Creative Writing Requirements

In the Department of English

Colby students may study the craft of imaginative writing in one of two ways—through a concentration within an English major or by electing a minor in creative writing if their major is a discipline other than English.  A creative writing concentration within and in addition to the English major is offered as another option to develop creative writing skills. The requirements for the concentration are specified in the “English” section of this catalogue.

The minor is designed to enhance existing major programs, to add structure and a sense of purpose to those students already committed to creative writing, and to prepare students who are considering graduate programs in creative writing.

Director, Professor Adrian Blevins

Professors Adrian Blevins and Debra Spark; Associate Professors Sarah Braunstein and Arisa White; Assistant Professor Onnesha Rouychoudhuri

The minor consists of seven courses total: four writing workshops and three courses in literature.

The four writing workshops should include creative writing courses at the 200 level or above. These courses currently include English 278, 279, 280, 298, 378, 379, 380, 382, and 386. Students may count Peformance, Theater, and Dance 141 (Beginning Playwriting) as one of their creative writing workshops.

In addition, the creative writing minor requires the student, in consultation with the minor advisor, to complete three courses in English and American literature. One of these courses may be at the 200 level. The other two must be at the 300 or 400 level. The program does not count courses taken at other institutions toward the concentration or the minor.

When choosing literature courses, minors should work to develop their specific writing aptitudes and expose themselves to more unfamiliar styles and genres, as well as writing from different historical periods. Prose writers might study Toni Morrison, the British Novel from Austen to Woolf, African American Women’s Writing and the Legacies of Black Venus, Literature of the Urban and Rural, or Intro to Shakespeare. Poets might study American Poetry Now: Edgy Post-Confessional Strain, Sonnets: History, Theory, and Practice, or Dickinson and Poetry Across Centuries. Either History of Text Technologies or History of the English Language would count as a literature course for the minor.

First priority for admission to English 278, 279, and 280 is given to sophomores.

No requirement for the minor may be taken satisfactory/unsatisfactory.