Fact Sheet 07: Creative Writing

Revised August 2007

Creative Writing Minor

The creative writing minor offers you the opportunity to write imaginatively in several genres: drama, poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. You are encouraged to experiment with traditional and nontraditional forms while developing your editorial skills in a group workshop setting. After completing the creative writing minor, you will emerge with a greater sense of your ability as a writer, reader, and critic. Students from our minor have gone on to study creative writing at prestigious graduate programs, to publish widely, to teach creative writing at the secondary and college levels, and to find jobs in writing, editing, and publishing. The creative writing minor at West Chester is recognized nationally as a strong undergraduate program.

Requirements

?Creative writing is an 18-credit-hour minor. The course Introduction to Creative Writing is required of everyone; then you have the freedom to pursue your writing in the genre(s) that interests you. You may combine the minor with any undergraduate major.

Special Study Opportunities

?We offer you a rich menu of choices as a creative writing minor. You may wish to publish your writing in several campus literary magazines, where you also will have the chance to edit and design the publication. You will be part of the West Chester University Poetry Center where you will meet and hear nationally known poets and novelists read their work, study with the annual Poet-in-Residence, and assist/study at the internationally renowned WCU Poetry Conference, created and directed by Professor Michael Peich, and Dana Gioia, current chairman of the NEA. Or, you may also study publishing and fine handmade book design with Professor Peich at Aralia Press, located in the F.H. Green Library. The many opportunities for immersing yourself in writing will provide you with a diversity rich experience at West Chester University.

Typical Courses

Introduction to Creative Writing
Creative Writing I and II
Short Story Workshop I and II
Poetry Workshop I and II
Novel Writing Seminar I and II
Playwriting
Creative Nonfiction
Screenwriting
Writing Seminars: Trends in Contemporary American Poetry, Writing Poetry in Traditional and Experimental Forms, Reading as a Writer

Students Speak Out

"I like the creative writing classes because, although there is learning going on, there is always a relaxed environment in which I can become friends with my classmates and professors, and in which I can feel comfortable learning from my and my classmates' mistakes."
Ronda Jackson, creative writing minor and Hopkins Award winner

"I am definitely developing more confidence in my writing. In addition, I am learning more of the technical details of writing, and learning how to give and receive criticism. I'm getting a better idea of what I do best and what my weaknesses are."
Eddie Thompson, creative writing minor

"(I take creative writing)...because the professors are so approachable and likeable and sincere and so passionate about what they do, you can't help but want to come back for another semester... Because no matter how many different courses West Chester offers, the expression of ideas between people is all we have, and if we can't take a minor to find beauty in all those forms of communication, we'll never really be able to appreciate them."
Rae Pagliarulo, creative writing minor

Participating Faculty

A complete listing is available in the current Undergraduate Catalog and on the department Web site at http://www.wcupa.edu/_academics/sch_cas.eng/.

For More Information

?Kate Northrop, Director and Associate Professor
Poetry House
West Chester University
West Chester, PA 19383
610-430-5652
knorthrop@wcupa.edu

Luanne Smith, Associate Professor
Main Hall 536
West Chester University
West Chester, PA 19383
610-436-2671
lsmith@wcupa.edu