Loyola University Chicago

The Creative Writing Concentration (CWC) is offered within the regular English major, and is intended for students interested in and committed both to their own creative work (fiction and/or poetry) and to the study of literature from a writer's point of view.

Students are required to complete the usual sequence of required courses for the major.

• Students completing the CWC within the general framework of the English Major substitute the following creative writing courses for the five electives:

  317: Poetry Writing
  318: Fiction Writing
  357: Literature from a Writer's Perspective
  397: Advanced Writing Workshop: Poetry
  398: Advanced Writing Workshop: Fiction

  Note: students may take 397 and 398, or 397 twice, or 398 twice to fulfill the Advanced Writing Workshop course requirements.

  Since the Advanced Writing Workshops substitute for the Advanced Seminar, CWC students have an additional elective, which they may use to take any other English course they wish.

To be admitted to the Creative Writing Concentration, a student must submit a portfolio of work: five or six poems or two stories, depending on the student's particular area of interest. Also included should be a two-page, double-spaced statement discussing the student's interest and experience in creative writing as well as the applicability of the concentration to his or her future. All materials must be typed and must include the student's telephone number and address. The portfolio should be submitted to Mr. David Michael Kaplan after the student has taken 317 and 318. The department will then review the portfolio to decide if the concentration is suitable for the student's abilities, promise and needs.

Of special interest to creative writing students are the readings and class visits by established fiction writers and poets sponsored each year by the English department.