We will consider our readings in light of the following questions: What role do substance use and addiction play in constructing the modern self and society? What can representations of addiction teach us about our relationship with the external world? How does addiction act as a metaphor, a narrative device, or even a political sign? How do gender, class, and race affect narratives of addiction? How do accounts of addiction interact with philosophical texts, medical treatises, and imperial and colonial discourses? In addition to writing critical essays, students will evaluate smartphone addiction treatment apps and devise a creative project on a topic relevant to this course.

ENGL 3731 Topics in English (1-4 Credits)

ENGL 3732 Topics in English (1-4 Credits)

ENGL 3733 Topics in English (1-4 Credits)

Topics vary reflecting the interdisciplinary nature of the department and studies of the faculty.

ENGL 3742 Jesus in Jewish Literature (4 Credits)

This course surveys literary depictions of Jesus in Jewish literature. Readers are often surprised to learn that throughout the twentieth century and into the twenty-first century, major Jewish writers have incorporated the figure of Jesus of Nazareth into their work. This class explores the historical, aesthetic, and spiritual reasons for the many Jewish literary representations of Jesus and of his literary foil, Judas. A selection of materials including short stories, poems, novels, scholarly essays and polemics in English and in translation from Hebrew and Yiddish demonstrate the depth of Jewish literary culture’s engagement with Jesus’ life and teachings. Among the many writers we will read are: S.Y. Agnon, Sholem Asch, Uri Zvi Greenberg, Haim Hazaz, Emma Lazarus, Amos Oz, Philip Roth, and L. Shapiro. Ultimately, this class will consider how literary representations of Jesus can destabilize perceived distinctions between Jews and Christians. While helpful, no knowledge of Jewish languages, religious tradition, or cultural practice is necessary to succeed in this course. This course is cross-listed as JUST 3742 .

ENGL 3743 Modern Jewish Literature (4 Credits)

Stories, novels and memoirs by 20th-century Jewish writers; consideration of issues of generation, gender and idea of Jewish literature as a genre. Cross listed with JUST 3743.

ENGL 3744 African American Literature (4 Credits)

This course examines fiction, poetry, autobiography, and drama by African American writers, with strong consideration on the socio-historical conditions that gave rise to and continue to inform this literary tradition.

ENGL 3800 Bibliography/Research Method (4 Credits)

ENGL 3803 Modernism/Postmodernism (4 Credits)

ENGL 3813 History and Structure of the English Language (4 Credits)

A composite course studying both the structure of modern English and the history of the English language.

ENGL 3815 Studies in Rhetoric (4 Credits)

This course will examine the history and principles of rhetoric and how they pertain to theory and practice in the field of composition and rhetoric.

ENGL 3817 History of Rhetoric (4 Credits)

ENGL 3818 Composition Theory (4 Credits)

ENGL 3819 Old English (4 Credits)

This class introduces students to Old English grammar, prose, and poetry. This course is a prerequisite for ENGL 3200.

ENGL 3821 Literary Criticism: 19th Century-Present (4 Credits)

ENGL 3822 Literary Criticism: 20th Century (4 Credits)

Critical methods and philosophies of 20th-century critics; their relationship to traditions.

ENGL 3823 Interpretation Theory (4 Credits)

ENGL 3825 Cultural Criticism (4 Credits)

Cross listed with ENGL 2835.

ENGL 3852 Topics in Poetics (4 Credits)

ENGL 3982 Writers in the Schools (2,4 Credits)

This course operates mostly "in the field." Following the models of California Poets in the Schools and Teachers & Writers Collaborative, students are in training with a poet-in-residence, observing him as he conducts a residency in a public school. In addition, we have our own meetings to discuss pedagogy, classroom practices and management, teacher-writer relations, and all other necessary logistical planning. Placement in public schools is facilitated by Denver SCORES, an education program dedicated to increasing literacy in Denver's at-risk school population. For those wishing to work with middle or high school students, or in other community settings (e.g., homeless or women's shelters), special arrangements can be made. This course is a collaborative effort between CO Humanities, Denver SCORES, and the University of Denver.

ENGL 3991 Independent Study (1-17 Credits)

ENGL 3995 Independent Research (1-10 Credits)

ENGL 4000 Colloquium (2 Credits)

ENGL 4001 Sem Creative Writing-Poetry (4 Credits)

ENGL 4009 Seminar -- Creative Nonfiction (4 Credits)

Advanced writing and study of creative nonfiction, including prose development and structure.

ENGL 4011 Sem Creative Writing-Fiction (4 Credits)

ENGL 4012 History/Theory of Genre-Poetry (4 Credits)

ENGL 4017 Travel Writing (4 Credits)

ENGL 4050 The Critical Imagination (2 Credits)

This graduate level course explores poetry, fiction, and criticism as different facets of the imagination. This is a large and a necessarily vaguely defined topic. But in the world of literary studies, creativity and criticism are clearly symbiotic. Reading and writing are connected activities. The poet or fiction writer is often a critic, and there are numerous treatments of interpretation in the critical canon suggesting that the act of reading and interpreting is itself an imaginative and creative act. The course explores genre signatures and possibilities, as well as provides an introduction to some of the analytics through which texts, literary and otherwise, are interpreted.

ENGL 4100 Graduate Tutorial (2-4 Credits)

ENGL 4120 Beowulf (4 Credits)

Reading and translation of the Old English Beowulf. Prerequisite: ENGL 4125 .

ENGL 4125 Old English (4 Credits)

This class introduces students to Old English grammar, prose, and poetry. This course is a prerequisite for ENGL 4120 .

ENGL 4150 Special Topics in Medieval Lit (4 Credits)

ENGL 4200 Special Topics-Early Mod Lit (4 Credits)

ENGL 4210 Holocaust Literature (4 Credits)

This seminar presents a multidisciplinary and transnational approach to literature of the Holocaust. Students consider memoir, fiction, and poetry drawn from a variety of national literatures and linguistic traditions. Works written by victims, survivors and 'witnesses through the imagination' are all considered. These readings are supplemented by secondary texts, including historical and philosophical materials, as well as relevant works from the social sciences.

ENGL 4213 Advanced Studies in Early Modern Literature (4 Credits)

ENGL 4220 Seminar-Studies in Shakespeare (4 Credits)

ENGL 4300 Advanced Studies in 18th Century Literature (4 Credits)

ENGL 4424 Topics in English: 19th Century Literature (4 Credits)

Special Topics courses will explore specific topics within historical periods, single authors, or theoretical/critical/ scholarly issues.

ENGL 4510 ISL Dharamsala: Tibet, Global Citizenship, & Community Literacies (4 Credits)

ISL Dharamsala presents DU students with the unique opportunity to study international community literacies as a practical component of global citizenship through service-learning placements and study in Dharamsala, India. Home of the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government-in-exile, Dharamsala is a multi-generational community located in the northern Indian foothills of the Himalayas. During fall quarter, students will study community literacies in the practice of global citizenship and service while immersed in the geo-political, religious, and other contexts experienced by Tibetans in exile. During their time in Dharamsala, cultural immersion and a service-learning placement will give students insight into the complexities of social justice issues and cultural nuances they have been studying and provide opportunities to contribute to local and global society through informed and reflective practice.

ENGL 4600 Adv Studies -20th Cent Lit (4 Credits)

ENGL 4621 Adv Studies-20th C. Literature (2-4 Credits)

This course will offer (and be required of) graduate students an advanced foundation in 20th century literature; the primary texts and their cultural/historical/ theoretical contexts.

ENGL 4650 Special Topics: 20th Cent Lit (4 Credits)

ENGL 4660 The Black Imagination (4 Credits)

Focusing mainly on Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas (especially the USA and the Caribbean/Latin America), this course explores and connects aspects of the black imagination. These aspects include oral performances, thought systems, literature, art, cinema, and critical discourses in different eras and in various places. Studied together, these existential and intellectual signposts provide an expanded insight into black (African and African diasporic) aesthetics from an intercontinental and an interdisciplinary perspective.

ENGL 4675 Theories of Narrative: Formalism, Narratology, Cybertext (4 Credits)

This class traces developments in narrative theory from Russian Formalism through "classical" narratology and on to examine the border between traditional narrative texts and texts that require a higher degree of interactivity, sometimes called "cyber texts." The goal is to identify significant contributions to narrative theory and to suggest the possibilities for the future of the field. Seminal articles, key works, and critical introductions survey key advances in narrative theory to present an overview of the field from its inception to contemporary trends.

ENGL 4700 Antebellum American Literature (4 Credits)

ENGL 4701 Topics in English (2-5 Credits)

A topics class; topics may change.

ENGL 4702 Topics in English (2-5 Credits)

ENGL 4730 American Romanticism (4 Credits)

ENGL 4732 Spc Tpc: Antebellum Amer Lit (4 Credits)

ENGL 4743 Black Feminist Criticism (4 Credits)

This course examines the discursive reach of black feminist criticism by journeying into the creative terrain of literature, visual art, music, and performance produced by black women in the United States and throughout the black diaspora, from the nineteenth century to the present.

ENGL 4830 Seminar: Teaching and Writing Literature (2-4 Credits)

ENGL 4840 Topics in Composition Studies (2-4 Credits)

Each offering of this course focuses on specific issues in theory, research, or pedagogy within the broad field of composition studies. Examples of topics include the development of writing abilities; genre theory and composing; multimodal texts and their intersections and disjunctions of rhetoric and composition; the history of composing theories and practices; realms of composing, including the academic, civic, vocational, aesthetic, and interpersonal; institutional formations and settings of composing; discourse theories; stylistics; race, gender, class and composing; and so on.

ENGL 4851 Publishing Institute (6 Credits)

ENGL 4852 Dissertation Colloquium (2 Credits)

This two-credit dissertation colloquium is offered in the winter and spring for third-year PhD students in English who are in the process of researching and writing their dissertations. In addition to having weekly presentations and discussions of work in progress, the group will peruse prefaces and introductions to former English Department dissertations, write and abstract for their own dissertation, and possibly revise and send out a piece from their dissertation. The class is open to both literary studies and creative writing students. Restricted to doctoral students in English.

ENGL 4991 Independent Study (1-17 Credits)

ENGL 4995 Independent Research (1-17 Credits)

ENGL 5991 Independent Study (1-17 Credits)

ENGL 5995 Independent Research (1-17 Credits)

ENGL 5999 American Literary Marketplace (0-2 Credits)

“American Literary Marketplace” bridges the culture of writing within the Department of English and Literary Arts with the culture of publishing in the United States. As an experiential learning course, it offers graduate students a formal, structured opportunity—as an internship, externship, or cooperative educational experience, depending on the student’s need—to deepen their writing practice and enact classroom learning outside and beyond the literary classroom.

Patrick Cottrell , Assistant Professor, MFA, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago

Clark Davis , Professor, PhD, University at Buffalo - State University of New York

Donna Beth Ellard , Associate Professor, PhD, University of California, Santa Barbara

Rachel Feder , Associate Professor, PhD, University of Michigan

Graham Foust , Professor, PhD, University at Buffalo - State University of New York

Menglu Gao , Assistant Professor, PhD, Northwestern University

Eric Gould , Professor, PhD, University of London

Tayana Hardin , Associate Professor, PhD, University of Michigan

Douglas D. Hesse , Professor, PhD, University of Iowa

W. Scott Howard , Professor, PhD, University of Washington

Joanna Howard , Associate Professor, PhD, University of Denver

Poupeh Missaghi , Assistant Professor, PhD, University of Denver

Maik Nwosu , Professor and Department Chair, PhD, Syracuse University

R.D. Perry , Assistant Professor, PhD, University of California-Berkeley

Aleksandr Prigozhin , Assistant Professor, PhD, University of Chicago

Bin Ramke , Professor, PhD, Ohio University

Selah Saterstrom , Professor, MFA, Goddard College

Jennifer Soong , Assistant Professor, PhD, Princeton University

Billy J. Stratton , Associate Professor, PhD, University of Arizona

Kristy L. Ulibarri , Associate Professor, PhD, University of Illinois-Chicago

Jan Gorak , Professor, Emeritus, PhD, University of Southern California

Brian Kiteley , Professor, Emeritus, MA, City College NY

Eleanor McNees , Professor, Emerita, PhD, University of Colorado Boulder

Jessica Munns , Professor, Emerita, PhD, University of Warwick

Margaret Whitt , Professor, Emerita, PhD, University of Denver

Diana D. Wilson , Professor, Emerita, PhD, University of Denver

William F. Zaranka , Provost, Emeritus, PhD, University of Denver

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English Literary Studies with Creative Writing

• Entry year 2024
• Duration Full time 1 year, Part time 2 years

Top reasons to study with us

Enjoy literary events in Lancaster's Castle Quarter

World Top 40 QS World Subject Rankings 2024 (English Language & Literature)

Partners with Wordsworth Grasmere in the English Lake District

The MA English Literary Studies with Creative Writing provides a rare opportunity to combine creative and critical writing at Master's level. It’s your chance to learn from tutors who are leading experts in English Literary Studies and from the prize-winning, practising authors who teach in our long-established English Literature and Creative Writing department.

During your studies you will critically engage with complex written materials and with the ideas of others. You will learn to place your own creative and critical work in a literary and professional context, and to express your powers of analysis across a variety of literary forms. The elements of self-directed study and independent thinking will help you to develop your skills in project management, working to deadline, working to a brief, creative collaboration, and problem solving.

The degree comprises two core modules in Research Methodology, two elective modules in English Literary Studies, and two elective modules in Creative Writing. You will also complete an English Literary Studies dissertation. All students deliver a research-based talk at our annual MA Showcase - previous events have been held in partnership with Lancaster LitFest and the Dukes theatre.

Our elective modules cover a wide range of literary fields and genres:

• Creative Writing: Psychogeographies, Short Fiction, Poetry, the Lyric Essay and Radio Drama
• English Literary Studies: Modern, Contemporary, Romantic, Victorian and Early Modern Literature

Your postgraduate degree prepares you for careers in journalism, publishing, literature and reading development, community arts and public relations, as well as PhD research. The critical and creative skills developed through your studies will also enhance your employability.

Part time and full time study options are available.

Your department

• English Literature and Creative Writing Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences

Master's Programmes in English Literary Studies at Lancaster University

Discover the key features of studying a master's degree in English Literary Studies at Lancaster University. You can choose to study a range of modules or combine English Literary Studies with Creative Writing.

Being so close to the spectacular Lake District, home of the Romantic poets, the Department has world-class strengths in Romanticism. Our partnership with the Wordsworth Trust, at Grasmere, is long-established, and has a number of new benefits for all our students.

The Castle Quarter is both a wonderful place to enjoy, with many excellent places to eat and drink, and a wonderful resource for literary studies here at Lancaster. Our students in the Department of English Literature & Creative Writing have many opportunities to make the most of this resource.

Entry requirements

Academic requirements.

2:1 degree in a related subject is normally required. We will also consider applications on an individual basis where you have a degree in other subjects, have a 2:2 or equivalent result or extensive relevant experience. You should clearly be able to demonstrate how your skills have prepared you for relevant discussions and assessments during postgraduate study.

If you have studied outside of the UK, we would advise you to check our list of international qualifications before submitting your application.

Additional Requirements

As part of your application you also need to provide

• A sample of your academic writing about literature
• A portfolio of original writing (no more than 12 poems or 20 pages of prose/scriptwriting) showing potential for publication

English Language Requirements

We may ask you to provide a recognised English language qualification, dependent upon your nationality and where you have studied previously.

We normally require an IELTS (Academic) Test with an overall score of at least 7.0, and a minimum of 6.5 in each element of the test. We also consider other English language qualifications .

If your score is below our requirements, you may be eligible for one of our pre-sessional English language programmes .

Contact: Admissions Team +44 (0) 1524 592032 or email [email protected]

Course structure

You will study a range of modules as part of your course, some examples of which are listed below.

Information contained on the website with respect to modules is correct at the time of publication, but changes may be necessary, for example as a result of student feedback, Professional Statutory and Regulatory Bodies' (PSRB) requirements, staff changes, and new research. Not all optional modules are available every year.

The two core modules, Research Methodology and Reflective Practice in English Literature I and II, are compulsory for all MA English/English with Creative Writing students and for new first year PhD English students who have not taken an MA at Lancaster. They are designed in accordance with UK research councils training guidance. Seminars will run across terms 1 and 2, and dissertation supervision and a conference will take place in term 3. The two modules together aim to equip you with a range of skills, approaches and competences to draw on as early career researchers in the field of English Literary Studies and/or Creative Writing. Even if you are not considering a research career, we will cover skills that are valuable for any postgraduate student of literature.

The two core modules are designed to complement the more specialist topics covered on MA English programmes through specific module seminars and dissertation supervisions. These core modules typically include sessions on research and writing skills, working with archives, and working with theory, and will encourage reflection on the practice and utility of literary research. The modules will be assessed by an ongoing portfolio of tasks. In the summer term, the module will conclude with a conference – organised by the students themselves – at which each of you will give a paper relating to your research.

The two core modules are designed to complement the more specialist topics covered on MA English programmes through specific module seminars and dissertation supervisions. These core modules include sessions on research and writing skills, working with archives, and working with theory, and will encourage reflection on the practice and utility of literary research. The modules will be assessed by an ongoing portfolio of tasks, the final two of which are a dissertation proposal and a conference abstract. This prepares you for the summer term, which involves a conference – organised by the students themselves – at which each of you will give a paper relating to your research, and dissertation writing with allocated supervisors.

This module will explore Gothic representations of, for example: pain and illness experience, chronic illness, psychiatric confinement, eating disorders, organ harvest and transplantation, genetic testing, and epidemic or disease emergence. Traditional Gothic tropes find ready echoes in illness. Subjects may experience their bodies as uncanny, once familiar but now strange; they may feel helpless and physically vulnerable; they strive to decipher the cryptic signs of the medical record and the body’s symptoms; they endure strange temporalities and carceral hospital sites; they are subjected to rituals of medical monitoring; and they become supplicants to powerful figures with mysterious knowledge. The Gothic mode can be part of a critique of the complex biopolitics of medicine and illness. Yet at the same time, representing illness and pain through a Gothic mode can carry ideological risks, reinforcing problematic cultural assumptions about which human lives are of value. You will explore the promise and perils of the Gothic mode in the arena of health humanities and critical medical humanities.

This module will allow you to develop an idea for a novel, select techniques appropriate to your genre, theme and style and prepare you to complete an extract or series of extracts from a novel in progress. Through reflective exploration of several contemporary novelists, targeted writing exercises and workshops, you will explore character, voice, point of view, genre, form, setting and place.

The module will be taught by a combination of interactive lectures on the set texts, plus workshops and individual feedback on work in progress from your tutors.

You will be assessed on the submission of a portfolio and a reflective essay.

This module addresses the ways that contemporary literature, film and television engage with the Gothic literary tradition. Focusing specifically on texts produced since 2000, it explores the continuing relevance of Gothic in contemporary culture. The module aims to demonstrate the diversity and increasing hybridity of contemporary Gothic and with this in mind, enquires what happens when Gothic cross-fertilises a range of other modes and genres including musical, soap opera, noir, documentary, comedy, science fiction and the historical novel. Indicative themes include: how traditional Gothic personae from vampires and ghosts to guilty fathers and disturbed children may find new life in the twenty-first century; how traditional Gothic spaces from the haunted house to the fairground may be refigured in postmodern British and American culture; what critics mean when they talk about Gothic and the ways in which the term is put to work in both popular media and in academic criticism.

Each seminar will be based around two parallel strands, covering literature and television/film from 2000 to the present day. Typically, screenings of the relevant films/programmes will be timetabled during the week preceding the seminar. You may find it useful to have some prior knowledge of Gothic literature and/or film, but this is not essential.

This module uses contemporary theoretical models to explore the relationship between emotions and place in examples of early modern English literature. It begins by looking at the ways space is mapped in written and pictorial records, with an introduction to items in the Rare Book Archive in the Library and the electronic archive Early English Books Online. Site specific studies of texts (e.g. in Lancaster Castle and Penshurst Place) combine with study of fantasy sites like More’s Utopia (no-place) and early science fiction and travel writing. The course can be taken as part of the early modern pathway or as a stand alone module for those interested in developing transhistorical understandings of politics and place.

This module will enable you to develop your understanding of prose writing for young people, with a focus on Children’s Fiction (8-12 years) and Young Adult Fiction (11+ and 14+). During the module, you will develop an idea for a manuscript suitable for one of these audiences. The manuscript will be informed by the critical discussion of the set texts, targeted writing exercises and participation in workshops. Together, we will explore voice, point of view, story structure, setting and place, as well as formulate conceptions of the role of gatekeeping, reader expectations, and current movements and trends in the children’s publishing landscape. You may come prepared with a manuscript idea you wish to work on, or you might build on an idea generated in class. Towards the end of the course, you will also be asked to write reflectively on your creative process.

Everyone in western culture wears clothes, that necessarily have been designed and manufactured by someone, and therefore no one can be exempt from the fashion industry. In the twenty-first century, however, this industry has reached a point of crisis as increasing attention to sweated labour, environmental sustainability, cultural appropriation, prescriptive body images and diversity of representation have challenged conventional ways of designing, manufacturing, marketing and consuming fashion. Since 2000, this has led to a growing number of films that directly address the fashion industry. These are underpinned by the often-overlooked art of costume design, which makes film a particularly vivid medium for the depiction of fashion.

By focusing on film, this module offers an accessible entry point to the social and economic issues affecting the fashion industry today as well as to fashion history and theory. The module begins by introducing other forms of fashion media that play an important role in the dissemination of fashion as well as becoming intertextual modes of representation within the films themselves. It then examines two films that summarise many of the themes of the course as a whole by reflecting on the representation of the fashion industry through magazine publishing. Finally, it works through the processes of the fashion industry – designing, manufacturing, marketing and consuming – typically exploring a film, two critical essays and selected examples of fashion media each week. It pays attention to three key themes: the way fashion narrative deploys the genre conventions of documentary, comedy, crime and Gothic/horror; the analysis of costume on screen; and the politics of and responses to crisis within the industry itself.

This module examines a range of British and Irish fiction that appeared against the revolutionary backdrop of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. It considers the ways in which novelists engaged with and/or resisted the political and intellectual upheavals of the period -- the French revolution, the spread of political radicalism, abolitionism, the rise of feminism -- and shows how novels of the time can be read both as trailblazers for democratic modernity and as gestures of counter-revolutionary consolidation. Focusing on a range of writers that includes Jane Austen, Walter Scott and Mary Shelley, the course explores tensions between past and present; between Englishness and otherness; between dangerous experimentation and steadfast loyalty to tradition. Emphasis will also be placed on the formal upheavals that literary fiction underwent in this period, not least the conflicts between realism and rival modes such as Gothic, melodrama, historical saga and science fiction.

This module is concerned with a range of wonderful texts from c.1919 to c.1980 that together suggest a line of broadly modernistic writing that has a fascination both with the city (primarily Paris, but also Berlin, Oxford, London, Zurich, and even that city of death which is the death camp) and with the mixing of genres - in particular, such genres as critical essay, philosophical treatise, poetry, comic dialogue, fragment, novel, anecdote, manifesto, autobiography, history, textual commentary, and travelogue. Featured authors currently include Walter Benjamin, Virginia Woolf, Hope Mirrlees, Mina Loy, Samuel Beckett, Paul Celan, and Jacques Derrida. Special attention will be paid to texts that blur the genre-boundary that, traditionally, separates critical writing from creative writing, and students will be invited, if they wish, to submit such texts themselves.

This MA course takes the relatively new and still developing field of Literary Mapping and explores its potential for students in relation to texts and authors across the Eighteenth and Nineteenth centuries. The course has a strong theoretical element derived from Critical Cartography and based on the work of Franco Moretti but also applies these theories to texts. Acts of mapping and maps as a means of understanding and moving through literary worlds, will be explored and critiqued as they evolve over time and in relation to changing cultures.

This module examines manhunt narratives -- stories about the systematic pursuit of people who don't want to be found - in British and American writing from the early nineteenth century to the present day. It will address questions of space, power, violence, mobility and surveillance as they are raised by a range of set reading that covers classic thrillers (Buchan, Orczy), proto-feminist stories of female runaways (Gaskell, Wollstonecraft), narratives of escape from slavery (the Crafts, Whitehead), SF stories of hi-tech pursuit and evasion (Dick, Wells), and uncanny experiences of self-hunting (Conrad, Stevenson). The module asks how manhunt narratives work, what fears, desires and fantasies they cater for, and why they are such a prevalent feature of both highbrow and popular literature.

Primary Texts:

• John Buchan, The Thirty-Nine Steps
• Joseph Conrad, 'The Secret Sharer'
• Ellen Craft and William Craft, Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom
• Philip K. Dick, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
• Elizabeth Gaskell, 'The Grey Woman'
• Emmuska Orczy, The Scarlet Pimpernel
• Robert Louis Stevenson, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
• H. G. Wells, The Invisible Man
• Colson Whitehead, The Underground Railroad
• Mary Wollstonecraft, Maria; Or, the Wrongs of Woman

How did people in the late Middle Ages conceive of the relationships between themselves and the natural world? How did early English literature react to and characterise the environment that seems an increasingly pressing concern for our own modern context? This module will explore the many roles that early literature played not just in reflecting the environment, but also in constructing and shaping human interactions with the natural world. The module examines a type of literary environment each week and investigates the kinds of relationships the texts posit between the human and non-human to address the above questions. We will work with theoretical approaches such as ecocriticism and encounter a wide range of primary source material that imagines early human interactions with the environment.

‘Enclosure’ is defined most simply as the process of turning common land into private property, and usually refers to the transformation of the English countryside since the early modern period. This module examines enclosure in a global frame and from the perspective of the new epoch of the Anthropocene, defined by the irreversible impacts of human activity upon the planet. We will explore the ‘new enclosures’ that seem to be emerging today. Our aim will be to use the concept of enclosure to connect our supposedly new epoch to slower histories of imperialist violence against peoples and places. This module will appeal to students interested in postcolonial/world literatures, land and landscape, environmental and ecocritical thought, the Anthropocene, and climate justice. No prior knowledge is necessary.

This module offers an introduction to understanding and exploring ideas of space, movement and identity in relation to major writers and texts across the nineteenth century with a particular interest in reading and mapping. What can and cannot be mapped? What resists or exceeds acts of mapping? We will read key writers of place alongside a range of relevant spatial and philosophical texts and extracts for each of the thematic themes that are addressed across the module. As the title suggests the course is particularly interested in the challenges involved in moving across and between direct physical and embodied experiences and the representation of place in different literary forms.

The module focuses on three themes: walking and writing; mapping literary place and space; and interior and exterior spaces. We will use these themes to think about how place and space are constructed through movement, action and reaction, as well as to consider how the visual representation of place through literary maps bears upon verbal description within a text.

This module is about reading poetry and some other representative texts in relation to place. It focuses mainly on Wordsworth, both in himself and as a representative figure, but includes other writers and theorists.

We will be combining close study of texts and ideas of how landscape was (and is) viewed, with use of actual locations and a strong sense of place on the summer term field trip. The course aims to provide participants with a strong sense of Eighteenth, Nineteenth and Twentieth-Century perceptions of place, through close study of key concepts such as the Picturesque and the Sublime and travel writings about the Lake District. It will then go on to focus on a range of Romantic authors looking at poetic and other texts in relation to issues of place and space. In particular we will dwell upon Wordsworth as the pre-eminent poet of place in relation to the Lakes, but the course will also study other Romantic and Victorian writing.

The module will consider key issues in relation to selected texts: the representation of real places and inhabitants in literature; different ways of “dwelling”; the value and importance of place names; imaginative appropriation of the actual. At the same time it will also place such ideas within a wider context in terms of current methodologies, particularly links between Romanticism and the conservation movement (“Romantic Ecology”), heritage and phenomenology of place as well as theories of representations which will be applied to literary texts, paintings, and buildings.

This module explores modern and contemporary literature from and/or about Palestine and Israel, from 1948 to the present. Literary writing is a space in which communities are imaginatively reinforced, sites of memory are contested, and political resistance is articulated. However, in rich and overlapping literary canons, writers also emphasise relational experience and potentially shared futures, nuancing our understanding of the Israeli-Palestinian situation. We will address the rhetorical function of different literary genres (notably novels, short stories, and life writing) and literary modes (for example: comedy, realism, autobiography, and speculative fiction). We will also consider audience(s) and the politics of writing/reading across contexts. No prior knowledge is required. The course will appeal to students interested in postcolonial, comparative, and world literature; history, trauma, and memory studies; and the relationship between nation and narration, or literature, politics, and place.

How are bodies configured in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century texts and how do we read them from a twenty-first century perspective? What cultural weight do bodies bear when represented as gendered; as icons of nationhood or mortality; as objects of desire - sometimes of violent desire - in literary texts? Is social identity inevitably shaped by corporeality or do the processes of bodily exposure and concealment offer ways of self-fashioning? This module addresses such questions by examining the ways in which embodied identities are contingently constructed in a period of religious and political and change.

This module prepares you for your dissertation project and supports the development of the research, scholarly and critical skills that it will require. You will be introduced to the idea of ethical practice and any students working on memoirs or verbatim work will be offered specific guidance. You’ll also explore the ideas, concepts and issues around reflective practice and the vital role of research within creative writing.

We’ll study in a cohesive group, bringing students on combined courses and those following different pathways together to create a wider forum; our discussions will focus on professional practice and research issues.

This module aims to enhance your knowledge of library, archival and online research and develop your understanding of the creative process - taking you from first draft to final submission, including problem-solving strategies for creative blocks or obstacles. The module also places your creative work in the context of a professional literary world.

Indicative study themes:

• Understanding the Research Context
• Library, Online and Archival Research
• Scholarly Conventions
• Creative and Professional Presentation
• Research and Reflective Practice
• The Ethical Researcher

'This module explores the evolution of prose fiction from the late Romantic era through the first two decades of Victoria’s reign. A defining focus of the course will be on the ways in which the Victorian novel negotiates with Romantic legacies: the primacy of self, the necessity of intellectual and personal liberty and an ambivalence towards the past are crucial to the development of the form. The historical frame of the course allows us to move from James Hogg’s Confessions of a Justified Sinner (1824) to George Eliot’s Daniel Deronda (1876) and Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891). We will consider the shaping presence of other genres in the development of nineteenth-century fiction, including spiritual autobiography, the Gothic and the long poem.

Historical contexts will also be emphasised with particular reference to the religious and political debates of the period. We will explore the emergence of the novelist as a major cultural figure and interrogate the ways in which the writers under review both internalise and contest the ethical, spiritual and economic forces of their historical moment.'

This module provides an exciting opportunity to study major texts of British Romanticism in the locations where they were written and that they describe, the English Lake District and the Alps. After introductory seminars taught at Lancaster, we will undertake two four-day field trips, one to the Lake District and one to the Alps. The first field trip will be based in Grasmere and will study the work of William and Dorothy Wordsworth, making use of the archives of the Wordsworth Trust's Jerwood Centre while also visiting key outdoor locations central to poems such as ‘Michael’, ‘Home at Grasmere’ and The Prelude. The second trip will be to the Alps and will focus on works by Lord Byron (e.g. Manfred), Percy Shelley (e.g. 'Mont Blanc') and Mary Shelley (e.g. Frankenstein). It will involve visits to the Alpine locations associated with these writers, such as Chamonix, the Mer de Glace, Lac Leman and Chillon Castle.

This module will focus on the interdisciplinary relationship between literature, science and medicine in the Romantic period and will examine the ways in which scientific thought is expressed in culture, history and politics.

You will have the opportunity to develop a range of interdisciplinary interpretive skills by guided reading of an eclectic range of texts, from scientific speculation, poetry, novels, lectures and periodical essays. The module seeks to identify and cross established discipline boundaries while developing an understanding of Romantic-period literature and culture.

This module aims to do two things: to encourage the student to think about contemporary poems in several different visual dimensions but always from the viewpoint of the practitioner; and it offers an opportunity for them to develop their own work in progress, while at the same time actively promoting their critical reflection upon the process of writing and the visual dynamics a poem can activate and contain. The module admits that the ‘how to’ approach might be of less use when it comes to writing poetry, and instead promotes and explores a wider sphere of influences, encouraging experiment and engagement. A critical exegesis allows the student to reflect upon the decisions made and the effects sought in their creative project. These aims will be achieved through a variety of methods:

This module examines the work of three of the great writers of the Romantic period, the poets Lord Byron and Percy Shelley, and the novelist, Mary Shelley. Famously, these three writers lived and worked together during the summer of 1816, an episode that produced two of the dominant myths of modern literature -- Frankenstein (in Mary Shelley's novel) and the Vampire (in a story based on Byron by another member of the group, John Polidori) - both of which we will examine. Throughout their careers these writers were engaged in a creative and critical conversation with each other that addressed major themes including: conceptions of the heroic; the possibilities of political change; literary, scientific, and biological creation; the East; transgressive love; gender roles; and the Gothic. The module will provide an opportunity to study in detail these writers' works and to consider them within their historical, cultural and intellectual contexts.

The short story is a complex and malleable form. This module considers the multiple forms and styles of contemporary short fiction from a range of cultural backgrounds and nationalities.

You will have the chance to develop your understanding of short fiction by drawing upon contemporary writers as well as secondary and critical reading - which will also help you to build a critical and theoretical framework around your own writing.

Peer and tutor review, both oral and written, will encourage you to work reflectively as a creative practitioner. And you’ll be encouraged to demonstrate your knowledge of the forms and genres used in contemporary short story writing by incorporating them in your own short story portfolio.

• The longer short story of Alice Munro
• The historical short story (eg ‘The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher’)
• Myth and fairy tale in the short story
• Magical realism and the fantastic
• Formal experimentation
• Science and the short story (the Comma Press 'Science into Fiction' Series)
• Politics and the short story

This module explores the relation between the novel and neoliberal politics, economics and philosophy from 1979 to the present. It introduces you to the philosophy of neoliberalism by examining key theoretical texts by, for example, Friedrich Hayek, Milton Friedman, Michel Foucault, David Harvey and Wendy Brown and tracks how the modern novel historically reflects, reinforces and questions the rise (and fall?) of neoliberalism. This module seeks to map the contours of what Walter Ben Michaels has famously called the Neoliberal Novel by examining its defining genres, tropes, subjectivities, imaginaries, affects and ideologies. We will seek to address the following indicative questions. To what extent is it possible to speak of a Neoliberal Novel? How far do novels from 1979 to the present reflect, anticipate and contest the history of neoliberalism from the collapse of Keynesianism in the mid-1970s, through the monetarist experiments of the Thatcher and Reagan governments in the 1980s, up to the financial crash of 2008 and the rise of 'post-liberal' populists like Trump? To what extent is it possible for the contemporary novel to think with, through and even beyond the neoliberal order?

This module introduces you to the personal essay: a flexible, hybrid form incorporating elements of cultural and literary criticism, memoir, journalism, fiction and auto fiction. We will explore a number of modes of personal writing, assisting you in the development of a form that best serves your creative intentions.

Taught via literature seminars and creative workshops, you will experience a range of literary techniques, including generative writing prompts and exemplar texts. You will also learn how to respond reflectively and creatively to feedback - to this end, one seminar each term will be replaced by a one-to-one personal tutorial.

• The Writing 'I': developing a voice, the strategic ‘I’, literary personae, authority and double perspective.
• Mode and register: memoir, documentary, reflection and commentary.
• Scene setting and dramatisation: applying creative technique to 'real life' material.
• Finding a subject; the writing self and the world.
• Autofiction, truth and artifice.
• Developing a form: the list essay, the braided essay, collages, fragments and mockuments. Rereading, rewriting, reconsidering: reflective editing and responding to feedback.

Taking our cue from Haruko Maeda’s remarkable twenty-first century painting Heartbeat of the Death, Queen Elizabeth I (2013), Tudor Gothic critically considers the relationships between traces of Tudor history and culture in four gothic novels (Deborah Harkness’s Shadow of Night (2012), Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey (c.1803), Sophia Lee’s The Recess, or a Tale of Other Times (1784) and Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto (1764)) and proto-gothic tropes (such as wonder, terror, strange places, clashing time frames) in select poetry, prose and drama produced in the Tudor period (1485-1603) itself. Rather than viewing the Tudor Gothic as an anachronistic term, the module suggests that Tudor Gothic informs and shapes literary gothic’s social, political and imaginary landscapes.

The module seeks to challenge the conventional tendency to think of the Victorian era as an age of moderation, as ‘a land / In which it seemed always the afternoon’ (to quote Tennyson). We shall, therefore, be paying close attention to the many extremes and extremities within Victorian literature and culture. These extremes can be found in some of the period’s formal experimentations, and cover subjects such as perception, experience, radicalism, imagination, secularism, and belief. Throughout the module, we shall be exploring the relation between these Victorian extremes and the coming of Modernity. This exploration will take us beyond the chronological limits of what we normally think of as the Victorian period, and we will be enlisting the help of several critical pieces to focus our seminar discussions.

This module explores modern/contemporary transnational literature in the Anglosphere, tracking relations between the local and the global, the domestic and the public sphere, the body and body politic, the concepts of ‘original’ and ‘translation’, and the human and the world. We privilege minority/decentring perspectives and consider how literature comes to us as Anglophone readers via the publishing industry, perceptions of translatability, and the literary prestige economy.

Key themes include: the body, space, mobility, modernity, relationality, marginality, agency, translatability, and environments. Key questions include: What makes a world literary writer? How are minority writers positioned within Anglophone publishing? (How) does a particular authorial signature impact upon the way a literary work circulates? What connections emerge across contexts?

All texts will be studied in English, though multilingual readers may also refer to originals.

This module will introduce students to writing for games of all kinds, both digital and pen-and-paper. We will explore the basic principles of collaborative narrative experience as we seek to engage both critically and creatively with this new and extremely popular branch of contemporary writing. The weekly workshops are currently supplemented by a weekly, evening Games Study Night in the University Library to explore existing games, play-test your own, and enjoy the Library’s rich collection of board games.

This module looks at poetry culture in the UK and beyond, preparing you to enter the world of the publishing poet by closely examining the prize culture, some of the significant prize- winning collections by new poets over the last few years, and current poetry journals.

You will investigate current trends, having the chance to learn what it takes to get your work read - by editors, publishers and the poetry-consuming public. And you’ll put together a publication package with the aim of building your own portfolio in readiness for the vibrant and varied poetry marketplace - which continues to defy predictions of its demise.

Each seminar will typically be divided into reading and workshopping of your creative work in light of what we've read.

Indicative study texts:

• Seamus Heaney, Seeing Things (Faber, 1991)
• Sarah Howe, Loop of Jade (Chatto 2015)
• Kei Miller, The Cartographer Tries to Map a Way to Zion (Carcanet 2014)
• Sam Riviere, Kim Kardashian's Marriage (Faber 2015)
• Andrew McMillan, Physical (Cape 2015)
• Max Porter, Grief is the Thing with Feathers (Faber 2015)
• The Current Forward Anthology for that year
• A series of poetic journals (as chosen by your cohort)
• Michael Symmons Roberts, Drysalter (Cape 2013)
• Sinead Morrissey, Parallax (Carcanet 2013)

The aim of this module is to enable you to write drama for radio, developing your own scriptwriting style and gaining an awareness of the professional requirements of the genre. We will study exemplar radio dramas and use them to contextualise the creative choices in your own work whilst also exploring the effects of different structural and stylistic approaches.

Peer and tutor feedback will guide the development of your creative portfolio as you work towards a single radio drama script of 25 pages. Reflective practice will help you to develop the art of redrafting and editing and you will pen a 1,000-word essay placing your experience of this in the context of radio drama.

Taught through a combination of seminars and workshops, we will initially focus on the key elements of writing for radio, with weekly tasks corresponding to study themes. Latterly, we will move on to more intensive workshopping of your own work.

• The radio landscape
• Navigating through and creating soundscapes
• Character creation and character voice
• Story structure
• Status shifts
• Script format (and software resources)

Science Fiction and Fantasy are two incredibly popular, historied genres. This module gives students the opportunity to study the particular techniques and processes employed by writers of SFF, and exposes them to a diverse selection of contemporary speculative texts. Students will be tasked with looking back over the rich history of both genres with a critical eye, tracing the sources of many of the genre traditions they will be familiar with, before recontextualising and interrogating those traditions in their own work, or working explicitly beyond them. This module explores forms commonly associated with Science Fiction and Fantasy, such as the trilogy and the series, but also looks at experimental and marginal forms, such as genre poetry. There are a tremendous amount of sub-genres, and ways of incorporating SFF into literature, and students will be encouraged to consider the broad spectrum of contemporary Science Fiction and Fantasy, and where their own work belongs in regard to it.

This module explores textual constructions of nineteenth-century urban spaces and those who inhabit them. What does it mean to live in the city in the nineteenth century and what might the city mean to its inhabitants and to the English population at large? We will consider the ways in which different types of space – for example the street, the graveyard, the house – are meaningful as well as the different ways more general conceptions of ‘the city’ are articulated across the century. We will pay attention to issues such as mobility, transport, technology, Englishness, class, gender, ethnicity, and religion, and we will engage with different theories of space and place by authors such as Georg Simmel, Martin Heidegger, Gaston Bachelard and Doreen Massey. Throughout the course we will address the relationship between representation and place and how different types of imaginative literature present their urban spaces.

Fees and funding

General fees and funding information

There may be extra costs related to your course for items such as books, stationery, printing, photocopying, binding and general subsistence on trips and visits. Following graduation, you may need to pay a subscription to a professional body for some chosen careers.

Specific additional costs for studying at Lancaster are listed below.

College fees

Lancaster is proud to be one of only a handful of UK universities to have a collegiate system. Every student belongs to a college, and all students pay a small College Membership Fee  which supports the running of college events and activities. Students on some distance-learning courses are not liable to pay a college fee.

For students starting in 2023 and 2024, the fee is £40 for undergraduates and research students and £15 for students on one-year courses. Fees for students starting in 2025 have not yet been set.

Computer equipment and internet access

To support your studies, you will also require access to a computer, along with reliable internet access. You will be able to access a range of software and services from a Windows, Mac, Chromebook or Linux device. For certain degree programmes, you may need a specific device, or we may provide you with a laptop and appropriate software - details of which will be available on relevant programme pages. A dedicated  IT support helpdesk  is available in the event of any problems.

The University provides limited financial support to assist students who do not have the required IT equipment or broadband support in place.

For most taught postgraduate applications there is a non-refundable application fee of £40. We cannot consider applications until this fee has been paid, as advised on our online secure payment system. There is no application fee for postgraduate research applications.

For some of our courses you will need to pay a deposit to accept your offer and secure your place. We will let you know in your offer letter if a deposit is required and you will be given a deadline date when this is due to be paid.

The fee that you pay will depend on whether you are considered to be a home or international student. Read more about how we assign your  fee status .

If you are studying on a programme of more than one year’s duration, tuition fees are reviewed annually and are not fixed for the duration of your studies. Read more about  fees in subsequent years .

Scholarships and bursaries

You may be eligible for the following funding opportunities, depending on your fee status and course. You will be automatically considered for our main scholarships and bursaries when you apply, so there's nothing extra that you need to do.

Unfortunately no scholarships and bursaries match your selection, but there are more listed on scholarships and bursaries page.

If you're considering postgraduate research you should look at our funded PhD opportunities .

We also have other, more specialised scholarships and bursaries - such as those for students from specific countries.

Browse Lancaster University's scholarships and bursaries .

Similar courses

English literature and creative writing.

• Creative Writing PhD
• Creative Writing (Distance Learning) MA
• Creative Writing (modular) MA
• Creative Writing with English Literary Studies MA
• English Literary Research MA
• English Literary Studies MA
• English Literature PhD
• English Literature and Creative Writing PhD
• Gender Studies and English MA

Important Information

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The University will use all reasonable effort to deliver the courses as described, but the University reserves the right to make changes to advertised courses. In exceptional circumstances that are beyond the University’s reasonable control (Force Majeure Events), we may need to amend the programmes and provision advertised. In this event, the University will take reasonable steps to minimise the disruption to your studies. If a course is withdrawn or if there are any fundamental changes to your course, we will give you reasonable notice and you will be entitled to request that you are considered for an alternative course or withdraw your application. You are advised to revisit our website for up-to-date course information before you submit your application.

More information on limits to the University’s liability can be found in our legal information .

Our Students’ Charter

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The Creative Writing Major in the English Department is designed for students who have an intense interest in developing their skills as writers and readers of creative nonfiction, fiction, and poetry. Students need to read widely and critically in order to write well and will be well served by a study of contemporary writing practices and the influences, precedents, and roots of literature. Students will be expected to read contemporary and historical works from a range of aesthetic credos that will provide a context to their development as artists. Students will begin to think as writers do and to understand the aesthetic and moral choices writers confront as they write. In addition, students will have ample opportunity for frequent and extensive writing and rewriting as they read, critique, and support each other’s work under the guidance of the distinguished faculty of the MFA in Creative Writing, a nationally ranked program.

Students who wish to major in Creative Writing should consult the Department of English Director of Undergraduate Studies to be assigned an appropriate advisor, who helps plan the course of study.

Some students majoring in Creative Writing may wish to apply for a dual enrollment with another school or college within the University, such as the School of Information Studies, College of Visual and Performing Arts, the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, or the School of Education. For more information, see the web site at english.syr.edu.

For all Arts and Sciences|Maxwell students, successful completion of a bachelor’s degree in this major requires a minimum of 120 credits, 96 of which must be Arts and Sciences|Maxwell credits, completion of the Liberal Arts Core requirements, and the requirements for this major that are listed below.

Dual Enrollments:

Students dually enrolled in Newhouse* and Arts and Sciences|Maxwell will complete a minimum of 122 credits, with at least 90 credits in Arts and Sciences|Maxwell coursework and an Arts and Sciences|Maxwell major.

*Students dually enrolled in the College of Arts and Sciences|Maxwell as first year students must complete the Liberal Arts Core . Students who transfer to the dual program after their first year as singly enrolled students in the Newhouse School will satisfy general requirements for the dual degree program by completing the Newhouse Core Requirements.

Student learning outcomes include:

• Students will show the ability to read closely and analyze texts across historical periods and in various genres. 
• Students will be able to recognize and express the aesthetic qualities of literature and a knowledge of literary forms.
• Students will be able to recognize and produce good writing and explain what literary aspects make it good.
• Students will demonstrate a knowledge of critical approaches and methods of interpretation.
• Students will improve their own work through self-conscious and analytical processes. 
• They will be able to discuss peer work and other written texts in a thoughtful and constructive manner. 
• Students will exhibit an awareness of how these skills are necessary for employment and graduate study in a wide range of fields.

Major Requirements

To qualify for a B.A. degree in Creative Writing, students complete a total of 30 credits of coursework.  Students must attain a grade of C- or better in order to count a course toward their major credits. These credits include:

3 credit hours must be from one of the following 100-level courses.

• ENG 105 - Introduction to Creative Writing
• ENG 121 - Introduction to Shakespeare
• ENG 122 - Introduction to the Novel
• ENG 151 - Interpretation of Poetry
• ENG 153 - Interpretation of Fiction
• ENG 155 - Interpretation of Nonfiction

One workshop from the following choices:

• ENG 215 - Introductory Poetry Workshop
• ENG 216 - Introductory Literary Nonfiction Workshop
• ENG 217 - Introductory Fiction Workshop
• ENG 242 - Reading and Interpretation

Remaining 21 credits

The remaining 21 credits are in courses numbered above 299 and must include:

• ENG 300 Selected Topics: Creative Writing (3 credits)
• One upper division ENG course numbered 300 and above from outside the area of creative writing (3 credits)
• One upper division ENG critical course focused on texts written before 1900 from outside the area of creative writing (3 credits)
• Two upper division “Reading and Writing” courses in different genres: ENG 301 Prose /303 Fiction /304 Poetry (6 credits)
• Prerequisite for the Advanced Workshop: ENG 215 Poetry/ 216 Nonfiction/ 217 Fiction.
• Two advanced workshops.  Each workshop must be in a different genre and have a different numerical designation: ENG 401 Poetry/ 402 Nonfiction/ 403 Fiction (6 credits) (does not have to correspond to the genre of the introductory course).

Note: WRT 422 may be substituted for ENG 402.

Before 1900

Courses fulfilling the “before 1900” requirement have titles that end in the phrase “Before 1900.”​

• ENG 311 - Literary Periods before 1900
• ENG 313 - Race & Literary Periods Before 1900
• ENG 321 - Authors before 1900
• ENG 341 - Theorizing Forms and Genres before 1900
• ENG 353 - Race, Nation, and Empire before 1900
• ENG 361 - Reading Gender and Sexuality before 1900
• ENG 363 - Race, Empire, and Sexuality Before 1900
• ENG 407 - Advanced Critical Writing, Topics Before 1900
• ENG 411 - Forms and Genres before 1900
• ENG 413 - Race, Forms & Genres Before 1900
• ENG 421 - Cultural Production and Reception before 1900
• ENG 423 - Race, Cultural Production and Reception Before 1900
• ENG 441 - Theorizing History and Culture before 1900
• ENG 453 - Reading Race and Ethnicity Before 1900

Literature and Creative Writing

The goal of the Literature and Creative Writing Department is to help students develop a sophisticated understanding of the role literature plays in the human experience through refining their skills as interpreters of literary texts and as writers, either of literary analysis or of their own creative works.

About the Majors

At Hamilton, students may choose to major in literature or creative writing. In either case, their professors will encourage them to explore literature across centuries, nations, and languages. Consulting with advisors, literature majors develop an individualized, and potentially interdisciplinary, course of study. Creative writing majors take courses that balance literary study with poetry and prose workshops. In both majors, the curriculum emphasizes small classes, the exchange and testing of ideas, and the development of superior reading and writing skills.

Literature Students Will Learn to:

• Write clear and well supported arguments about literary and/or other cultural texts
• Demonstrate knowledge of diverse literary traditions across historical periods, geographic regions, and/or social contexts
• Analyze literary works compellingly in contexts informed by literary criticism and/or broader regions, and/or social contexts

Creative Writing Students Will Learn to:

• Write with an awareness of the literary traditions within which they are working
• Write with attentiveness to form and genre
• Write a sustained creative project that demonstrates originality and attention to language

A Sampling of Courses

American ghosts.

Why do we tell ghost stories, and what role do ghosts play in American history and literature? This course will explore the ghost narrative in short fiction, novels and film. We will examine what ghosts express in U.S. literature and culture, how they unearth our understanding of American history, and how ghost stories intersect with gender, race, sexuality and class. We will read works by Shirley Jackson, Toni Morrison, Carmen Maria Machado, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Jesmyn Ward and Louise Erdrich, among others. Students will engage in close reading and textual analysis and will write four full-length essays. 

Explore these select courses:

Food in literature and film.

Always a necessity and sometimes a luxury, food connects all people to the planet and to one another. This course will explore how authors and filmmakers use food and cooking in their works as a means of exposing complex social relationships, histories, and identities. The list of authors we may read includes Laura Esquivel, Aimee Bender, Isak Dinesen, Franz Kafka, MFK Fisher, Ruth Reichl, and many poets. We will also look at films such as Big Night ; Eat, Drink, Man, Woman ; and Ratatouille .

Finding Identity

Literature: what is it good for.

Debates about the value of literature have long been tied to questions about its use. Literature has been praised—and condemned—as a source of pleasure, a medium for the transmission of knowledge, and a vehicle of personal expression. In order to determine why fiction matters, we will examine works that explore the power of literature to shape moral, social, and political realities, including philosophical manifestos, anti-slavery treatises, self-help manuals, and experimental novels. Works by Rousseau, Cugoano, Wollstonecraft, and George Eliot, as well as the film The Servant (1963).

Creative Non-Fiction Workshop

Seminar: poems in and out of context, meet our faculty, margaret thickstun .

Chair, Jane Watson Irwin Professor of Literature

[email protected]

literature in 17th-century England and Colonial America, particularly by women and by people writing on religious subjects

Anne Valente 

Associate Professor of Literature and Creative Writing, Director of Creative Writing

[email protected]

creative writing, novels and short stories, creative non-fiction, and 20th century American literature

Stephanie Bahr 

Assistant Professor of Literature, Director of Medieval and Renaissance Studies

[email protected]

Patrick Caoile 

Visiting Assistant Professor of Literature and Creative Writing

[email protected]

Creative writing, Asian American literature and media, Filipino American literature, the Gothic, pop culture

Naomi Guttman 

Jane D. and Ellis E. Bradford ’45 Distinguished Writing Chair

[email protected]

poetry and poetics; food writing; contemplative pedagogy; environmental and feminist literary study

Tina May Hall 

Associate Dean of Faculty and Professor of Literature and Creative Writing

[email protected]

creative writing, 20th-century literature, experimental women's writing, and postmodern gothic

Doran Larson 

Edward North Chair of Greek and Greek Literature and Professor of Literature and Creative Writing

[email protected]

20th-century American literature; the history of the Anglo-American novel; fiction writing; nonfiction writing and prison writing of the U.S., South Africa, and Ireland

Jane Robbins Mize 

[email protected]

Native American and Indigenous Studies, environmental humanities, twentieth- and twenty-first-century North American literature, poetry and poetics, media studies

Hoa Ngo 

[email protected]

Vincent Odamtten 

William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Literature and Africana Studies

[email protected]

African literature with a focus of Ghanaian and women's literature; 20th-century Caribbean literature; African-American literature; science fiction; literary criticism; use of digital technology in the study of literature

Onno Oerlemans 

Elizabeth J. McCormack Professor of Literature

[email protected]

Romantic period literature; animals in literature; animal rights; nature writing – literature and environmentalism; cultural and political history of the Adirondack Park

Jane Springer 

James L. Ferguson Professor of Literature and Creative Writing

[email protected]

poems, poetics, nonfiction and Southern literature

Pavitra Sundar 

Associate Professor of Literature

[email protected]

cultural politics of voice; postcolonial studies; sound studies; South Asian film and media studies; feminist theory, especially women-of-color and transnational feminisms

Suzanne Taylor 

Assistant Professor of Literature

[email protected]

Katherine Terrell 

Associate Chair, Professor of Literature

[email protected]

Old English, Middle English, and Middle Scots language and literature

Benjamin Widiss 

[email protected]

20th-century and contemporary American literature, literary theory, autobiography, film

Steven Yao 

Edmund A. LeFevre Professor of English

[email protected]

20th-century American and British literature; literary translation; Ezra Pound; comparative literature; Asian American literature, especially poetry; global literary modernisms; Asian diasoporas; transpacific literature

Christian Goodwillie

Lecturer in History, Lecturer in Literature and Creative Writing

[email protected]

Thomas Knauer 

Lecturer in Literature and Creative Writing

[email protected]

Phil Memmer

[email protected]

Nhora Lucía Serrano 

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Creative Writing Research: What, How and Why

• First Online: 23 July 2023

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Creative writing research is actively moving us further toward knowing what creative writing actually is—in terms of our human actions and our responses when doing it. It is approaching such things as completed literary works and author recognition within the activities of creative writing, not mostly as representatives of that practice, and it is paying close attention to the modes, methods and functions of the writerly imagination, the contemporary influence of individual writer environments on writers, to writerly senses of structure and form and our formation and re-formation of writing themes and subjects. We certainly understand creative writing and creative writing research best when we remain true to why creative writing happens, when and where it happens, and how it happens—and creative writing research is doing that, focusing on the actions and the material results as evidence of our actions. Creative writing research has also opened up better communication between our knowledge of creative writing and our teaching of creative writing, with the result that we are improving that teaching, not only in our universities and colleges but also in our schools.

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Harper, G. (2023). Creative Writing Research: What, How and Why. In: Rebecca Leung, ML. (eds) Chinese Creative Writing Studies. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-0931-5_12

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Literary Arts and Studies

With its rich and diverse curriculum, Literary Arts and Studies offers a broad and synthetic understanding of literary periods, genres, movements and issues. It reinforces keen critical thinking and reading skills, helps you develop an effective and individual writing voice, and provides you a solid foundation for engaging contemporary culture in an informed, responsible way.

In (and out of) the classroom

LAS course offerings — from film studies to critical theory to performance studies and both traditional and unconventional approaches to literary study — examine text within the context of politics, history and culture. You may also take advantage of writing workshops in journalism, fiction and poetry.

The curriculum reflects faculty research interests in literature, cultural studies, critical theory, ecocriticism and the environmental humanities, gender and sexuality, performance studies, postcolonial studies, race and ethnicity, visual culture and more.

The LAS concentration offers you several areas to engage in focused study, from literary history and traditions, critical theory and cinema studies, to race and gender, environmental humanities, and creative writing.

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BA in Liberal Studies: Literature and Creative Writing Location:  AU Online Credits for Degree: 120 semester credits Standard Mode of Instruction: Online Standard time to completion: 36 months

Program Overview

The objective of the Liberal Studies major is to allow students to creatively combine courses for a breadth of exposure to liberal studies or to probe more deeply into one or two specific areas within our majors. Students work closely with an academic advisor to develop a specific direction for their degree program. Students completing a major in Liberal Studies choose either the Literature and Creative Writing Concentration, or the Leadership for Service and Change Concentration (with a defined focus area).

Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Studies: Literature and Creative Writing Concentration

Students majoring in Liberal Studies with a Literature and Creative Writing Concentration will be able to develop the craft of writing in multiple genres and explore literary expression in order to achieve greater proficiency in their own craft as writers. The major will cultivate students’ ability to examine the craft of other writers (both historical and contemporary), looking at formal elements of the work, including the elements of language, character, story, theme, rhythm, and tone. Coursework will call upon students to consider the impact that creative writing has in our world. Students are encouraged to consider the importance of writers in community, society, and culture-to move toward a contextual understanding of one’s own voice in a continuum of writers. Students will also be able to apply foundational skills of a creative writer. These skills include the ability to comment on the work of other writers, participate in a writing community, and apply best practices of editing and grammar. Students pursuing the Literature and Creative Writing Concentration complete the interdisciplinary core and then follow the concentration requirements below.

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Interdisciplinary Core and Capstone Requirement for all Undergraduate Degrees

All undergraduate AU Online degrees require the completion of a common interdisciplinary core as well as a capstone requirement. Additional professional core curriculum, concentrations and electives are defined in their plans of study below.

Interdisciplinary Core

• INTD-3000: Empowering Your Purpose and Voice
• INTD-3211: Experience and Expression
• INTD-3240: Reading and Writing in the 21st Century
• INTD-3350: Culture, Conflict and Social Research
• INTD-3510: Ecology, Technology & Society

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• PRO-4970: Senior Project

Literature and Creative Writing Concentration Course Requirements: (33 Semester Credits)

11 classes (33 semester credits) from LIT or COM areas.

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Beloit College

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• The   Beloi t Fiction Journ al   is an internationally recognized literary journal co-managed by student editors.   Traditional and experimental narratives find a home in its pages.
• Pocket Lint   (Student Literary Magazine)
• The Round Table is Beloit College’s student newspaper.
• WBCR   is Beloit’s student radio station.
• For the entrepreneurial, the   Center for Entrepreneurship in Liberal Arts Education at Beloit ( CELEB) can help you find a path to showcase your work.

Enter your Work in Writing Contests

We have an extensive array of creative writing contests each year with a range of recognitions and prizes. After initial screening by Beloit faculty, each contest is judged by a writer, literary critic, or faculty member not teaching at Beloit. The Mackey Award is judged by an established American author.

ACM Nick Adams Short Story Contest $ 1,000 for the best short story written by a student at one of the Associated Colleges of the Midwest

Lois and Willard Mackey ’45 Prize for Creative Writing $1,000 for the best creative writing by a Beloit College undergraduate

Margaret W. Baker Prize Scholarship $500 scholarship for the best creative writing by a first-year student

Beloit Poetry Journal/Academy of American Poet Award $100 for the best poem or group of poems

White-Howells English Prize—Poetry $100 for the best poem or group of poems

White-Howells English Prize—Prose $100 for the best work of prose (fiction or drama)

Marion and David Stocking Prize $100 for the best non-fiction prose

The deadline for all contests is Friday Dec. 8, 2023 at 4:00 pm. 

Work with a mackey chair.

Established in the late 1980s by Willard Mackey’47 in honor of his wife, Lois’45, this program brings an author of distinction to the Beloit College campus for all or part of one semester to teach an advanced course in creative writing. “Mackeys,” as these professors are called, also give public readings, which are among the most anticipated and best attended events on campus. Learn more about past Mackey Chairs.

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BILING E01, Literature in Spanish

This course helps older adults explore a variety of Spanish literature in the language in which it was written and stimulates their appreciation of the vast literary output of Spain, Latin America, and other Spanish speaking countries. Students may also explore the history and culture of the country in which a literary work was produced, and participate in class discussions in Spanish.

Course Number: 9735  Time: 9-10:50 a.m. F Location: ONLINE Instructor: Kim Yunsook

BILING E02, French Literature

This course helps older adults understand and appreciate the vast literary output of France and other French speaking countries, and introduces them to French culture and people. Older adults explore a variety of French literature in the language in which it was written and engage in stimulating discussions with their peers.

Course Number: 9736  Time: 2-3:50 p.m. T Location: ONLINE Instructor: Isner-Ball D R

BILING E03, Literature from Around the World

This course helps older adults experience and appreciate the vast literary output from non-English speaking countries and discuss that literature with peers in the language in which it was written. Course sections may focus on literature from any non-English speaking country, as long as there are sufficient numbers of interested students and faculty who can teach in that language are available.

Course Number: 9737  Time: 1:30-3:20 p.m. W Location: ONLINE Instructor: Reich S L This section will explore a variety of Yiddish literature and appreciate Yiddish culture, in the language in which it was written.Some Yiddish speaking and reading skills are needed to fully enjoy this class. Share life experiences; read aloud newspapers, classic stories, and modern literature to learn about a thousand years of Yiddish culture.

ENGL E20, Literature: The Novel

This course, which examines the world’s greatest literary works (such as James Joyce’s Ulysses) is designed to help older adults learn about trends in writing in different societies. Older adults learn about the uniqueness of each age of literature and each author under scrutiny. Various literary themes and the concerns of authors in different historical periods serve as a basis for discussion so that older adults may compare and contrast these topics with current events, modern cultures and sub-cultures, and societal structures and mores. Older adults will also discuss with their peers how these works relate to their own life experiences and accumulated knowledge.

Course Number: 9739  Time: 2-3:50 p.m. M Location: ONLINE Instructor: Dwyer F We will continue our close reading and discussion of Marcel Proust’s bucket-list masterpiece “In Search of Lost Time.” We have reached volume V: “The Captive and The Fugitive.” You will need the translation by C. K. Scott Moncrieff and Terence Kilmartin, Revised by D. J. Enright. I will provide summaries and a study guide for new members of the class.

ENGL E22, Short Story

This course is designed for older adults who want to explore literature, such as the works of Milton, Austen, Hawthorne, and T.S. Eliot, as well as short stories from Latin America, America, Europe, and Africa, and discuss it with their peers. This course allows older adults to experience a wide range of classic and contemporary literature in a social setting and relate that content and emotion to their own personal life experiences.

Course Number: 9740  Time: 10-11:50 a.m. T Location: ONLINE Instructor: Wali M

Course Number: 9741  Time: 11 a.m.-12:50 p.m. W Location: EC 1227 408 Instructor: Ghabaei B

ENGL E23, Shakespeare

This course allows older adults to study and discuss selected plays by William Shakespeare and his contemporaries with their peers. Older adults will experience or re-experience the emotional and dramatic content in Shakespeare’s classic works in light of their current life situations, and discuss the concerns of the human heart from the height of passion to the depths of despair.

Course Number: 9742  Time: 9-10:50 a.m. M Location: EC 1227 107 Instructor: Achorn J C This is a hybrid course. Instructor will provide Zoom link for those wishing to join remotely. This semester we will read and examine Shakespeare’s early work, “Titus Andronicus” (the Folger edition).

Course Number: 9743  Time: 11 a.m.-12:50 p.m. M Location: EC 1227 107 Instructor: Achorn J C This is a hybrid course. Instructor will provide Zoom link for those wishing to join remotely. This semester we will read and examine Shakespeare’s early work, “Titus Andronicus” (the Folger edition).

ENGL E24, Bible as Literature

This course introduces older adults to a wide variety of interpretations of biblical literature, encouraging students to offer interpretations based on their own knowledge and life experiences.

Course Number: 9744  Time: 10 a.m.-12 p.m. Th Location: ONLINE Instructor: Jenks G This class will be covering Stories of Notable Women in the Bible.

ENGL E25, Literature: The American Novel

This course assists older adults in analyzing American novels, discussing them with their peers, and renewing their appreciation for this unique form of literature. Older adults learn background and trends in writing in different time periods and regions of America, and discuss how these works relate to their own life experiences and accumulated knowledge.

Course Number: 9745  Time: 9-10:50 a.m. T Location: EC 1227 107 Instructor: Achorn J C This is a hybrid course. Instructor will provide Zoom link for those wishing to join remotely. We will look at two current novels: “Wandering Stars” by Tommy Orange (Alfred Knopf, 2024) and “James” by Percival Everett (Doubleday 2024).

ENGL E27, Poetry and Fiction

This course helps older adults explore poetry and fiction as adventure, confirmation, and renewal. Emeritus students also employ selected poems as a means to examine their life experiences and discuss these experiences with their peers. This course is designed to refresh students enjoyment and increase their appreciation of poetry and fiction as a means of expression and helps them explore these genres in relation to other types of literature in their use of language and imagery.

Course Number: 9746  Time: 10-11:50 a.m. W Location: ONLINE Instructor: Davis C V Contemporary American Literature: Cross Genre.

Course Number: 9747  Time: 1-2:50 p.m. F Location: MALBU 219 Instructor: Fox Jr R W Above section meets at the Malibu Campus, 23555 Civic Center Way, Malibu.

ENGL E29, Greek Literature

This course introduces older adults to the world of ancient Greek drama and fosters discussion among peers. Older adults will study Greek theater from a literary viewpoint and learn about plots, characters, and different interpretations through comparative analysis. Older adults will learn how ancient Greek drama is interpreted in modern media and will relate it to their own lives and experiences.

Course Number: 9748  Time: 11:30 a.m.-1:20 p.m. M Location: ONLINE Instructor: Dwyer F We will continue our study of Athenian Tragedy and its evolution, reading and discussing plays by Aeschylus, Euripides, Seneca, Racine, Shakespeare, John Webster, Arthur Miller, Samuel Beckett, and others.

ENGL E30, Creative Writing

This course nurtures, revitalizes, and stimulates older adult writers who may already be producing or thinking about producing written material. The course is intended to discover, encourage, and develop untapped writing talent in older adults. It also allows older adults to develop and refine their writing and self expression skills, discuss their writing with peers, and comment on their peers’ writing in a respectful and constructive manner. The course is also a forum for older adults to share their creative voices with peers.

Course Number: 9749  Time: 9-11:15 a.m. M Location: ONLINE Instructor: Kronsberg G J

Course Number: 9750  Time: 9:30-11:20 a.m. M Location: MALBU 112 Instructor: Davis C V Above section meets at the Malibu Campus, 23555 Civic Center Way, Malibu.

Course Number: 9751  Time: 9:30-11:45 a.m. T Location: EC 1227 408 Instructor: Ghabaei B Come learn the art of skillful writing. All levels are welcome.

ENGL E33, Autobiography

This course helps older adults review and integrate the experiences that have shaped their lives, share memories with peers, and create a record of events for themselves and their families. Through this class older adults achieve a sense of pride in their accomplishments, improve their writing abilities, and express themselves in writing that can be shared with family, friends, and the public if desired.

Course Number: 9752  Time: 10 a.m.-12:15 p.m. Th Location: EC 1227 408 Instructor: Wali M This is a hybrid class. The class will meet in room 408 most weeks except every 4th week. The class will meet on Zoom every 4th week.

Course Number: 9754  Time: 9:30-11:45 a.m. S Location: PAC 116 Instructor: Fox Jr R W Above section meets at the SMC Performing Arts Center, 1310 11th Street. This is a hybrid course; some weeks will meet fully online, while others will be fully in person. Class will meet the first two sessions in person only, followed by two online-only sessions. The Zoom link will be issued by the instructor.

Course Number: 9755  Time: 12-2:15 p.m. S Location: ONLINE Instructor: Mackay K

Course Number: 9756  Time: 3-4:50 p.m. F Location: MALBU 219 Instructor: Fox Jr R W Above section meets at the Malibu Campus, 23555 Civic Center Way, Malibu.

ENGL E34, Writing for Publication

This course will be split into three units of focus. The first unit will be spent writing and sharing new pieces of memoir, fiction or poetry. During the second unit, students will prepare their selected piece (or several short ones) for publication in the Emeritus Chronicles journal. Each student will give and receive several rounds of editorial feedback. During the third and last unit of this course, enrolled students will give editorial feedback to writers not enrolled in this class who also submitted pieces to the Emeritus Chronicles. This course will culminate in the assembly of the Emeritus Chronicles which will be published in the spring.

Course Number: 9757  Time: 1-3:50 p.m. M Location: ONLINE Instructor: Mackay K

ENGL E37, Writing Seminar

This course develops and refines older adults’ writing skills in an informal round-table atmosphere through classroom readings and critiques of their own and classmates’ writing. The course is intended to discover, encourage, and develop untapped writing talent in older adults and nurture, revitalize, and stimulate older adult writers who may already be expressing themselves through the written word. The course is also a forum for older adults to share their creative voices with peers.

Course Number: 9758  Time: 11:30 a.m.-1:20 p.m. M Location: ONLINE Instructor: Kronsberg G J