Creative Writing < University of Chicago Catalog

Contacts | Minor Program in English and Creative Writing | Summary of Requirements for the Minor Program | Program Structure | Courses

Department Website: http://creativewriting.uchicago.edu

Students at the University of Chicago pursue creative writing within the larger context of academic study. While the purpose of the program is, above all, to give students a rigorous background in the fundamentals of creative work by providing them with the opportunity to study with established poets and prose writers, it differs from the free-standing creative writing programs at other universities in seeing itself as an integral part of the intellectual life of the University of Chicago, and most particularly in providing opportunities for interdisciplinary work. A playwright working through University Theater under the auspices of Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities may take writing workshops in fiction or poetry as part of the process of developing scripts. Students in the visual arts may join forces with writers in work on graphic novels. And students in non-English languages and literatures may find themselves taking not only literature courses but also poetry or fiction writing workshops as part of developing translation projects. It is this commitment to interdisciplinary work, coupled with the program's insistence on teaching the elements of creative writing that underlie all genres, that accounts for the program's vitality and explains why creative writing at Chicago is currently the largest initiative in the humanities for the College.

Students can pursue their creative writing interests within the formal requirements of the two interdisciplinary majors below; within the formal requirements of the minor program in English and Creative Writing described below; in other programs of study, with approval to count writing courses toward requirements; or among the eight to eighteen electives available to students across the range of other programs of study.

Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities

Students wishing to engage the dialogues between creative writing and other studies in the humanities, including artistic media (e.g., dance, film, theater, visual arts), may apply to explore writing opportunities through one of the options in the Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities major.

English Language and Literature

Students majoring in English Language and Literature may choose to produce a creative writing thesis to satisfy part of the requirement for honors. Prior to the end of their third year, students must complete at least two creative writing courses in the genre (poetry, fiction, or nonfiction) of their BA project. At least one must be an advanced course, in which the student has earned a B+ or higher. In Winter Quarter of their fourth year, students will work intensively on their projects in the context of a designated creative writing thesis seminar.

To do a creative writing BA project, students must fill out a declaration form available at the English undergraduate office by the spring of their third year. On this form they declare their intent to write a creative writing BA project in a specific genre and list the two creative writing courses in the relevant genre that they have taken as prerequisites for doing the BA project.

Students work on their project over three quarters. Early in Autumn Quarter of their fourth year, students will be assigned a graduate student preceptor. In Autumn Quarter, students will attend a series of colloquia led by their graduate preceptor. In Winter Quarter, students will continue meeting with their graduate preceptor. In addition, students must enroll in one of the creative BA project workshops in their genre. Students are not automatically enrolled in a workshop; they must receive the consent of the workshop instructor, who will also serve as their faculty adviser for their creative BA project. These workshops are advanced courses limited to eight students and will include not only students majoring in English but also those in Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities (ISHU) and the Master of Arts Program in the Humanities (MAPH) who are producing creative theses. Students will work closely with their faculty adviser and with their peers in the workshops and will receive course credit as well as a final grade for the workshop. Students should be aware that because of the high number of students wishing to write fiction for their BA projects, students will not necessarily get their first choice of workshop instructor and faculty adviser.

In consultation with their faculty adviser and graduate preceptor, students revise and resubmit a near final draft of their creative BA projects by the beginning of the third week of Spring Quarter. Students submit the final version of their creative BA project to their preceptor, faculty adviser, and the undergraduate program assistant by the beginning of the fifth week of Spring Quarter. The project will then be evaluated by the faculty adviser, graduate preceptor, and director of undergraduate studies to determine whether the student will be recommended.

Minor Program in English and Creative Writing

Students who are not English majors may complete a minor in English and Creative Writing. Such a minor requires six courses plus a portfolio of creative work. At least two of the required courses must be Creative Writing (CRWR) courses, with at least one at the intermediate or advanced level. The remaining required courses must be taken in the English department (ENGL). In addition, students must submit a portfolio of their work (e.g., a selection of poems, one or two short stories or chapters from a novel, a substantial part or the whole of a play, two or three nonfiction pieces) to the undergraduate program assistant in the English department by the end of the fifth week in the quarter in which they plan to graduate.

Students who elect the minor program in English and Creative Writing must meet with the undergraduate program assistant in the English department before the end of Spring Quarter of their third year to declare their intention to complete the minor. Students choose courses in consultation with the undergraduate program assistant. The undergraduate program assistant's approval for the minor program should be submitted to a student's College adviser by the deadline above on a form obtained from the adviser. NOTE: Students completing this minor will not be given enrollment preference for CRWR courses, and they must follow all relevant admission procedures described at the Creative Writing website.

Courses in the minor (1) may not be doubly counted with the student's major(s) or with other minors and (2) may not be counted toward general education requirements. Courses in the minor must be taken for quality grades (not P/F), and at least half of the requirements for the minor must be met by registering for courses bearing University of Chicago course numbers.

Summary of Requirements for the Minor Program

2 CRWR courses (at least one at the intermediate or advanced level)		200
4 CRWR or ENGL electives		400
A portfolio of the student's work
Total Units		600

Two Sample Plans of Study

CRWR 10200	Beginning Fiction Workshop	100
CRWR 12000	Intermediate Fiction Workshop	100
CRWR 12103	Reading as a Writer	100
CRWR 26001	Writing Biography	100
ENGL 10700	Introduction to Fiction: The Short Story	100
ENGL 16500	Shakespeare I: Histories and Comedies	100
a portfolio of the student's work (two short stories)
Total Units		600

CRWR 13000	Intermediate Poetry Workshop	100
CRWR 23100	Advanced Poetry Workshop	100
ENGL 10400	Introduction to Poetry	100
ENGL 15800	Medieval Epic	100
ENGL 23413	Introduction to Literary Theory	100
ENGL 25600	The Poet In The Novel	100
a portfolio of the student's work (ten short poems)
Total Units		600

Program Structure

Creative Writing courses are cross-listed to enable students to apply to courses based on their level of preparation rather than on their level in the degree program. Classes are organized in the following way:

Core

Core courses are multigenre introductions to creative writing that satisfy the general education requirement for the arts. The courses fall into two categories, Introduction to Genres and Reading as a Writer, though each may be pitched with a unique focus, such as science fiction or crime and story. Admission is by open bid. Enrollment in each class is limited to fifteen students.

Beginning

Beginning courses are intended for students who wish to gain experience in a particular genre. Admission is by open bid. Enrollment in each class is limited to twelve students.

Intermediate

Intermediate courses are intended for students with some writing experience in a particular genre. Admission requires completion of a beginning class in the same genre and/or consent of instructor based on submission of a writing sample. For specific submission requirements, see course descriptions. The submission process must be completed online in advance of the term by the deadline. Enrollment in each class is limited to twelve students.

Advanced

Advanced courses are intended for students with substantive writing experience in a particular genre. Admission requires completion of an intermediate class in the same genre and/or consent of instructor based on submission of a writing sample. For specific submission requirements, see course descriptions. The submission process must be completed online in advance of the term by the deadline. Enrollment in each class is limited to ten students.

Thesis/Major Projects Seminar

This course is required for students who are working on their BA or MA theses in fiction, poetry, or creative nonfiction. If space permits, these seminars may also be open to advanced students who are interested in writing or revising a substantial project. Students must obtain the consent of the instructor in advance by submission of a writing sample. Enrollment in each class typically is limited to eight students.

Special Topics

Several special topics courses are offered each year. These courses vary in terms of subject matter, requirements for the submission of writing samples, and enrollment limitations.

Cross-Listed Courses

Courses originated by other departments that include creative writing components are cross listed by Creative Writing (CRWR).

Required Writing Samples

Consent of instructor is typically required to enroll in Creative Writing courses, based on faculty review of student writing samples. For specific sample submission requirements, see course descriptions. Submission deadlines are:

Autumn Quarter, September 15
Winter Quarter, November 21
Spring Quarter, February 23

For more information on Creative Writing courses and opportunities, visit the Creative Writing website.

Faculty and Visiting Lecturers

For a current listing of Creative Writing faculty, visit the Creative Writing website.

Creative Writing Courses

CRWR 10200. Beginning Fiction Workshop. 100 Units.

This beginning-level fiction writing class uses a wide range of exercises and activities to help students discover their oral and written voices. Point of view, seeing-in-the-mind, gesture, audience, and other aspects of story are emphasized so that students can attempt to incorporate basic storytelling principles, forms, and techniques into their own writing. The major goals of the class are to guide students to discover and use the power of their individual voices, heighten their imaginative seeing and sense of imaginative options, and develop their overall sense for story structure and movement. Students select at least one of the assignments undertaken, rewrite it extensively, and attempt a complete story movement (short story or novel excerpt) of publishable quality.

Terms Offered: Autumn, Winter, Spring
Prerequisite(s): Open bid through classes.uchicago.edu. If course is full, sign up for wait list at creativewriting.uchicago.edu/courses/waiting-list.
Note(s): Attendance on the first day is mandatory.
Equivalent Course(s): CRWR 30200

CRWR 10300. Beginning Poetry Workshop. 100 Units.

Based on the premise that successful experimentation stems from a deep understanding of tradition, this course will help students gain a foundation in poetic constructions while encouraging risk-taking in expression and craft. It will expose students to ways that poets have both employed and resisted patterns in meter, line, and rhyme, and it will ask students to experiment with constraints as a way of playing with formal limitations in their own poems. Students will also explore innovations in diction, syntax, and voice, and apply what they learn from these investigations in workshop discussions. While delving into work by both canonical and emerging poets, students will draft and revise a significant portfolio of their own poems.

CRWR 10400. Beginning Creative Nonfiction. 100 Units.

In this workshop you are free to write about anything at all as long as you do so in an intimate and personal, rather than academic, voice. To that end you will try your hand at a true story—be it a memoir, travelogue, anecdote, character study, essay or argument—and submit it to your classmates, who will edit and critique it. Together we will refine our narratives and our prose, primarily by insisting on rigorous reflection and total honesty. Finding your voice takes time, but we have only ten weeks. So come to the first day of class with ideas and work already underway and ready to share. Be prepared to finish three total rewrites of your work in progress. We will also read and discuss published exemplars of the form. You will leave this class with a polished work sample to use for admission to more advanced courses.

CRWR 12000. Intermediate Fiction Workshop. 100 Units.

This intermediate fiction workshop will build on the fundamental elements of craft laid out in Beginning Fiction Writing and encourage you to begin cultivating your own aesthetic—not merely your own writing style, but more importantly your unique perspective on the world that necessarily informs and is informed by that style. We will read a selection of writers (like Raymond Carver, Paul Bowles, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Haruki Murakami, Lorrie Moore) who have very unique and identifiable voices, and then complement those readings with writing exercises that will help you contextualize, refine, and expand your emerging voice. As always, there will be an emphasis on the workshop process so that you are actively engaging with your own work and the work of your peers. For the course, you will complete one full-length story, which you will present for class critique, and then write a significant revision of that story, which you will either present for a second workshop or turn into me at the end of the quarter. Please come to class prepared to share your work, your ideas, your enthusiasm, and your honesty.

Terms Offered: Autumn, Winter, Spring
Prerequisite(s): To apply, submit writing through online form at creativewriting.uchicago.edu/courses/creative-writing-submission-form.
Note(s): Attendance on the first day is mandatory.
Equivalent Course(s): CRWR 32000

CRWR 12101. Reading as a Writer: Chicago Stories. 100 Units.

This course invites writers to reconsider the influence of Chicago’s public and private spaces on genre and artistic form. How does one tell a “Chicago story”? Is the “City on the Re-Make” best told in prose or poem? Is there a “Chicago epic”? Working through these questions, students analyze and explore the technical vocabularies of other writers’ responses in a variety of literary genres. Examples here include how political or social conflicts have shaped fiction writers’ definition of characters and point of view in Chicago writing. Similarly, how have the city’s historical geographies of South Side, the Great Migration, and the suburb influenced form in poetry and creative nonfiction? What theoretical approaches have been particularly influential in understanding “place” among Chicago writers? Using workshop format, students develop their own creative responses, building connections to their adopted critical approaches. To these ends, we examine work by writers including Nelson Algren, Gwendolyn Brooks, John Conroy, Aleksandar Hemon, and Sterling Plumpp, as well as the city’s rich legacies in drama, the visual arts, and music.

Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Open bid through classes.uchicago.edu. Sign up for wait list by contacting instructor if class is full.
Note(s): This course meets the general education requirement for dramatic, musical, and visual arts.

CRWR 12104. Introduction to Genres: Four Western Myths. 100 Units.

Consider the proposition that myths inform the fabric of our thought, from its structures to its particularities. If this is so, how do we understand the power these myths exert on our imaginations? Is this power always benign? Is there a malevolent shadow these myths can cast on our collective soul? Let’s examine four myths that arise out of the Western tradition. Two of them are old: the story of King Oedipus and the myth of the Holy Grail. The other two are newer: the story of the Wizard of Oz, the first complete American myth, and the story of Star Wars, as much a commentary on myth as a myth itself. Both of these newer myths have insinuated themselves into the popular imagination, in ways that the earlier myths are so ingrained they have the ability to be continually made novel. In this course, you will read texts that transmit these myths (Sophocles, Chrétien de Troyes, and L. Frank Baum), you will consider films that depict these myths (Edipe Re by Pasolini, The Da Vinci Code by Howard, The Wizard of Oz by Fleming, and Star Wars by Lucas), you will examine theories that interpret these myths (Freud, Weston, Lévi-Strauss, and Campbell, respectively), and, finally, and perhaps most importantly, you will generate your own versions of these myths in various creative forms: poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction, screenplays, and drama.

Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Open bid through classes.uchicago.edu. If course is full, sign up for wait list at creativewriting.uchicago.edu/courses/waiting-list.
Note(s): This course meets the general education requirement for dramatic, musical, and visual arts.

CRWR 13000. Intermediate Poetry Workshop. 100 Units.

Poets often turn to the constraints and conventions of lyric forms (sonnets, sestinas, pantoums, etc.) as a way to generate material and experiment within a poetic tradition. The history of poetry, however, is as rich in genres as it is in forms. How is genre different from form? How do the two intersect? How have different genres evolved over time? In this course we will study various traditional genres (the elegy, the epistle, the dramatic monologue, for example) alongside such "non-poetic" genres as the essay, the obituary, and the travelogue, in the hopes of expanding and refining our encounter with the art.

CRWR 13006. Investigations through Rhyme. 100 Units.

Rhyme, and its almost necessary companion, meter, have found their way into almost every form of expressive language, low and high: from sonnets to limericks, quatrains to playground insults, plays to songs, mnemonic devices for school children to didactic sermons, raps to jingles—even the occasional novel. Though it may be something of a mystery as to why, that rhyme can be pleasing to the reader (and listener) is established. What practical use, however, might it be to the writer? This course—welcoming writers of any stamp—will explore how composing in rhyme uncovers previously unsuspected pathways in a writer's imagination and is a powerful editing tool as well. Rhymed poetic, dramatic, and rhetorical writings and basic verse structures (the Onegin stanza, sonnet, quatrain, etc.) will be introduced and analyzed. The focus, however, will be on the "translation" of works of prose—some selected, but mostly pieces original with the student—into rhymed verse, with the aim of exploding/unfolding those works out in fresh directions. Possible texts/authors/artists: Shakespeare, Pope, William Blake, Chuck D, Emily Dickinson, Yip Harburg, Cole Porter, Magnetic Fields, Ogden Nash.

Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): PQ: Instructor consent required. To apply, submit writing sample online at creativewriting.uchicago.edu/courses/creative-writing-submission-form. Once given consent, attendance on the first day is mandatory.
Note(s): Attendance on the first day is mandatory.
Equivalent Course(s): CRWR 33006

CRWR 14000. Intermediate Creative Nonfiction. 100 Units.

In this course we will examine what is creative about so-called creative nonfiction. What makes a personal essay or literary journalism different from straight journalism or editorial opinion? By what alchemy do we transmute facts into art? Through daily and weekly reading, writing, and editing you will learn to combine the facts of the matter at hand with your own retrospection and reflection. Your grade will be based on the artistry you display in balancing the factual with the personal and in recognizing how they can both complement and contradict one another. This is a workshop, so come to the first day of class with work underway and ready to share. Be prepared to write every day of the week and to finish two complete rewrites of an essay of fifteen or so pages. We will also read and discuss published exemplars of the form.

CRWR 22100. Advanced Fiction Workshop. 100 Units.

This advanced fiction workshop is for students who have taken Beginning or Intermediate Fiction Writing and produced a body of work, large or small, that reflects their developing aesthetic and style. In our workshops, we will focus on the fundamentals of craft like language, voice, and plot and character development, but with an eye also on expanding our perspective on our subject matter and the form we use to write about it. To that end, we will read a selection of writers (like Jorge Luis Borges, Julio Cortazar, Donald Barthelme, Alice Munro, George Saunders, Tim O’Brien) who experiment with form, who unravel the rules of a well-made story and reconstitute it in order to tell their own particular narratives in a more meaningful way. Our goal in this class is to create a constructive, critical atmosphere that facilitates and demands the process of revision, and that expands the horizon of expression for each student while also refining their emerging voice. For the course, you will complete one full-length story, which you will present for class critique, and then write a significant revision of that story, which you will either present for a second workshop or turn into me at the end of the quarter. Please come to class prepared to share your work, your ideas, your enthusiasm, and your honesty.

CRWR 23100. Advanced Poetry Workshop. 100 Units.

In this course, we will examine various formal, theoretical, and sociological currents in contemporary American poetry as a means of provoking and informing our own creative work in the lyric field. While the class will be a “writing workshop” first and foremost, we will also study recent books of poetry from a variety of contemporary “schools” at work in the fertile, sectarian, and maddeningly complex landscape of today’s lyric writing. We will also attend poetry readings by some of these authors here at the University in order to explore the world of contemporary verse as fully as possible. It is important to keep in mind, however, that this is ultimately a course about your work as a poet. Throughout the semester, we will read one another’s writing within the broad context of contemporary American poetics, and yet we will respect the solitary and idiosyncratic nature of the lyric enterprise as well.

CRWR 24100. Advanced Creative Nonfiction Workshop. 100 Units.

The goal of this workshop is to attempt the kind of nonfiction published by magazines aimed at the smart, general reader: the New Yorker, Harper's, and the Atlantic Monthly, as well as smaller journals. You may write a personal essay, argument, memoir, character study or travelogue, as well as a more journalistic profile of a person, place, or culture. We also welcome reportorial, researched, and investigative pieces. No matter what rubric your nonfiction falls under, we will help you to distinguish between what Vivian Gornick has called The Situation—that is, the plot, or facts at hand—and The Story, the larger, more universal meaning that arises naturally from these facts. By developing the two and by tying them more artfully you will make your piece as appealing as it can be to editors and a discerning audience. Come to the first day of class with ideas and work underway and ready to share. Be prepared to write every day and to finish three full revisions of your work in progress. We will also read and discuss successful published work. You will leave this class with a polished sample of your best work.

CRWR 28200. Journalism: Arts Reviewing. 100 Units.

In this course we will study and practice the craft of arts reviewing for newspapers, magazines, and online publications. We will strive to write fair, effective reviews of several art forms, including but not limited to movies, books, theater, music, cuisine, and visual arts. We will examine and adhere to the legal and ethical standards of the profession of journalistic arts reviewing. As much as possible we will emulate the pace of the job, completing weekly reviews for a specific audience.

Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): To apply, submit writing through online form at creativewriting.uchicago.edu/courses/creative-writing-submission-form.
Note(s): Attendance on the first day is mandatory.
Equivalent Course(s): CRWR 48200

CRWR 29200. Thesis/Major Projects Seminar: Fiction. 100 Units.

This advanced fiction course is for BA and MA students writing a creative thesis or any advanced student working on a major fiction project. It is primarily a workshop, so please come to our first class with your project in progress (a story collection, a novel, a novella, etc.), ready for you to discuss and to submit some part of for critique. As in any writing workshop, we will stress the fundamentals of craft like language, voice, and plot and character development, with an eye also on how to shape your work for the longer form you have chosen. To supplement our workshops, we will read and discuss published fiction relevant and hopefully informative to your specific projects, while also exploring the potential avenues towards publication.

Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Required for students working on BA or MA thesis in fiction; for others to apply, submit writing through online form at creativewriting.uchicago.edu/courses/creative-writing-submission-form.
Note(s): Attendance on the first day is mandatory.
Equivalent Course(s): CRWR 49200

CRWR 29300. Thesis/Major Projects Seminar: Poetry. 100 Units.

This course is an advanced seminar intended primarily for seniors and MAPH students writing honors theses in creative writing as well as advanced students who are working on major projects. Because it is a thesis seminar, the course will focus on various ways of organizing larger poetic “projects.” We will consider the poetic sequence, the chapbook, and the poetry collection as ways of extending the practice of poetry beyond the individual lyric text. We will also problematize the notion of broad poetic “projects,” considering the consequences of imposing a predetermined conceptual framework on the elusive, spontaneous, and subversive act of lyric writing. Because this class is designed as a poetry workshop, your fellow students’ work will be the primary text over the course of the quarter.

Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Required for students working on BA or MA thesis in poetry; for others to apply, submit writing through online form at creativewriting.uchicago.edu/courses/creative-writing-submission-form.
Note(s): Attendance on the first day is mandatory.
Equivalent Course(s): CRWR 49300

CRWR 29400. Thesis/Major Projects Seminar: Creative Nonfiction. 100 Units.

This course is for BA and MA thesis students and those writing a long piece of nonfiction. It can be an extended essay, a memoir or travelogue, literary journalism, or an interrelated collection thereof. It is a workshop, so come to the first day of class with your work underway and ready to submit. You are required to edit your classmates' writing as diligently as you edit your own. I focus on editing because writing is, in essence, rewriting. Only by learning to edit other people's work will you gradually acquire the objectivity you need to skillfully edit your own. You will profit not only from the advice you receive, but from the advice you learn to give. I will teach you to teach each other and thus yourselves, preparing you for the real life of the writer outside the academy.

Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Required for students working on BA or MA thesis in creative nonfiction;for others to apply, submit writing through online form at creativewriting.uchicago.edu/courses/creative-writing-submission-form.
Note(s): Attendance on the first day is mandatory.
Equivalent Course(s): CRWR 49400

Contacts

Undergraduate Primary Contact

Committee Chair
John Wilkinson
Taft House 301

Email

Administrative Contact

Committee Coordinator
Anne Janush
Taft House 103
773.834.8524

Listhost

creative-writing-@lists.uchicago.edu

2014-2015 Catalog