Department of English

As a creative writing major, you may take classes in related disciplines such as theater, comparative literature, African and African-American studies and philosophy. You may also double major, as many of our students have, in disciplines as varied as math, biology, computer science, psychology and more.

You may apply to write a senior creative writing honors thesis in fiction or poetry. The honors thesis is a year-long project that results in a full-length collection of stories, novella, or poetry collection. A semester-long honors project, which results in a shorter body of work, is also available.

The Leonard Bernstein Festival of the Creative Arts sponsors student-run initiatives, such as writer/artist collaborations, installations and spoken-word performances.

There are also many student publications on campus to which you can submit your work and/or for which you may join the editorial staff, including:

• Laurel Moon ― poetry, fiction, translation
• Blacklist (formerly Where The Children Play) ― poetry, stories, art, photography
• The Justice ― weekly newspaper
• The Hoot ― independent weekly newspaper

Our faculty include some of the best writers of fiction and poetry today:

• Elizabeth Bradfield, Co-director, is the author of four poetry collections, most recently "Toward Antarctica," and also a collaboration with a visual artist, "Theorem." She also recently co-edited "Cascade Field Guide: Art Ecology Poetry." Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Poetry and Orion, and she has received a Stegner Fellowship, the Audre Lorde Prize and other honors. The founder and editor in chief of Broadsided Press, she also works as a naturalist on expedition ships around the globe.
• Stephen McCauley, Co-director, has published nine novels (including "The Object of My Affection" and "My Ex-Life") as well as articles, personal essays and reviews in The New York Times, The New York Times Book Review, The Boston Globe, Vogue, Harpers, Vanity Fair and other publications. Three of his novels have been made into feature films, and he was named a Chevalier in the Order of Arts and Letters by the French Ministry of Culture.
• Marc Weinberg, Screenwriter, began his career in film as a story analyst working in development for studios and production companies. A graduate of UCLA's acclaimed MFA program in screenwriting, Weinberg transitioned to professional writer with the sale of a supernatural thriller to USA Network. He has sold scripts and story ideas that have been set up at studios and production companies, including Paramount Pictures and Citadel Entertainment. Weinberg’s credits also include several episodes of scripted entertainment for the Discovery Channel.

Every year, two distinguished authors join our faculty as the Fannie Hurst Fiction Writer and the Jacob Ziskind Poet. Past writers include J.M. Coetzee, Lorrie Moore, Li Young Lee, Denis Johnson, Russell Banks, Gish Jen, Grace Paley, Anne Waldman, Li Young Lee, Robert Creeley, Junot Diaz, Elizabeth McCracken, Chen Chen, Grace Talusan, Porsha Olayiwola, and Christopher Castellani. Krysten Hill is the current Jacob Ziskind Visiting Poet-in-Residence and Marjan Kamali is the visiting Fannie Hurst Writer in Residence.

Our majors have held internships at varied places, such as the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, Conde Nast Publications, the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, the Rees Literary Agency, the Denise Shannon Literary Agency, Macmillan Publishers, Simon and Schuster Publishers, Fox Searchlight Films, the Atlantic Monthly magazine, and many others.

Many of our majors spend a summer or a semester studying in one of 70 countries, often in programs focused on literature and writing.

The department awards nearly $1,000 annually for outstanding student work, including:

• The Dafna Zamarripa-Gesundheit Award, awarded for the best fiction published in the literary journal Laurel Moon.
• The Andrew Grossbardt Award for the best poem.
• Several more awards are given for creative honors theses.

Many of our majors go on to pursue a Master of Fine Arts degree in poetry, fiction, screenwriting, or creative nonfiction.

Another popular post-BA option is the six-week Columbia Publishing Course, which prepares students for careers in the publishing industry. Many enter fields related to writing, such as publishing, academia, advertising, and copywriting for a variety of businesses, including digital agencies and startups.

Many of our graduates and workshop attendees are published writers or work in writing. They have received fellowships at such prestigious universities as Harvard, Cornell, Syracuse, Michigan, Arizona, Oregon, the Michner Center, and Washington. Their awards have included a Ruth Lily Poetry Fellowship finalist, Best American Poetry publications, the Loraine Williams Poetry Prize, the Glastock Poetry Competition and others.

Some of our graduates have gone on to teach at Tufts, Rhode Island School of Design, Columbia, Emerson, The New School and Bentley College.

Creative writing majors and those who have studied in our workshops include:

• Award-winning author Ha Jin
• Poets Linda Pastan, Alicia Ostriker and Mary Leader
• Playwright and screenwriter Theresa Rebeck
• Poet, fiction writer and memoirist Shirley Geok-Lin Lim
• New York Times best-selling memoirist and journalist Daniel Smith
• Emmy-winning writer and comedian Josh Gondleman
• Ethan Mermelstein, script coordinator on “Nurse Jackie” and “Girls”
• Kendra Fortmeyer, author of YA novel Hole in the Middle
• Lindsay Goldwert, author of nonfiction book Bow Down
• Elisa Albert, author of three novels, including The Book of Dahlia and After Birth
• Christopher Boucher, author of three novels, including Golden Delicious