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Creative Writing

If you are interested in writing poetry, fiction, and/or creative non-fiction, the English major with a creative writing emphasis at USI provides focused coursework to develop your creative aesthetic and your writing skills. The major and minor culminate in a capstone course, English 491: The Writer at Work, where you will revise a final creative portfolio and prepare to market your skills to graduate schools or a variety of careers.

USI’s creative writing faculty includes award-winning published writers committed to teaching undergraduate writing. Opportunities to professionalize and contribute to the literary community at USI abound; creative writing students are encouraged to join the Student Writers Union, work as editors for FishHook (a student literary magazine), and intern for the nationally recognized literary journal, The Southern Indiana Review. Additionally, the Southern Indiana Reading Series, coordinated by creative writing faculty, brings to campus 2-3 highly acclaimed writers each semester. These writers often visit creative writing classes, so students get to interact with them in a classroom setting, an invaluable experience. As a creative writing student, you’ll not only learn a set of transferable job skills, you’ll find a community of peers and teachers who share your serious interest in, and dedication to, the art and craft of creative writing.

By choosing this program, you’ll graduate with a better understanding of how stories, poems, and essays are crafted, as well as a greater appreciation of literature in general. In honing your writing, reading, and analytical abilities, you’ll leave with a concrete set of skills applicable to any number of careers. You’ll graduate from USI with an understanding of the major socio-historical contexts informing the study of American/British literature, an understanding of the distinctions between major literary genres, and you’ll have developed as an emerging professional with skills and habits of mind that will help you achieve success in further study in the discipline and your profession. You will have become a multi-dimensional reader, thinker, and writer.

Creative Writing Programs

The English Department offers a major in English with a creative writing emphasis, as well as a minor and a certificate in creative writing.

The major in English with a creative writing emphasis culminates in a Bachelor of Arts degree, which requires 12 semester hours in the same foreign language or demonstration of proficiency at that level of study.  Or a Bachelor of Science degree, in lieu of the language proficiency, Bachelor of Science students will complete the following requirements as part of Core 39: two natural science courses; one social science course; and a world languages and culture course. Please see the Core 39 website for more detail.