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Creative Writing

Creative Writing: Minor, Concentration

Hone your writing skills, deepen your knowledge of contemporary literature, reflect on the world, and engage with your imagination.

The Creative Writing Program offers students the opportunity to pursue fiction, nonfiction and poetry. Some creative writing courses are taught primarily as workshops, with an emphasis on drafting and discussing student manuscripts, while others take up special topics such as science writing and memoir and the psyche. All of them expose students to contemporary literature, teach them to read like writers, and allow them to explore countless approaches to telling stories, crafting images, and developing an ear for language.

Program Highlights

The program invites students to develop their own writing practices as well as join a community of working writers. Students in creative writing:

  • study with professors who are themselves published writers working in all three genres
  • select from a range of creative writing and literature courses that allow them to create a minor or concentration that is tailored to their interests
  • interact with some of the nation's most critically acclaimed writers through the Creative Writing Program's reading series
  • present their own work through writing contests, student reading series, and Holy Cross' literary magazine, The Purple  

Creative Writing News

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Photo Gallery: Academic Conference a Showcase of Student Research, Creativity
Over the course of four jam-packed days, the College of the Holy Cross saw yet another successful Academic Conference come and go. From Seelos Theatre and the Hogan Campus Center, to the Cantor Art Gallery and the Stein Atrium, more …
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Working Writers Series Kicks Off Spring Semester with Nonfiction Writer Jerald Walker
The Working Writers Series events, which are sponsored by the English department’s Creative Writing Program, will present readings from the following writers throughout the semester. All events will take place in the Rehm Library in Smith Hall (unless otherwise noted) …
The sculpture at the center of Cardiff.
English Professor to Premiere Off-Broadway Production

How do people respond to an encounter with the unfamiliar? This is the idea that Leila Philip, professor of English, explores on stage with “Cardiff,” which premieres on January 25 at The Duplex in New York City...