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Creative Writing, Minor

Program Code: CWRIT_UMNR

At which campus can I study this program?

Requirements for a minor may be completed at any campus location offering the specified courses for the minor. Students may not change from a campus that offers their major to a campus that does not offer their major for the purpose of completing a minor.

Program Description

This minor offers students not majoring in English the opportunity to explore different forms of creative writing--fiction, poetry, and nonfiction--or to focus primarily on one of them. Students receive instruction and practice the art and craft of writing in small, workshop courses.

What is Creative Writing?

Creative writing is a liberal arts discipline concerned with the practice of literary art, the life of the imagination, and the capacities of language. Creative writing students analyze masterworks of fiction, poetry, and literary nonfiction from different periods and cultures; compose their own original works; develop editing and communication skills; and explore the world of contemporary publishing.

You Might Like This Program If...

The qualities we encourage in our students prepare them to be dynamic employees who are creative thinkers and problem-solvers. Many of our students have gone on to careers as published writers, novelists, poets, essayists, short story writers, and writers of young adult literature. Other students find they are well prepared for careers in writing for the media, business, public and private foundations, and government. Higher and secondary education careers have been popular choices as well. Our students often pursue advanced degrees in fields such as creative writing, literature, law, psychology, linguistics, and ethnic and gender studies.

Program Requirements

Requirements for the Minor

Some courses may require prerequisites.

A grade of C or better is required for all courses in the minor, as specified by Senate Policy 59-10 . In addition, at least six credits of the minor must be unique from the prescribed courses required by a student's major(s).

Academic Advising

The objectives of the university's academic advising program are to help advisees identify and achieve their academic goals, to promote their intellectual discovery, and to encourage students to take advantage of both in-and out-of class educational opportunities in order that they become self-directed learners and decision makers.

Both advisers and advisees share responsibility for making the advising relationship succeed. By encouraging their advisees to become engaged in their education, to meet their educational goals, and to develop the habit of learning, advisers assume a significant educational role. The advisee's unit of enrollment will provide each advisee with a primary academic adviser, the information needed to plan the chosen program of study, and referrals to other specialized resources.

READ SENATE POLICY 32-00: ADVISING POLICY

University Park

Liberal Arts Academic Advising 814-865-2545 Use the Liberal Arts Meet the Academic Advisers web page to see the contact information for the specific adviser(s) of this program

Tom Noyes, Ph.D. Professor of English and Creative Writing 170 Kochel Erie, PA 16563 814-898-6209 [email protected]

Maggie Gerrity, Ph.D. Program Coordinator Olmsted Building, W355 Middletown, PA 17057 717-948-6629 [email protected]

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH 434 Burrowes Building University Park, PA 16802 814-863-0258 [email protected]

https://english.la.psu.edu/undergraduate/

SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES 170 Kochel Center Erie, PA 16563 814-898-6108 [email protected]

https://behrend.psu.edu/school-of-humanities-social-sciences

SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES Olmsted Building, W356 Middletown, PA 17057 717-948-6189     [email protected]

https://harrisburg.psu.edu/humanities/creative-writing-minor  

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• Bachelor's Degrees

Creative Writing Concentration

The English Department at Penn State Brandywine offers a Creative Writing concentration for English majors interested in pursuing careers in writing and nurturing their love of writing. 

The Brandywine campus provides an ideal space to develop your creative talents and share your work. You could submit creative work to Penn in Hand , the campus literary and arts journal, and get experience editing and producing a literary journal by joining the Penn in Hand student club. The annual Brandywine Literary Arts Festival (formerly Litapalooza) also gives you the chance to share your work alongside invited professional writers from the greater Philadelphia region.

A Creative Writing concentration provides numerous marketable skills when you graduate. Publishing, editing, and digital content management continue to be areas of job growth and sustainability. The wild popularity of gaming has created a demand for imaginative writers who can design rich, dynamic, interactive narratives for the demographically diverse gaming audience. Other areas attracting English majors and creative writers include:

• Advertising copywriter
• Arts administrator
• Creative director
• Digital copywriter
• Editorial assistant
• Magazine journalist
• Marketing and Public Relations
• Newspaper journalist
• Web content manager

The Creative Writing concentration allows you to explore the different forms of creative writing (fiction, poetry, and nonfiction), to choose a primary focus among those forms, and/or to develop a specific, marketable focus in fact-based writing through courses in biography, science writing, article writing, and editing. To fulfill the Creative Writing concentration, a student must take at least four classes from the courses listed under an individual concentration. The four courses required for a concentration may also fulfill four of the five prescribed electives for the major.

Brandywine faculty regularly offer the following courses for the Creative Writing Concentration:

ENGL 50: Introduction to Creative Writing (GA)  ENGL 209: Journal or Magazine Practicum (1-6)   ENGL 212: Introduction to Fiction Writing    ENGL 213: Introduction to Poetry Writing  ENGL 414: Biographical Writing ENGL 416: Science Writing      ENGL 420: Writing for the Web  ENGL 495L Internship (3 credits only)

For more information, contact Maureen Fielding, [email protected] .  

Brandywine Academics

From classroom to stage: Brandywine English alumna acts on literary foundation

Brandywine professor, students present at international Springsteen symposium

James Berkey Assistant Professor of English and Program Liaison Vairo Library

610-892-1325 jhb5255 @psu.edu

• University Bulletin
• Suggested Academic Plan

The Creative Writing Club

Welcome to the penn state creative writing club.

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The Creative Writing Club is a community of young writers interested in telling stories. Our mediums include novels, short stories, poetry, screenplays, music pieces, and more! Our General Body Meetings (GBMs) are scheduled on Wednesdays from 7:00 pm to 8:00 pm. The room is 312 in the Boucke Building. The Creative Writing Club hosts a variety of other events, writing workshops, and socials throughout the semester, so even if the GBM time slot does not fit into your schedule, there is still ample opportunity to get involved with the club.

The Creative Writing Club does not require dues and does not have strict membership requirements. Anyone, regardless of writing experience, is invited to join at any time during the semester.

If you’re interested in joining the Creative Writing Club or simply looking for more information, please feel free to contact us at [email protected] .

Undergraduate Creative Writing

The introductory and advanced courses in poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction, as well as TV script writing, are some of the most sought-after offerings in the Penn State English Department.  Our undergraduates have their poems, short stories, and essays published in the student-run literary journals produced on campus by their peers, and honored by the many University-wide creative writing contests.  And they learn from the greats as they attend readings by some of America’s most exciting novelists, short story writers, poets, and nonfiction writers, who also visit their classes and answer their questions as part of The Mary E. Rolling Reading series, the Emily Dickinson Lectureship in Poetry, and the Steven Fisher Writer-in-Residence program.

Career Paths

Creative writing courses place a particular emphasis on the craft of language and original thinking, skills that have propelled alumni into careers in journalism, internet communications, law, public relations, publishing, advertising, teaching, and professional writing.  If you’d like to make your mark by your clear, original approach to communication, our courses are right for you.  Penn State’s creative writing alumni are versatile, adaptable employees who know how to think outside the box.  You’ll find them working all over the globe–in the consulate in Madrid, Spain, in a supply station in Antarctica, in web design in New York City, and in their own publishing companies in Philadelphia and in Alabama.

If your dream is to pursue graduate study in creative writing, we can help you shape a manuscript that presents your creative work at its best.  Our undergraduate creative writers have gone on to graduate programs at the University of Iowa, Columbia, Johns Hopkins, Harvard, Oxford, Syracuse, Brown, Emerson College, the University of Florida, Florida State, Arizona, Arizona State, Ohio State, the University of Alabama, the University of North Carolina, the University of Wisconsin, the Michener Center at the University of Texas, and many other institutions.

Notable Alumni

Novelist Jillian Cantor, whose seven books have been lauded for their inventive narratives and reviewed in Oprah, Time, and People magazines, used to dazzle us in her undergraduate fiction writing classes.  Poet, Stegner Fellow, and National Endowment for the Arts grantee Ryan Teitman perfected his editing chops on Kalliope before going on to serve as poetry editor of The Indiana Review . Writers Diane Ackerman, Nomi Eve, Ruth Ellen Kocher, Jane Miller, and Chinelo Okparanta also caught the interest and earned the respect of their professors and fellow students as they crafted their early work in our classes.

Core Creative Writing Faculty

• Julia Kasdorf and
• Shara McCallum;
• Elizabeth Kadetsky,
• Samuel Kọ́láwọlé, and
• Toby Thompson.

Creative Writing Concentration in the Major

English Majors can pursuse a Concentration in Creative Writing. Visit the Creative Writing Concentration page to learn more.

BA/MA Program in English, with a focus in Creative Writing

Undergraduate students at Penn State are also eligible to apply the the BA/MA Program in English, with a focus in Creative Writing. With an additional year of study, students earn both a BA and an MA in English, polish their writing, gain teaching experience, and prepare for the next step in their writing careers. For information visit the BA/MA in Creative Writing page.

Minor in Creative Writing

Students who are not English majors may be interested in pursuing a Minor in Creative Writing through the Department.

For more information on any of these possibilities, please contact Julia Kasdorf at [email protected] .

The Writing Center @ Penn State Learning

Announcements.

Did you meet with a tutor? Let us know how we did using our Writing Tutoring Survey.

The Writing Center @ Penn State Learning aims to promote engaging conversations and writing support for undergraduate students at Penn State. We offer drop-in and appointment hours, as well as online tutoring by appointment or through our asynchronous submission form. All tutors are undergraduate students who have completed a full semester of writing tutor education and practical training. Tutoring is free of charge.

We view each writing tutorial as an opportunity for students to meet "peer-to-peer" to talk about an in-progress writing project. Student writers attending a tutorial should be prepared to discuss their assignments, questions, and concerns, along with their personal strengths and goals for the work. Writers will be asked to share their work, often by reading aloud, and tutors will use introductory questions about the writing process to open the conversation. Tutors will then guide writers through a series of activities geared toward their writing goals. We welcome all writers and the differences in language, identity, and perspective they bring to each tutorial.

Instructors wishing to prepare students for tutoring can encourage them to bring assignment sheets, class notes, instructor and peer feedback, and any research involved in the project. Tutors will work with students seeking grammar assistance by helping writers to develop independent editing strategies, greater knowledge of idea development, and sentence construction and clarity. In addition, students can request a Contact Report describing their tutoring session to be emailed to instructors for review.

Writing Tutoring Services

Writing @ Penn State Learning offers drop-in and appointment hours, as well as online tutoring by appointment or through our asynchronous submission form. All tutoring is peer-to-peer and free of charge.

All in-person writing tutoring happens in 220 Boucke or The Search Bar (in Pattee Library's Sidewater Commons). To get tutoring through drop-in hours, come by 220 Boucke or the Search Bar and sign in. Shortly thereafter, a writing tutor on duty will assist you. It's possible that during drop-in hours you'll experience a short wait before a tutor becomes available to help. If you want to guarantee a particular time, we recommend scheduling an appointment on Starfish .

In-person appointments are available in 220 Boucke and the Search Bar throughout the semester. To schedule an appointment, please use the appointment scheduler in Starfish . You will see a list of available appointment times; when you pick a time and move to the following screen, you will be able to check the Boucke Building  or Search Bar  location.

Appointments are 30 minutes long. You can schedule up to two appointments in a row.

Online synchronous appointments are available throughout the semester. To schedule an online appointment, please use the appointment scheduler in Starfish . You will see a list of available appointment times; when you pick a time and move to the following screen, you will be able to check the Online Writing location. You will receive a Zoom link with your appointment confirmation.

Asynchronous tutoring allows students to submit a writing project for review, and receive virtual tutoring feedback in response. Our tutors will provide both a video tutorial, as well as written commentary and questions about the submitted materials. You may submit no more than 6 pages of writing by filling out the Asynchronous Tutoring Submission form . Please record all the necessary details of your project for the most useful feedback.

Asynchronous requests are assigned to the first available tutor. Please allow 1-3 days for a response.

At the request of instructors, writing tutors will visit classrooms to conduct Introduction to the Writing Center presentations or writing workshops that are tailored to the writing projects in the course. To request a program for your course, please fill out our Outreach Program Request form.

Contact Information:

Tabitha Fisher, M.A. Writing Center Coordinator Penn State Learning Office Address: 206 Boucke Building Phone: 814-865-0259 Email: [email protected]

Subject Sessions

No Guided Study Groups are currently active. Please check back for future scheduled sessions.

Creative Writing at PENN STATE

Writing Contests

Each year, the English Department at Penn State sponsors an array of writing contests in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry for undergraduate writers from across the university and BA/MA students in creative writing at University Park. Submissions are accepted through January, and winners are announced in the spring. All winners earn cash prizes and are honored at an awards ceremony, typically held in April. First-place winners are also published in the student literary magazine, Kalliope .

More information about these annual awards and the submission process be found on the English Department website’s contest page. 

Thanks to all who entered this year’s contests and to all of the judges.

Cong ratulations to this year’s winners!

Past Winners:

2023 Contest Winners

2022 Contest Winners

2021 Contest Winners

2020 Contest Winners

2019 Contest Winners

2018 Contest Winners

2017 Contest Winners

2016 Contest Winners

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• School of Humanities and Social Sciences
• Academic Programs
• Minors in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences

Creative Writing Minor

This 18-credit Creative Writing minor  (CWRIT UMNR) offers students not majoring in Creative Writing or English the opportunity to explore different forms of creative writing—fiction, poetry, and nonfiction—or to focus primarily on one of them. Students receive instruction and practice the art and craft of writing in small workshop courses.

A grade of C or better is required for all courses in the minor. Some courses may require prerequisites.

Scheduling Recommendation by Semester Standing given like (Sem: 1-2)

Requirements for the Minor: 18 credits

• Select 6 credits of introductory-level courses (200-level) from the following: ENGL 212(3); ENGL 213(3); ENGL 214(3); ENGL 215(3); ENGL 281(3) (Sem: 1-4)
• Select 12 credits of advanced-level workshop courses (400-level) from the following: ENGL 304 WAC(3-12); ENGL 412(3); ENGL 413(3); ENGL 414(3); ENGL 415(3); ENGL 422(3); ENGL 425(3); ENGL 401(3); ENGL 424(3); ENGL 429(3); ENGL 435(3); ENGL 436(3); ENGL 437(3); ENGL 439(3); ENGL 486 IL(3); ENGL 495(3-12) (Sem: 5-8)

For questions or more information, please contact Dr. Tom Noyes , Professor of English and Creative Writing, at [email protected] or 814-898-6209.

• University Bulletin