Courses

The Creative Writing Program at Columbia offers intensive workshops at the beginning, intermediate, advanced, and senior levels. We also offer craft seminars in creative writing that are designed to examine literature from a practitioner’s perspective.

Please click here for information about the requirements for the creative writing major.

THE WORKSHOPS

Students in the workshops produce original works of fiction, poetry, or nonfiction, and submit them to their classmates and professor for a close critical analysis. Workshop critiques (which include a detailed written report, as well as thorough line-edits) assess the mechanics and merits of the piece of writing, while individual conferences with the professor distill the various critiques into a direct plan of action to improve the work. A student writer develops by practicing the craft under the diligent critical attention of his or her peers and professor. This dynamic is meant to continually assist the student writer toward new levels of creative endeavor.

Beginning Fiction, Poetry, or Nonfiction Workshop (3 pts)

This course is open to all students, and offers sections in fiction, poetry, and creative non-fiction. Admission is decided by lottery. Beginning workshops are designed for students who have little or no previous experience writing literary texts in a particular genre. Students are introduced to a range of technical and imaginative concerns through exercises and discussions, and eventually produce their own writing for the critical analysis of the class.

Intermediate Fiction, Poetry, or Nonfiction Workshop (3 pts)

Permission required. Admission by writing sample. Enrollment limited to 15 students. This course can be repeated in fulfillment of the major.

Intermediate workshops are for students with some experience with creative writing, and whose prior work merits admission to the class (as judged by the professor). With sections in fiction, poetry, and non-fiction, the intermediate workshops present a higher creative standard than beginning workshops, and increased expectations to produce finished work. By the end of the semester, each student will have produced at least seventy pages of original fiction or non-fiction, or twenty original poems.

Advanced Fiction, Poetry, or Nonfiction Workshop (3 pts)

Prerequisite: Intermediate Workshop, or equivalent experience. Permission required. Admission by writing sample. Enrollment limited to 15 students. This course can be repeated in fulfillment of the major.

Building on the work of the Intermediate Workshop, Advanced workshops are reserved for the most gifted creative writing students. A significant body of writing must be produced and revised. Students in the advanced workshops will have taken several courses in the major already (workshops and seminars), and they bring their additional literary experience and knowledge to the classroom, which at once raises the level of discourse and potential for achievement.

Senior Creative Writing Workshop in Fiction, Poetry, or Nonfiction (4 pts)

This course is restricted to seniors who are majors in creative writing. Enrollment is limited, and is by permission of the professor. The senior workshop offers students the opportunity to work exclusively with classmates who are at the same high level of accomplishment in the major. Students in the senior workshops will produce and revise a new and substantial body of work. This course will only be offered by graduate faculty professors.

Structure and Style (3 pts)

This seminar explores prose, drama, and verse as related disciplines. While each genre has its particular opportunities and demands, all can utilize such devices as narrative, dialogue, imagery, and description (scenes, objects, and thought processes). Through a wide variety of readings and writing exercises, we will examine and explore approaches to language, ways of telling a story (linear and nonlinear), and how pieces are constructed. Some student work will be briefly workshopped.

Playwriting (3 pts)

Playwriting is taught as a workshop and is designed for students who have an interest in dialogue, the construction of the dramatic scene, and playwriting as a literary and performance art form. Attention is given to the ways in which playwriting techniques might be applied to work in other genres. Students will be assigned exercises in conflict, rhythm, dialogue, character, and the development of material. Students will be expected to produce approximately seventy pages of dramatic writing. This work can be composed of several independent scenes or of sequential scenes that build to a one-act play.

Filmwriting (3 pts)

Filmwriting is taught as a workshop and is designed for students who have an interest in film and/or the ways in which other literary forms might be adapted for the filmic medium. Through observing the ways successful films are put together, identifying universal "mythic" patterns in all stories, participating in in-class exercises, weekly assignments and individual projects students will learn the basics inherent to story telling in general and screen storytelling in particular. Students will be expected to produce approximately seventy pages of screen writing. This work may be composed of independent scenes or of sequential scenes building to a short film.

THE SEMINARS

The creative writing seminars provide the intellectual ballast that informs and deepens the work of the creative writing student. Students in the creative writing seminars read a book each week and engage in round-table discussions about the artistic attributes of the texts, in order to better understand how literature might be made. Only through a deep analysis of outstanding and diverse works of literature can the creative writer build the resources necessary to produce his or her own accomplished creative work.

Creative Writing Seminar: Craft and Practice (3 pts)

“Craft and Practice” seminars offer close examination of literary techniques such as plot, point of view, tone, suspense, and narrative voice. Extensive readings are required, along with creative exercises.

Creative Writing Seminar: History and Context (3 pts)

“History and Context” seminars offer a broad view of literary history as it relates to the concerns of a writer. These seminars cover specific genres or periods of time, and seek to inform students about the kinds of approaches that are possible in their chosen genre. Extensive readings are required, along with short critical papers or creative exercises.

Creative Writing Master Class: Special Topics (1 pt)

Master Classes put students in contact with distinguished teachers for concentrated tutorials on a variety of literary topics, all of which relate to the creative pursuits of a writer. The Master Classes are offered, usually, by visiting faculty of the highest level, and are restricted to students in the major.

Translation Seminar (3 pts)

An introduction to literary translation. Students will read critical essays by leading authors on the subject, such as Jorge Luis Borges, Vladimir Nabokov and George Steiner, and study variant translations of sample texts. They will also undertake their own translations (which may be of either poetry or prose) under the guidance of the instructor, and learn how to familiarize themselves with the literary and cultural properties of the originals. A sample translation and a short essay on translation are to be submitted at the end of the semester.

Critical Writing (3 pts)

This course will concentrate on the critical voice: the methods and means a writer uses to develop a coherent approach to arts writing and cultural criticism. Such writing involves the intellect and the senses; informed analysis and the ability to capture an art in vivid sensory prose. Students will begin by writing reviews, then move on to longer forms like essays and profiles. They will work to develop an individual voice and a clear prose style that can handle complex ideas and responses. The reading will give students the chance to discuss first rate criticism. The best critical writing offers much more than informed critical judgment. It is part of a larger conversation that should open up reactive possibilities and stir readers to ask probing questions about art and culture.