"The best advice I can give to a young writer is to read. Read everything." -Elizabeth Bishop
The Creative Writing Program at Waldorf College provides students an engaging, challenging, and deeply personal learning experience: Students explore at least three genres of writing and develop their craft in techniques of writing courses and upper-level writers' workshops; students form strong relationships with their peers in seminar style classes, editing internships, and writers' groups; and students work with faculty who are both excellent teachers and practicing writers.
The Creative Writing Program develops excellent writers and strong critical readers. Majors and minors explore the diverse possibilities of contemporary literature across a number of genres, increase their tool kit of writing techniques, and begin to acquire and polish a voice and subject matter of their own. Further, they read and engage a broad selection of authors, using the vocabulary of craft to analyze works of literature, and significantly deepen their love of the written word.
The Creative Writing Program rigorously prepares students for graduate school in disciplines such as the fine arts, english, education, law, library sciences and business, as well careers in the business world, where creative writing students are prized for their ability to think critically, communicate clearly and approach problems creatively. And no matter a student's future plans, the Creative Writing Program helps students develop the wisdom and sense of vocation to choose lives of art, meaning and service in the world.
The Creative Writing major requires completion of ENG 110 and CWR 201; three courses from CWR 370, 375, 380, 385, or 390; two courses from CWR 470, 485, or 480; four English electives at the 110-level or above; and six credits of capstone experience, three of which must be thesis. All Creative Writing majors must also complete a humanities minor or two minors in humanities fields (for instance, minors in history and Shakespeare). A Creative Writing major seeking a minor in English must take the four literature courses needed for the Creative Writing major, plus an additional three english literature courses.
The Creative Writing minor requires completion of CWR 201; two courses from CWR 370, 375, 380, 385, or 390; one course from CWR 470, 485, or 480; two English electives at the 110-level or above; and one further elective that may be in Creative Writing, English, or a related field (with consent of the Director of Creative Writing).
The bachelor's degree requires completion of 124 credits, a cumulative grade point average of 2.00 and a grade of C- or better in all core and required courses in the major.
"There is creative reading as well as creative writing." -Ralph Waldo Emerson
This course will introduce the techniques and vocabulary of creative writing in three genres: fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry. Along with craft texts, students will read a wide variety of contemporary literature and produce a number of creative pieces in response, as well as extensively revise one piece in each genre for inclusion in a final portfolio of work. (prerequisites - English 102/107/110 or consent of the instructor)
This course will be a hybrid of literary study and creative writing. Students will read, discuss and write about a broad selection of contemporary creative nonfiction; however, all analysis will be primarily opportunistic, which is to say that students, with the guidance of craft texts, will read and discuss as writers themselves, with the intent of discovering new possibilities and techniques inside the genre of creative nonfiction. Students will also draft a significant number of scenes and essays in response to the readings and revise them for a techniques workshop and a final portfolio.(prerequisites - Creative Writing 201 or consent of the instructor)
This course will be a hybrid of literary study and creative writing. Students will read, discuss and write about a broad selection of contemporary poetry; however, all analysis will be primarily opportunistic, which is to say that students, with the guidance of craft texts, will read and discuss as poets themselves, with the primary intent of discovering new poetic possibilities and techniques. Students will also draft a significant number of poems in response to the readings and revise them for a techniques workshop and a final portfolio. (prerequisites - Creative Writing 201 or consent of the instructor)
This course will be a hybrid of literary study and creative writing. Students will read, discuss and write about a broad selection of contemporary short fiction; however, all analysis will be primarily opportunistic, which is to say that students, with the guidance of craft texts, will read and discuss as writers themselves, with the intent of discovering new possibilities and techniques in the creation of fictions. Students will also draft a significant number of scenes and stories in response to the readings and revise them for a techniques workshop and a final portfolio. (prerequisites - Creative Writing 201 or consent of the instructor)
An introductory and exploratory study concerning the elements and process of playwriting. This course will place emphasis upon developing and understanding play structure, dramatic analysis, and the creative process. Activities in this course will focus upon creating and revising original play scripts.
This course will be a hybrid of literary study and creative writing, with the genre and/or type of writing determined by the instructor. Students will read, discuss and write about a broad selection of contemporary literature; however, all analysis will be primarily opportunistic, which is to say that students, with the guidance of craft texts, will read and discuss as writers themselves, with the intent of discovering new possibilities and techniques. Students will also draft a significant number of pieces in response to the readings and revise them for a techniques workshop and a final portfolio. Possible topics here include novel writing, nature and travel writing, memoir writing, historical fiction, formal verse, spiritual poetry, and landscape and loss in creative nonfiction, among others. (prerequisites - Creative Writing 201 or consent of the instructor)
This course will allow students to receive informed feedback on their own written work from an engaged and concerned audience. Over the course of the semester, students will write at least three full-length essays and present them in class for discussion. Utilizing the advice and ideas they receive in workshop, students will then revise each piece for inclusion in a final portfolio of work. Each week, students will also respond to the work of their classmates with letters that address the aims, strengths, and weaknesses of the essays under discussion. (prerequisites - Creative Writing 370 or consent of the instructor)
This course will allow students to receive informed feedback on their own written work from an engaged and concerned audience. Over the course of the semester, students will write a number of poems and present them in class for discussion. Using the advice and ideas they receive in workshop, students will revise each piece for inclusion in a final portfolio of work. Students will also respond to the work of their classmates each week with response letters that address the aims, strengths, and weaknesses of the poems under discussion. (prerequisites - Creative Writing 375 or consent of the instructor)
This course will allow students to receive informed feedback on their own written work from an engaged and concerned audience. Over the course of the semester, students will write at least three full-length stories and present them in class for discussion. Utilizing the advice and ideas they receive in workshop, students will then revise each piece for inclusion in a final portfolio of work. Each week, students will also respond to the work of their classmates with letters that address the aims, strengths, and weaknesses of the stories under discussion. (prerequisites - Creative Writing 380 or consent of the instructor)
"Read, read, read." -William Faulkner