syracuse university creative writing

The Creative Writing Minor in the English Department is designed for students who have an interest in developing their skills as writers and readers of creative nonfiction, fiction, and poetry but need to fulfill the requirements of other majors.  Students will take a series of six creative writing classes in order to learn to think as writers do, to understand the aesthetic and moral choices writers confront as they write, and become familiar with contemporary writing practices.  Through a mix of workshop, imitation classes and a topics course, students will have ample opportunity for frequent and extensive writing and rewriting under the guidance of the distinguished faculty of the nationally ranked MFA in Creative Writing.

Minor Requirements

The Creative Writing minor requires 18 credit hours of coursework (generally, six courses) distributed in the manner below.

3 credit hours must be from one of the following 100-level courses:

• ENG 105 - Introduction to Creative Writing
• ENG 121 - Introduction to Shakespeare
• ENG 122 - Introduction to the Novel
• ENG 151 - Interpretation of Poetry
• ENG 155 - Interpretation of Nonfiction
• ENG 174 - World Literature, Beginnings to 1000
• ENG 175 - World Literature, 1000 to Present

3 credit hours must be from one of the following introductory workshops:

• ENG 215 - Introductory Poetry Workshop
• ENG 216 - Introductory Literary Nonfiction Workshop
• ENG 217 - Introductory Fiction Workshop

Twelve credits (four courses) must be in courses numbered 300 or above (upper division).

3 credits must be from a “Reading and Writing” course:

• ENG 301 - Practicum in Reading and Writing Prose
• ENG 303 - Practicum in Reading and Writing Fiction
• ENG 304 - Practicum in Reading and Writing Poetry

All minors are required to take the following 3 credit course:

Selected Topics: Creative Writing: ENG 300

Students must take two advanced workshops for a total of six credits.  Each workshop must be in a different genre and have a different numerical designation: ENG 401 Poetry/ 402 Nonfiction/ 403 Fiction.  Prerequisite: Introductory Workshop ENG 215 Poetry/ 216 Nonfiction/ 217 Fiction.

Note: WRT 422 may be substituted for ENG 402.

Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate credits do NOT count toward the lower division credit requirements Creative Writing minor. In addition, students must attain a grade of C- or better in order to count a course toward their minor credits.

Signed Course Application Deadline is Friday, 9/27.

WRT 114: Introduction to Creative Nonfiction

WRT 114 Introduction to Creative Nonfiction (3 credits) Class Size: 15-20

Faculty: Ivy Kleinbart, Professional Writing Instructor, Syracuse University Administrative Contact: Sean Conrey, Associate Director, Project Advance   

Course Catalog Description

Nonacademic writing; creative nonfiction, memoir, the essay. Students write texts experimenting with style, genre, and subject; read contemporary nonfiction texts by varied authors; attend lectures/readings of visiting writers.

Course Overview

Writing 114 provides an introduction to creative nonfiction (CNF), a genre that encompasses many kinds of prose: memoir, biography, travel writing, science writing, and literary journalism, to name a few.  CNF writers almost always—in some way or other—focus on the tensions that emerge between individuals and the world around them.  Thus, the title of this course, “Writing Culture,” refers to writing about oneself and others in the context of a broader culture.  How do we negotiate cultural norms, expectations, rituals, and practices?  How does culture shape us as individuals?  To what degree do we absorb or resist our cultural influences?  And how do we, as individual actors and witnesses to our world, shape the culture in which we live?  These are just a few of the many questions we’ll ask ourselves as we move through this course.  

In this class, students will read and reflect upon a variety of creative nonfiction texts, as well as compose their own essays.  Students will have the freedom to explore a wide range of topics and experiment broadly with voice, style, form, and the use of research to enrich their writing.  

Rather than present reality as a series of raw facts, CNF writers borrow techniques of fiction writing— description, anecdote, scene construction, characterization, and dialogue—to tell dynamic and compelling true stories. The crucial distinction between creative nonfiction and fiction is that nonfiction purports to tell the truth with very little embellishment, while fiction claims to be “made up.” Creative nonfiction also draws from poetic approaches to language, including imagery, metaphor, tone, and shifts in point of view and perspective.  We’ll study these building blocks of creative nonfiction and use them in the composition process.

Since this is an intensive writing class, we’ll often engage in writing workshops in class, including brainstorming and freewriting activities, and structured peer critiques. Students will need to come to class prepared to write. All students will need a dedicated notebook for this purpose.

Pre- /Co-requisites

Course objectives.

• Students will read and critically engage with creative nonfiction texts representing a diverse range of topics, subgenres, and perspectives.
• Students will learn about, and put into practice, conventions and characteristics of creative nonfiction.                                                                                                                           
• Students will learn about, and put into practice, conventions and characteristics of creative nonfiction.
• Students will explore relationships between research and creative nonfiction, and learn conventions for incorporating research into their texts. 
• Students will develop an awareness of audience, and work to construct an ethos and voice that responds to audience needs and expectations. 
• Students will experiment with voices, styles and forms.
• Students will reflect on their writing processes.

Required Materials

Tell It Slant: Creating, Refining, & Publishing Creative Nonfiction , 3rd Edition; Miller & Paola, McGraw-Hill, 2019 Hard Text – ISBN: 1260454592 eText – ISBN: 9781260454604 (McGraw-Hill, Marjie Sullivan, 315-488-4167 or 800-338-3987)

In Short: A Collection of Brief Creative Nonfiction, Kitchen & Paumier Jones, Norton, 1996 Paperback – ISBN: 9780393314922 (W.W. Norton & Co., 800-233-4830, you will receive a 20% discount for 1-9 and 45% on 10 or more)

In Fact: The Best of Creative Nonfiction, Gutkind, Norton, 2004 Paperback – ISBN: 9780393326659 (W.W. Norton & Co., 800-233-4830, you will receive a 20% discount for 1-9 and 45% on 10 or more)

SUGGESTED SUPPLEMENTARY READERS (Anthologies) Wide latitude is given for choosing the fiction and non-fiction texts students will read.  If instructors intend to use a “reader,” the titles below have been approved.

Touchstone Anthology of Contemporary Creative Nonfiction , 1st Edition; Williford & Martone, 2007    ISBN: 9781416531746 (available via Amazon)

Instructor Recommendations

The WRT 114 course requires creative writing pedagogies that aren’t necessarily familiar to ELA teachers who are used to teaching literature and composition;, therefore instructors applying for this course should have extensive experience in one or more of the following:

• Disciplinary coursework in creative writing, preferably at the graduate level (MFA preferred but not required)
• Instructional experience in disciplinary creative writing, including workshop participation/pedagogy
• Extensive independent experience as a practicing creative writer 

When you draft your cover letter for Summer Institute, please discuss your prior experience in one or more of the above areas of practice or study.

In addition, writing samples should follow or consciously subvert conventions of creative nonfiction. 

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Acclaimed Novelist Empowers Students as Artists

Dana Spiotta loves the sense of discovery that comes with writing fiction. As an English professor and author of five novels, she imparts this passion to students in the creative writing program in Syracuse University’s College of Arts and Sciences , inviting them to grapple with the challenges inherent in the writing process. Her newest novel, Wayward , is a New York Times Critics’ Top Pick of the Year that delves into the complexity of individual experience while revealing the author’s appreciation for the history, architecture and natural beauty of the Syracuse area. Spiotta draws inspiration from teaching students and is committed to empowering the ever-widening community of artists being nurtured through the program.

Also of Interest

The college of arts and sciences.

The founding college of Syracuse University remains at the center of undergraduate learning. The College is divided into the natural sciences and mathematics, the humanities, and the social sciences, with the lattermost offered in partnership with the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.

Creative Writing Program

The Creative Writing major is designed for students who have an intense interest in cultivating the skills, knowledge and inventiveness needed to write creative nonfiction, fiction and poetry.

Creative writing program ranked fifth in country

The creative writing M.F.A. program in the Department of English in Syracuse University’s College of Arts and Sciences was recently named one of the top programs in the nation by Poets & Writers magazine. The program was tied for fifth place with Cornell University. SU’s program was ranked seventh last year.

“This ranking confirms something we’ve known for a long time—that our M.F.A. program, long a national leader, is among the very best out there,” says Michael Goode, associate professor and chair of SU’s Department of English. “Every top program’s faculty has garnered major prizes and recognition, but few can boast that their acclaimed faculty gives students the kind of personalized attention that our M.F.A. students receive. Year after year, the same faculty who are garnering NEA fellowships, Guggenheims, MacArthur “genius” grants, Isabella Gardner Awards and National Book Award nominations, are right there in our classrooms and offices working closely with the next generation of writers to hone their craft. We’re thrilled to see their demonstrated talent and dedication as writers and teachers affirmed by this important ranking.”

For the full-residency (like SU’s, meaning the students are full time and relocate to the area) rankings, 640 M.F.A. applicants were asked during the 2010–2011 application cycle where they applied for the forthcoming academic year and were surveyed about these choices. This information was combined with hard data from programs that release funding and admissions figures to the public.

The University of Iowa received the top ranking. It was followed by the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Brown University. SU’s three-year program, which was instituted in 1992, was ranked fifth for its fiction program and ninth for its poetry program.

“It’s good to see the program get the positive attention it deserves,” says Christopher Kennedy, director of SU’s creative writing program.

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Syracuse University

Syracuse , NY

http://english.syr.edu/cw/cw-program.html

Degrees Offered

Fiction, Poetry

Residency type

Program length.

48 semester hours (3 years)

Financial Aid

The program offers full funding, which includes a full tuition waiver and stipend or a teaching assistantship or fellowship. The current stipend for fellowships and scholarships is $18,564.

Teaching opportunities

First-year MFA students do not teach, but they all take a pedagogy course during the summer after their first year. In their second and third years, MFA students teach in The Writing Program (a separate academic unit, specializing in composition), the Living Writers course (a course featuring prominent guest writers from the Raymond Carver Reading Series), and/or the Creative Writing Program (as either teaching assistants for Introduction to Creative Writing or leaders of their own workshops).

Editorial opportunities

hough not an annual guarantee, there is sometimes an opportunity to intern with BOA Publishing. More information on BOA is available here: https://www.boaeditions.org/.

Cross-genre study

• Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah MFA (Fiction) 2016
• Julia Alvarez MA (Fiction) 1975
• Mikael Awake MFA (Fiction) 2011
• Chanelle Benz MFA (Fiction) 2012
• Joel Brouwer MA 1993
• Christopher Brunt MFA (Poetry) 2011
• Alexandra Chang MFA (Fiction) 2018
• Dan Chaon MA 1990
• Chen Chen MFA (Poetry) 2015
• Rebecca Curtis MFA (Fiction) 2001
• Adam Davies MFA
• Stephen Dunn MA (Poetry) 1970
• Ashley Farmer MFA 2010
• Steve Featherstone MFA 1996
• Jonathan Fink MFA
• Camille Goodison MFA (Fiction) 2001
• Mary Gordon MA 1973
• Mary Louise Hill MA (Fiction) 1987
• David Brendan Hopes MA (Poetry) 1976
• C. J. Hribal MA (Fiction) 1982
• Diana Joseph MFA 1996
• Christopher Kennedy MA 1988
• Lily King MA (Fiction) 1995
• Steven Koteff MFA (Fiction)
• Patrick Lawler MA 1981
• David Lazar MFA (Poetry) 1983
• Adam Levin MFA (Fiction) 2003
• Larry Levis MA (Poetry) 1970
• Bridget Lowe MFA (Poetry) 2009
• Paul Maliszewski MFA (Fiction) 1996
• Jane Mead MA (Poetry) 1986
• Erin Mullikan MFA (Poetry) 2014
• Jason Ockert MFA (Fiction) 2000
• E. C. Osondu MFA (Fiction) 2007
• Tom Perotta MA (Fiction) 1988
• Jay Rogoff , MA
• George Saunders MA (Fiction) 1988
• Cheryl Strayed MFA
• Michael Thomas MFA 1995
• Daniel Torday MFA (Fiction) 2007
• Lily Tuck MFA
• Deb Olin Unferth MFA (Fiction) 1998
• Debbie Urbanski MFA 2004
• Karen Volkman MA 1992
• David Wojciechowski MFA (Poetry) 2013
• Carolyne Wright MA (Poetry) 1975, (Poetry) 1979
• Karen Wunsch MA (Fiction) 1966
• Zeynep Özakat MFA (Fiction) 2020

Send questions, comments and corrections to [email protected] .

Disclaimer: No endorsement of these ratings should be implied by the writers and writing programs listed on this site, or by the editors and publishers of Best American Short Stories , Best American Essays , Best American Poetry , The O. Henry Prize Stories and The Pushcart Prize Anthology .

Syracuse University MA in Creative Writing

How much does a master’s in creative writing from syracuse cost, syracuse graduate tuition and fees.

Does Syracuse Offer an Online MA in Creative Writing?

Syracuse master’s student diversity for creative writing, male-to-female ratio.

Women made up around 41.7% of the creative writing students who took home a master’s degree in 2019-2020. This is less than the nationwide number of 66.6%.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

Racial-ethnic minority graduates* made up 25.0% of the creative writing master’s degrees at Syracuse in 2019-2020. This is about the same as the nationwide number of 24%.

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• Stanford is reinstating term limits for Jones Lecturers (former Stegner Fellows) to honor Wallace Stegner’s foundational principles and provide teaching opportunities for new fellows.
• The program will increase its annual courses by 10% starting in the 2025-26 academic year to meet growing student interest.
• New creative writing lectureships (renewable for up to three years) and an associate director position are being established to support additional courses and mentorship. Current Jones Lecturers can apply for these roles.
• The English Department is piloting 10 new lectureships to blend creative writing with literary studies, aligning with students’ desires to combine creative expression and critical thinking.

Amid unprecedented growth and evolving student interests, Stanford University’s Creative Writing Program in the School of Humanities and Sciences is implementing significant changes to restore its original vision and meet the increasing demand for creative writing courses. 

The program, renowned for cultivating some of the country’s best writers, is recommitting to its mission by restructuring key fellowships and expanding course offerings.

Central to these changes is a return to the foundational principles set by Wallace Stegner, an English faculty member and 1972 Pulitzer Prize winner, when he established the Creative Writing Program in 1946. 

Moving forward, Jones lecturers – all former Stegner Fellows – will be term-limited and rotate out regularly. This shift ensures that new Stegner Fellows can become Jones lecturers, maintaining a fresh flow of perspectives within the program. 

This change continues a reform process initiated in 2019, which limited newly hired Jones lecturers to four-year terms. While many of the current Jones lecturers are expected to continue teaching for the next four to five years, they will eventually cycle out. This will make room for new lecturers, who will be eligible for terms of up to five years each. Importantly, Stanford anticipates maintaining the same number of creative writing lecturers to keep the program’s teaching capacity robust. 

“The Jones Lectureship offers Stegner Fellows the opportunity to teach our undergrads,” said A. Van Jordan, a former faculty co-director of creative writing and professor of English and African and African American Studies. 

“When the Jones Lectureship operates as it was designed to, ideally, with the imprimatur of Stanford on their CVs and new book publications, they will go on – as many have over the years – and begin their careers as faculty at other institutions,” said Jordan, who is also a Humanities and Sciences Professor. 

These changes will not only help ensure the program honors Stegner’s original vision, but also address the evolving landscape of writing in the digital age. In an era where AI can generate content instantly, the importance of human creativity and inspiration is more significant than ever, said Debra Satz, the Vernon R. and Lysbeth Warren Anderson Dean of the School of Humanities and Sciences. 

"Drawing inspiration is a competence computers don’t have; we do," Satz said. "We want every Stanford student to have the opportunity to make their own choices, guided by some of the most gifted writers of our generation." 

Wallace Stegner, a Stanford English professor and Pulitzer Prize winner who established the Creative Writing Program, is the namesake of the Stegner Fellowship program. | Chuck Painter

Honoring a legacy of excellence 

Since its founding, Stanford’s Creative Writing Program has become a cornerstone of literary excellence, producing Stegner Fellows who have achieved national and international acclaim. "There have been times when I thought I was seeing the American literature of the future taking shape in my classroom," Stegner once wrote. 

Inspired by Stanford students who were World War II veterans with compelling stories to tell, Stegner envisioned a program to nurture emerging writers. He collaborated with Dr. E. H. Jones, a physician and the brother of the English Department chair, who provided initial funding and later established a permanent endowment. This support led to the creation of the prestigious Stegner Fellowship – a two-year residential fellowship for promising early-career writers in poetry and fiction – and the Jones Lectureships, which provides Stegner Fellows with teaching opportunities while they complete their manuscripts. 

Nearly 80 years later, the Stegner Fellowship remains highly competitive, attracting nearly 1,400 applications last year for just 10 slots. In addition, creative writing is the most popular minor with Stanford undergraduates (music is second). The COVID-19 pandemic intensified this trend, as students sought connection and expression during isolating times. 

“We were all living the same Groundhog Day over and over, and in those terrible pandemic years, reading and writing didn’t feel like a luxury or a frill but a vital form of connection,” said Patrick Phillips, professor of English and former director of the Creative Writing Program. 

Looking ahead 

To accommodate this surge in interest, the program will increase its course offerings by 10%, from approximately 100 to 110 courses annually, starting in the 2025-26 academic year.

To staff the additional courses and provide enhanced support, the Creative Writing Program is establishing new positions: 

Creative writing lecturers: Beginning in 2025-26, two new lectureships (renewable for a maximum duration of three years) will be available to outgoing Jones lecturers. These positions will allow them to continue teaching and mentoring. A reduced teaching load will allow them to focus on administrative responsibilities like professional development, curriculum assistance, and collaborating with colleagues on innovative course design and teaching strategies.

Associate director of creative writing: The associate director of creative writing, who will also be a senior lecturer, will also commence in 2025-26. They will teach courses, help with administrative responsibilities, and provide leadership support to faculty and lecturers. A national search will be conducted for this role, with current Jones lecturers eligible to apply. 

These new positions aim to maintain the quality and variety of course offerings, ensuring that popular classes like the Graphic Novel Project and Novel Writing Intensive continue to thrive. 

“It is common for popular classes to change hands,” said Nicholas Jenkins, faculty director of the Creative Writing Program. “In setting the curriculum, the Program always pays close attention to student views. Nothing that draws enthusiastic undergraduates is likely to go away. The influx of new Jones lecturers into the Program will also produce innovative course offerings that will become must-haves.” 

The future of creative writing and the English major 

While arts practice and theory are typically separated at U.S. universities, Stanford houses them together. “In H&S, the Creative Writing Program is housed within the Department of English,” explained Gabriella Safran, senior associate dean for the humanities and arts, the Eva Chernov Lokey Professor of Jewish Studies, and professor of Slavic languages and literatures. “Students benefit from the synergy of practice and theory, making and analysis, rather than needing to choose between one and the other.” 

Recognizing students’ evolving interest in merging creative expression with critical thinking, the Department of English is also piloting ten new lectureships, renewable for a maximum duration of three years. Starting in 2025-26, five lecturers will begin teaching, with the other five joining the following year. These positions are anticipated to be filled by current Jones lecturers. 

Gavin Jones, chair of the Department of English, emphasized the importance of bridging literary theory and history with the practice of creative writing itself. “Students increasingly want to write creatively as well as think critically about literary texts,” he said. “This is a good time for new pedagogical practices that reflect this change by merging creative expression with literary analysis.” 

The English Department lecturers will teach some creative writing courses alongside new gateway courses that are part literature seminar and part creative writing workshop, and they may occasionally co-teach with English faculty. In the process, they will help the department rethink English pedagogy for new generations of students. 

“When our writing workshops are good, they’re not just undergraduate classes, but extraordinary gatherings in which people can talk and write about what matters most in their lives,” Phillips said. “I feel lucky every time I walk into a room of undergraduate writers.”

Orange Alert

Creative writing faculty.