Creative Writing
Minor in Creative Writing
Goals for Student Learning Prerequisites Admission to the Program
Minors in creative writing will encounter a rigorous framework of courses. These courses are designed, first and foremost, to teach the students how to read like a writer, thoughtfully, artistically, curiously, with an open mind attuned to the nuances of any human situation. This skill is not only for students who plan to be professional writers, but most important, this is a skill we believe to be crucial for all students. The many courses offered by the Program in Creative Writing teach students how to structure a narrative and write it well; how to use lived experience in the compressed linguistic construct of a poem so that it provides a meaningful experience for a reader; how to think about, and undertake, the translation of a literary work into another literary work in another language; how to write and adapt literary narratives for a variety of screen media.
Goals for Student Learning
Goals for student learning are new and mandatory.
The Art of Reading
A sophisticated reader of literature is one who reads with a discerning but not judgmental mind. Teaching the art of reading to our students is one of the most effective ways to prepare them to navigate a murky, complex, and increasingly more contentious world.
The Art of Writing
Whether the students work in fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction or screenwriting, our goal is to teach students to write clearly and dynamically, to communicate complex ideas, and to distill experience into arts.
The Art of Exploration
We encourage our students to expand their horizons by learning new approaches and trying new genres, whether a poet trying out digital storytelling, or a prose writer creating a novel in verse. We encourage our students to bring their writings out to the world and to bring the world into their writing.
Public Service and Global Citizenship
A writer in today’s world is not a hermit writing from the top of a tower. Our minor program aims to promote the values inherent in the University’s unofficial motto, “In the Nation’s Service and the Service of Humanity,” to draw from the model of Toni Morrison, and to cultivate a younger generation of writers who will be engaging with the public thoughtfully and meaningfully.
Prerequisites
For the minor program, our goal is to guide students through a course of study that begins with introductory courses, and then combines courses at advanced levels with cross-listed and approved courses offered by other units.
The minor in creative writing includes:
- A total of five courses
- Three of those courses must be housed in Creative Writing (CWR). Cross-listed courses will also count.
- The final two courses can be CWR courses or, with the approval of the program director, up to two additional literature or comparative literature courses.
To be eligible to apply for the minor, students must have taken the three creative writing courses by the end of their junior year. Senior year is focused on development of students’ independent work.
View Creative Writing Courses
Example Pathway
As an example of a pathway through the minor, students typically enroll in two to three 200-level courses during their first and second years at Princeton. These include intro to fiction writing, intro to poetry, intro to translation and intro to screenwriting. Students who have taken two 200-level courses are allowed to register for 300- and 400-level courses, including advanced fiction writing, advanced poetry writing, advanced translation and advanced screenwriting.
Admission to the Program
In the spring semester of junior year, students apply to be admitted to the creative writing program for independent work during their senior year.
Apply to Write a Creative Writing Thesis
Program of Study
Students admitted to the minor program will have one year of one-on-one thesis work with an established poet or prose writer. This independent work includes weekly or biweekly conferences with the thesis advisers for two semesters. Under the direction of the thesis advisers, the students will produce a full-length collection of poetry, a collection of short stories or a finished novel manuscript. Each final thesis is read by another writer, who provides a thoughtful and detailed commentary, which gives a snapshot of the student’s career and offers future direction. This independent thesis work has long been a treasured tradition of the creative writing program, and we believe that the conversion to the minor program will more accurately reflect the amount of work both the students and the advisers have put in during their senior year.
Apart from independent work, the students will also participate in two public readings — a reading of their work-in-progress with their peers alongside a published writer, and a thesis reading, a celebration of their final theses. An unofficial monthly lunch meeting for the thesis cohort, directed by an appointed faculty member, will serve as a support group.
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