Courses in creative writing within the Arts Program are designed for students who wish to develop their skills and appreciation of creative writing in a variety of genres (poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, playwriting, screenwriting) and for those intending to pursue studies in creative writing at the graduate level.
Any English major may include one Creative Writing course in the major plan. Non-English majors may pursue a minor as described under Degree Options. While there is no existing major in Creative Writing, exceptionally well qualified students have completed majors in Creative Writing through the Independent Major Program.
Please note: enrollment in the Creative Writing workshop is a three step process. Students must (a) preregister; (b) download and print a Creative Writing Program questionnaire, complete this and drop it off (hard copy) to Professor Karl Kirchwey’s faculty mailbox in English House by Friday, November 13, 2009; (c) attend the first meeting of the class in January. Note: Students applying to 300-level courses without having completed the corresponding 200-level course must submit a writing sample.
Literary Prize Results for 2009
~Academy of American Poets Prize
Winner: Katherine Faigen (’09) for a sequence of poems comprising “In the Mud,” “Coyote Night,” “Christmas Music,” and “Beginnings”
Honorable Mention: Anna Lehr Mueser (’10), for a sequence of poems comprising “Beet Love,” “These Afternoons,” and “Under the Sky”
Honorable Mention: Sharanya Sharma (’11), for a sequence of poems comprising “The Devil Riding Your Back,” “In Death: a Haiku Series,” “you kiss by th’ book,” “Firegirl,” “Letters from Psyche, I” and “Madame Butterfly”
~Bain-Swiggett Poetry Prize
Winner: Nicole Gervasio (’10), for the poem “Missing Persons”
Honorable Mention: Gillian Grassie (’09), for the poem “A Cold and Heavy Necklace”
~Alexandra Peschka Prize
Winner: Lauren Marie Smith (’12), for the story “Saturday”
Honorable Mention: Meredith Schorr (’11), for the stories “Umbrellas and Fine Goods” and “Bear and Rose”
Honorable Mention: Margaret Ernst (’11), for the story “The Smallest Room”
~Anne Kirschbaum Winkelman Literary Prize
Winner: Margaret Ernst (’11), for the story “The Oldest Sister”
Honorable Mention: Devan Boyle (’10), for the story “Personal Jesus”
Honorable Mention: Julia Lustick (’09), for the story “A Cold Walk Home”
~Katherine Fullerton Gerould Award
Winner: Gillian Grassie (’09), for the essay “Laurel’s Forge Farm”
Honorable Mention: Julia Lustick (’09), for the short story “Joey”
Honorable Mention: Ellen Goodlett (’09), for the novel excerpt “Origins”
~Seymour Adelman Poetry Prize
Winner: Elizabeth Walsh (’09), for a project involving writing poems of place, real and remembered, centered on the agricultural landscape of the Yakima Valley in Washington State
Honorable Mention: Nicole Gervasio (’10), for a project involving ekphrasis and the art of everyday life
