johns hopkins creative writing faculty

Writing Seminars

The second-oldest creative writing program in the U.S.

The Writing Seminars program offers a liberal arts education with a concentration in writing. In addition to fiction and poetry, you’ll study literature, philosophy, and history in other departments and demonstrate competency in a foreign language. You’ll compose a portfolio of original writing that not only meets the standards for application to MFA programs, but also serves as the foundation for careers in communication, law, teaching, or other fields where success is a function of skills in close analysis conveyed through lucid and intelligent writing.

CLASSES YOU MIGHT TAKE

Writing the Unreal

In this class, we’ll look exclusively at writing which takes on what hasn’t been seen, and hasn’t been felt. Through reading works of science fiction, magical realism, gothic literature, and speculative fiction, you’ll investigate how the unreal can still speak to our experiences and perceptions of the real and craft your own fantastical worlds through regular writing assignments.

Art of the Personal Essay

This course explores the art and craft of the personal essay from Seneca to Soyinka, Montaigne to Adichie. Through personal narrative exploration, we’ll write about universal themes—family, loss, social justice—through various nonfiction essay forms, such as the braided essay, lyric essay, science essay, or humor essay.

Performing Poetry & Fiction: An Acting Workshop for Writers

This hands-on performance workshop, combining literary and theatrical practice, will look closely at what makes a performance or reading compelling, clear, and resonant. Through textual analysis, vocal technique, and group discussion, you’ll create a pliant and powerful reading style to best serve your work.

Faculty Spotlight

Prof. Danielle Evans

Associate Professor, Writing Seminars

Image: Krieger Arts & Sciences Magazine

Ask the Professor: Danielle Evans

Associate Professor Danielle Evans chats about her writing process and how she drafts her stories.

Prof. Alice McDermott

Academy Professor and Richard A. Macksey Professor of the Humanities

Image: Beowulf Sheehan

New Book: What About the Baby?

Academy Professor Alice McDermott discusses her latest collection of essays, What About the Baby.

PROF. ANDREW MOTION

Homewood Professor of the Arts, Writing Seminars

Poems as Disrupters

Poet Andrew Motion doesn’t care for poems that are “too tidy for their own good.” Rather, he wants them to “imitate the mystery and unpredictability of life.”

Join the Club

Hopkins students are eager to pursue their interests outside the classroom. With 450+ student-led organizations, here are just a few you could join:

• English Club 
• Hopkins Student Science Fiction and Fantasy Association
• JHU News-Letter
• Marque Magazine
• NOON Magazine
• Out of the Blue Jay Magazine
• Witness Theater
• Zeniada Magazine

Hopkins Insider

Defining “Writing Sems Majors” (And Other Mystical Creatures)

Quick links:.

• Majors, Minors & Programs
• Application Deadlines & Requirements
• College Planning Guide

The Sheridan Libraries

• Writing Seminars
• Sheridan Libraries
• Research Tools
• Books for Writers
• Browsing the Stacks
• Modes of Poetry and Fiction
• Science Writing
• Other Writing-Related Guides

Librarian for the Writing Seminars

Ask a Librarian

Email us: [email protected]

Text us: 410-692-8874

Explore our  F AQ's

Creative Writing at Hopkins

Photograph by Ian Hooley.

The Writing Seminars department office is in Gilman Hall 081 on the Homewood campus. The department offers an undergraduate major and an MFA in Fiction and Poetry. Founded in 1947, it is one of the oldest creative writing programs in the United States.

The Advanced Academic Programs , part of the Johns Hopkins' Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, offer two part-time MA degrees in Science Writing and Writing . The programs are based in Baltimore and Washington, DC.

Readings and Lectures

Isabel Wilkerson, President's Reading Series inaugural reading, October 2013.

The President's Reading Series focuses on "literature of social import."

The Tudor & Stuart Reading Series features current MFA students in fiction and poetry.

The Turnbull Lecture Series brings a prominent literary scholar or poet to campus each fall.

The Department of English hosts readings focused on contemporary poets, as well as two lecture series that bring literary scholars to campus.

Baltimore Literary Communities

The Hopkins Review

A Few Local Journals

Baltimore Review

Cobalt Review

Beltway Poetry Quarterly

Passager Books

Little Patuxent Review

Some Baltimore-Area Readings

Writers Live! at Enoch Pratt Library

The Ivy Bookshop

Atomic Books

Bookish Events

CityLit Project

Free Fall Baltimore

Baltimore Book Festival

Suggest a Book

Is there a writer who is essential to your interests, whose books we don't have?

Have you read a good book the library should have?

Contact me at the address above!

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• Last Updated: May 20, 2024 3:02 PM
• URL: https://guides.library.jhu.edu/writing-seminars

Writing, Master of Arts

Zanvyl krieger school of arts and sciences, ma in writing.

The MA in Writing program offers students the option of a fiction or nonfiction concentration to study the practice of writing in a series of workshops and reading courses. Students on the fiction track work on short stories, novellas, or novels. Students on the nonfiction track pursue long-form, literary journalism or personal essays, and memoir. 

Students in the MA in Writing program learn primarily through the practice of writing and the study of reading with a focus on craft. Depending on student goals, the program offers a broad foundation in fine arts/creative writing, in journalism, or in both fields. Some students cultivate skills to prepare for a career; others are seasoned writers who want to change focus; still others favor artistic exploration over professional ambition. Within the realm of literary writing, students have the flexibility to develop individual styles and pursue specialized subjects. The program’s goal is to create a nurturing yet demanding environment where writers work toward publication at the highest artistic and professional levels.

Admissions Criteria for All Advanced Academic Programs

Program-specific requirements.

In addition to the materials and credentials required for all programs, the Master of Arts in Writing requires:

• Two Letters of Recommendation
• Statement of Purpose:  Please provide a statement, up to one page in length, describing your personal background and/or a part of your life experience that has shaped you or your goals. Feel free to elaborate on personal challenges and opportunities that have influenced your decision to pursue a graduate degree at Johns Hopkins.
• Writing Samples: The samples should be up to 15 typewritten, double-spaced pages, or about 3,500 to 4,500 words, in the concentration of interest. Samples do NOT have to be a single, lengthy piece of writing.

The program's admissions committees offer the following additional suggestions for writing samples for each concentration:

Fiction: Short stories or novel chapters in prose fiction, demonstrating literary content or themes. Any style, vision, or approach is permitted—traditional, experimental, hybrid, etc.

Nonfiction: Up to five separate works of prose nonfiction about any subject. Any nonfiction form or combination of forms, including feature article, commentary/blogs, memoir, travel, essay, profile, biography, book chapters and creative nonfiction, is permitted. Academic assignments, term papers, government reports, or scholarly criticism are not acceptable nonfiction writing samples.

Dual-Concentration Applicants

Applicants may seek formal degree candidacy in both fiction and nonfiction by submitting full writing samples in each proposed area. Such applicants should explain their multiple interest and reading in a single statement of purpose. The program makes individual admission decisions for each concentration in a dual-concentration application. Dual-concentration students must complete four more courses than the 10 required for a single-concentration degree.

Program Requirements

Students must complete ten courses:

• Two required core courses
• One required concentration core course
• Three customizable core courses from the declared concentration
• Electives to ensure the 10-course requirement is met

Writing Center

Collaboration and Community

The University Writing Program (UWP) Writing Center serves all graduate and undergraduate students and alumni in the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences and the Whiting School of Engineering. We offer individual conferences with trained peer tutors on any type of writing. The center is located in Gilman Hall 230.

The UWP Writing Center has also partnered with the  Bloomberg School of Public Health  and the  School of Education to offer peer tutoring for graduate students through their schools.

Schedule An Appointment

Our one-on-one sessions with writers begin on the hour, and last 45 minutes. Please login and select the schedule for your school.

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Johns Hopkins University: The Writing Seminars

Maryland, united states.

Founded in 1947, the Writing Seminars is the second-oldest creative writing program in the United States and has always been ranked highly in the field. The department is celebrated for the quality of its faculty and its small classes. No course is lecture-sized; all are seminars.

For the BA, students work primarily in fiction and poetry but may take courses in nonfiction prose, editorial writing, screenwriting, playwriting, and science writing. A broad and diverse liberal arts curriculum, including philosophy, history, and foreign language, is a hallmark of our major. More than 30 sections of our “Introduction to Fiction and Poetry” course are offered each semester, with approximately 20 additional reading seminars and writing workshops for majors and non-majors. Students may also take for-credit courses within the school year that involve them with Baltimore and its other writers. An array of internships offers wider opportunities.

For the two-year MFA, students concentrate in either fiction or poetry. Tuition is fully funded, and all students receive a generous teaching fellowship, which in 2023-24 will be set at $35,500 per year. With the guidance of a faculty advisor, all students produce both a first year portfolio and, in the second year, a thesis of fiction or poetry. Many students publish books shortly after graduation, and they often win major prizes.

All students, undergraduate and graduate, benefit from a visiting writers’ reading series and other lectures and events which bring writers of international importance to campus.

Contact Information

3400 N. Charles Street Gilman 81, The Writing Seminars Baltimore Maryland, United States 21218 Phone: (410) 516-6286 Email: [email protected] Fax: 410-516-6828 http://writingseminars.jhu.edu/graduate/index.html

Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing +

Undergraduate program director.

The Writing Seminars offers a liberal arts education with a concentration in writing. Writing Seminars majors take courses in the writing of fiction and poetry; seminars on the history and technique of poetry and prose; and literature courses with a focus on close reading of substantive works from the perspective of an author of creative work.

Students also study literature, philosophy, and history in other departments of the university. Finally, Writing Seminars majors are expected to demonstrate competency in a foreign language.

Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing +

Graduate program director.

he Writing Seminars offers a Master of Fine Arts in fiction and poetry. This two-year program is designed for students committed to the study and practice of literary writing at the highest level of accomplishment. MFA students work with nationally and internationally known faculty members to complete intensive literary seminars, small workshops, a first-year portfolio, and a second-year thesis. Students learn not only from permanent faculty but also from visiting speakers. The President’s Reading Series (Literature of Social Import), The Turnbull Lectures in Poetry, and other events allow students to meet world-renowned visiting writers such as Marilynne Robinson, Salman Rushdie, and Tracy K. Smith.

All students receive full tuition, health insurance, and a generous teaching fellowship ($35,500 per year, starting in 2023-24). Some students work as assistant editors on The Hopkins Review. The program is extremely selective. MFA candidates are chosen on the basis of a manuscript evaluation, college transcripts, a “statement of purpose,” and letters of recommendation that testify to an ability and willingness to undertake serious study in the literary arts. Many of our MFA students find their first book published within three years of graduation, and they often win prizes such as Stegner Fellowships or grants from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Beginning with the MFA class of 2023, all graduating MFA students will have the option to apply for one-year junior lectureships, teaching three creative writing courses per semester. These positions come with full benefits.

Eric Puchner

Eric Puchner is the author of the novel Model Home, a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award, and two collections of stories, Music Through the Floor and Last Day on Earth, which won the 2018 Towson Award for Literature. His work has appeared in many magazines and anthologies, including GQ, Granta, Tin House, The Best American Nonrequired Reading, Puschart Prize: Best of the Small Presses, and The Best American Short Stories 2012 and 2017. He has received a California Book Award, a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, and an Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Among other places, he has taught at Stanford University, Claremont McKenna College, and San Francisco State University.

https://writingseminars.jhu.edu/directory/eric-puchner/

James Arthur

James Arthur is the author of two poetry collections, The Suicide’s Son (Véhicule Press, 2019) and Charms Against Lightning (Copper Canyon Press, 2012). His poems have also appeared in The New Yorker, Poetry, The New York Review of Books, The London Review of Books, The Southern Review, and The American Poetry Review. He has received the Amy Lowell Travelling Poetry Scholarship, a Hodder Fellowship, a Stegner Fellowship, a Discovery/The Nation Prize, a Fulbright Scholarship to the Seamus Heaney Centre in Northern Ireland, and a Visiting Fellow at Exeter College, Oxford.

https://writingseminars.jhu.edu/directory/james-arthur/

Anna Celenza

Anna Celenza is the author of eight award-winning children’s books, including Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, Beethoven’s Heroic Symphony and Duke Ellington’s Nutcracker Suite. She has also published six scholarly books, most recently Jazz Italian Style (winner of the Bridge Book Prize) and the The Cambridge Companion to Gershwin. Her current book project, Music that Changed America, is under contract with W.W. Norton. Trained as a musicologist, Celenza holds a joint appointment at Peabody Institute.

https://writingseminars.jhu.edu/directory/anna-celenza/

Susan Choi is the author of five novels, including Trust Exercise, which received the 2019 National Book Award for fiction. She has also been recipient of the Asian-American Literary Award for fiction, the PEN/W.G. Sebald Award, a Lamba Literary award, the 2021 Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award, and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation. She serves as a trustee of PEN America and on the Writing Committee of the Fine Arts Work Center at Provincetown.

https://writingseminars.jhu.edu/directory/susan-choi/

Danielle Evans

Danielle Evans is the author of the story collection Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self, winner of the PEN American Robert W. Bingham prize, the Hurston-Wright Award, the Paterson Prize, and a National Book Foundation 5 under 35 selection. Her stories have appeared in magazines and anthologies including The Best American Short Stories, The Paris Review, A Public Space, American Short Fiction, The Sewanee Review, Callaloo, and New Stories From the South. ?

https://writingseminars.jhu.edu/directory/danielle-evans/

Dora Malech

Dora Malech is the author of four books of poetry, Flourish ?(Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2020), Stet (Princeton University Press, 2018), Say So (Cleveland State University Poetry Center, 2011) and Shore Ordered Ocean (The Waywiser Press, 2009). Her poems have appeared in publications that include The New Yorker, Poetry, The Best American Poetry, American Letters & Commentary, and Poetry London. Her visual art has appeared in publications that include Poetry and Poetry Northwest. Her honors include an Amy Clampitt Residency Award from the Amy Clampitt Fund, a Ruth Lilly Poetry Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation, a Writing Residency Fellowship from the Civitella Ranieri Foundation, participation in the Visiting Artists and Scholars Program at the American Academy in Rome, a Crenson-Hertz Award for Community Based Learning ?and Participatory Research from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Social Concern, and a Johns Hopkins Catalyst Award for early career faculty. She serves as an associate editor of The Waywiser Press and as an advisory board member of Writers in Baltimore Schools.

https://writingseminars.jhu.edu/directory/dora-malech/

Andrew Motion

Andrew Motion is the author of 13 books of poetry, most recently Essex Clay (2018). He has also written biographies (of John Keats and Philip Larkin among others), and two novels (Silver and The New World) as well as a book of essays, Ways of Life. Motion was the UK Poet Laureate from 1999-2009, and is the co-founder and co- director of the Poetry Archive and Poetry by Heart; he was knighted for his services to poetry in 2009. Before joining The Writing Seminars he was Professor of Creative Writing at Royal Holloway College, University of London.

https://writingseminars.jhu.edu/directory/andrew-motion/

Katharine Noel

Prior to coming to Johns Hopkins, Katharine Noel was the Writer in Residence at Claremont McKenna College, from 2009 to 2013. From 2002 to 2009, she was the Jones Lecturer at Stanford University, where she held Wallace Stegner and Truman Capote fellowships in 2000–2002. Prior to teaching at Stanford, she worked for two years at Gould Farm, a program in the Berkshire Mountains for adults with mental illnesses, and for four years at a shelter for homeless women and children.

https://writingseminars.jhu.edu/directory/katharine-noel/

Shannon Robinson

Shannon Robinson's stories have appeared in The Iowa Review, The Gettysburg Review, Water-Stone, Nimrod, failbetter, and Joyland. She has received Nimrod’s Katherine Anne Porter Prize for Fiction and a Hedgebrook Fellowship, as well as grants from the Elizabeth George Foundation and the Canada Council for the Arts. Robinson has been a writer in residence at the Interlochen Arts Academy; she has also taught fiction and nonfiction at Washington University in St. Louis, and through Stanford University’s School of Continuing Studies.

https://writingseminars.jhu.edu/directory/lecturer-and-director-of-ifp/

Bruce Snider

Bruce Snider is the author of three poetry collections, Fruit, winner of the Four Lakes Prize from the University of Wisconsin Press; Paradise, Indiana; The Year We Studied Women, and the co-editor of The Poem’s Country: Place and Poetic Practice. His poems and essays have appeared in the American Poetry Review, Best American Poetry, Iowa Review, New England Review, Poetry, and Threepenny Review, among others. His awards include a James A. Michener Fellowship, a Wallace Stegner Fellowship, the Jenny McKean Writer-in-Washington award, as well residencies from Yaddo, the Millay Colony, the Amy Clampitt House, the James Merrill House, VCCA, and the Bogliasco Foundation.

https://writingseminars.jhu.edu/directory/bruce-snider/

Lysley Tenorio

Lysley Tenorio is the author of Monstress, named a book of the year by The San Francisco Chronicle, and The Son of Good Fortune, winner of the New American Voices Award from the Institute for Immigration Research. His stories have appeared in The Atlantic, Ploughshares, Manoa, and Zoetrope: All-Story, and have been adapted the for the stage in San Francisco and New York City. A former Stegner Fellow at Stanford University, he has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Yaddo, Macdowell, the Bogliasco Foundation, the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, and the Guggenheim Foundation, and has been awarded a Pushcart Prize, the Edmund White Award, a Whiting Award, and the Rome Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Born in the Philippines and raised in California, he is an Associate Professor in The Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University.

https://writingseminars.jhu.edu/directory/lysley-tenorio/

Greg Williamson

Greg Williamson's most recent book is The Hole Story of Kirby the Sneak and Arlo the True (Waywiser Press). His other books include A Most Marvelous Piece of Luck (Waywiser Press), Errors in the Script (Overlook Press) and The Silent Partner (Story Line Press), which won the Nicholas Roerich Poetry Prize in 1995. He was a winner of a Whiting Writer’s Award in 1998. His work has appeared in The Yale Review, The Paris Review, The New Republic, The Norton Anthology of Poetry, and others. Along with Daniel Groves (BA '00, MA '01), he is co-editor of the anthology, Jiggery-Pokery Semicentennial (Waywiser Press, 2018).

https://writingseminars.jhu.edu/directory/greg-williamson/

David Yezzi

David Yezzi’s latest books of poetry are Black Sea (2018) and More Things in Heaven: New and Selected Poems (2022). His verse play Schnauzer, produced by the Baltimore Poets Theater, was published by Exot Books (2019). A former director of the Unterberg Poetry Center of the 92nd Street Y in New York, he is currently writing a biography of the poet Anthony Hecht.

https://writingseminars.jhu.edu/directory/david-yezzi/

Publications & Presses +

The Hopkins Review

Visiting Writers Program +

The Writing Seminars hosts a wide array of writers across literary disciplines, including poets, novelists, translators, and biographers. Our fortnightly reading series connects acclaimed writers from around the world with Baltimore communities at Johns Hopkins and beyond.

Readers and lecturers in recent years has included Colson Whitehead, Claudia Rankine, Marilynne Robinson, Salman Rushdie, Zadie Smith, Lorrie Moore, Gish Jen, Jennifer Egan, Ilya Kaminsky, Jesmyn Ward, Tim O’ Brien, Paul Beatty, Isabel Wilkerson, Yiyun Li, Teju Cole, Tracy K. Smith, Esi Edugyan, Terrance Hayes, James Shapiro, James Fenton, Alan Hollinghurst, Dinaw Mengestu, Alice Oswald, Christopher Ricks, Jorie Graham, Colm Toibin, and others.

Reading Series +

President's Reading Series: Literature of Social Import ( https://writingseminars.jhu.edu/events/reading-series/ )

Chaffee Visiting Writer Series ( https://writingseminars.jhu.edu/events/reading-series/ )

Turnbull Poetry Lectures ( https://writingseminars.jhu.edu/events/reading-series/ )

Albert Dowling Visiting Writer ( https://writingseminars.jhu.edu/events/reading-series/ )

Margolies Visiting Writer ( https://writingseminars.jhu.edu/events/reading-series/ )

MFA Alumni Reading ( https://writingseminars.jhu.edu/events/reading-series/ )

William J. Sullivan, Jr. and Richard H. Elder Visiting Poet ( https://writingseminars.jhu.edu/events/reading-series/ )

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Creative Writing at Johns Hopkins University

Creative writing degrees available at johns hopkins, johns hopkins creative writing rankings.

Popularity of Creative Writing at Johns Hopkins

Creative writing student diversity at johns hopkins, johns hopkins creative writing bachelor’s program.

In the 2020-2021 academic year, 38 students earned a bachelor's degree in creative writing from Johns Hopkins. About 79% of these graduates were women and the other 21% were men.

The following table and chart show the ethnic background for students who recently graduated from Johns Hopkins University with a bachelor's in creative writing.

Johns Hopkins Creative Writing Master’s Program

The creative writing program at Johns Hopkins awarded 45 master's degrees in 2020-2021. About 44% of these degrees went to men with the other 56% going to women.

The following table and chart show the ethnic background for students who recently graduated from Johns Hopkins University with a master's in creative writing.

Most Popular Majors Related to Creative Writing

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Writing Graduate Programs

Looking to tell your story? Excel at science writing? Take your teaching skills to the next level? Hone your craft, find your voice, and bring your ideas to life under the guidance of professional writers and editors.

MA in Science Writing Master of Arts Online

Do you enjoy explaining science? Do you delight in the wonders of nature or the process of scientific discovery, and yearn to tell those stories? Join the next generation of writers who are showing how science, medicine, and technology affect our lives.

MA in Writing Master of Arts Online

You bring the passion for storytelling, we’ll help you develop your craft, tap into your creativity, and increase your network. Our goal is that you will leave our program ready to write, publish, and edit at the highest levels possible.

Audience Menu

On-Campus Summer Programs

Being a reader, becoming a writer.

• Language Arts

If you love to read, write, and talk about books, this is the course for you. In this course, we'll form a literary community and develop our vocabulary, close-reading, and critical thinking skills through workshops, where we read short stories or novels, respond to them in our journals, and discuss as a class. Then we’ll learn and practice what professional writers do: decide on topics, gather material, talk about creative choices with peers, and draft, workshop, and revise works of creative fiction. Daily lessons and one-on-one conferences with the instructor will help students learn the art of sentence construction, use of imagery, and more. Cooperative learning and constructive criticism are key elements of the course, and detailed responses from your instructor and peers will play an essential role in your growth as a reader and writer.

Typical Class Size: 12

Learning Objectives:

• Read, analyze, and discuss works of fiction and nonfiction including essays, novels, short stories, and more
• Practice writing reflectively, analytically, and creatively through personal narratives, poetry, original short stories, or in your own writer’s journal
• Utilize the tools introduced and skills learned in the course to compose 3-4 works of creative fiction
• Engage in the writing workshop process, editing and revising work based on feedback from your instructor, program assistant, and peers

This course is

Summer Dates & Locations

After May 31, 2024 , registration is available upon request pending eligibility and seat availability. To request placement, email [email protected] after submitting a program application.

Session One

Session Two

Testing and prerequisites.

Students must achieve qualifying scores on an advanced assessment to be eligible for CTY programs. If you don’t have qualifying scores, you have several different testing options. We’ll help you find the right option for your situation.

Cost and Financial Aid

Application fee.

• Nonrefundable Application Fee - $50 (Waived for financial aid applicants)
• Nonrefundable International Fee - $250 (outside US only)

Financial Aid

We have concluded our financial aid application review process for 2024 On-Campus Programs. We encourage those who may need assistance in the future to apply for aid as early as possible.

Course Materials

Students should bring basic school supplies like pens, notebooks, and folders to their summer program. You will be notified of any additional items needed before the course begins. All other materials will be provided by CTY.  

Sample Reading

These titles have been featured in past sessions of the course, and may be included this summer. CTY provides students with all texts; no purchase is required.

• America Street: A Multicultural Anthology of Stories , by Anne Mazer
• Esperanza Rising , by Pam Muñoz Ryan
• Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, by Mildred D. Taylor

About Language Arts at CTY

Explore storytelling.

Want to have fun reading popular stories and writing your own tales of adventure? Pen your hero's journey and explore a diverse range of books in Behind the Mask: Superheroes Revealed , or have fun shaping your prose and experimenting with different formats and styles in Fiction and Poetry .

Find your voice

Take your writing to the next level! In Writing and Imagination , you can build your vocabulary and gain the tools to write your own creative fiction. You'll learn to craft compelling narratives about your own experiences in Crafting the Essay , and have fun learning new literary devices and figurative language in Writing Your World .

Meet our instructors and staff

There is nothing better than seeing that 'eureka' moment and the extension of that moment as students exuberantly share their thoughts.

Dan Sievers

Math Instructor

I love being able to connect with such talented students; each and every one has changed my life for the better.

Meg Gantzer

Program Assistant

When I was a student at CTY, I was excited to be in a place where all of the instructors and program assistants loved learning as much as I did. It wasn't until I came back as a PA that I realized CTY instructors feel just as excited to work with such dedicated and curious students.

Program Assistant and CTY Alum

The Writing Seminars

Undergraduate.

• Requirements
• Undergraduate Courses
• The Teaching Fellows Project and Other Community-Based Learning Classes
• Danielle Alyse Basford Writing Prize
• Student Involvement
• Summer Program in Rome

The Writing Seminars offers a liberal arts education with a concentration in writing. Writing Seminars majors take courses in the writing of fiction and poetry; seminars on the history and technique of poetry and prose; and literature courses with a focus on close reading of substantive works from the perspective of an author of creative work.

Students also study literature, philosophy, and history in other departments of the university. Finally, Writing Seminars majors are expected to demonstrate competency in a foreign language.

Learning Goals

A Writing Seminars major should be able to:

• Analyze works of literature with an eye to form, voice, development, closure, conflict, structure, and ornament, as well as historical context
• Demonstrate competence in the formatting and presentation (verse line, stanza, rhythm, meter; narrative exposition, dialogue, argument) of his/her own original writing
• Possess critical capabilities in the evaluation of creative work-in-progress, and experience in the protocol of the workshop method
• Acquire the substance of a liberal-arts education through the distribution requirements in the major, including history, philosophy, and foreign language study
• Compose a portfolio of original writing (poems, stories, or essays) that would meet the standards for application to MFA programs, but also serve as the foundation for careers in communication, law, teaching, or other fields where success is a function of skills in close analysis conveyed through lucid and intelligent writing.

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Credit: Chris Vaccaro for Johns Hopkins University

Johns Hopkins engineering welcomes new students with 'Meet the Flock'

New orientation program blends mentorship, design challenges, and life design to introduce first-year and incoming students to hopkins.

By Lisa Ercolano

The Whiting School of Engineering last week welcomed 499 incoming first-year and transfer students with its inaugural "Meet the Flock" orientation program.

The event connected new students with faculty mentors, academic advisers, and peers, forming a supportive network for their academic journey. More than 75 faculty members took part.

Highlights included a "Hat's Off!" engineering design challenge, where students created hats from plastic cups, and "Your Life Project" sessions focused on setting educational and social goals.

"An invitation to join our community of engineers, 'Meet the Flock' provides our students with connections with our faculty who will serve as their mentors as they navigate their college journey and beyond," said Michael Falk , vice dean for undergraduate academic affairs and professor of materials science and engineering.

Posted in Student Life

Tagged orientation , whiting school

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‘It was like we were garbage’: Stanford to ‘cycle out’ creative writing lecturers

One creative writing lecturer requested anonymity due to fears of professional retaliation. Pseudonyms and gender neutral pronouns were used to protect sources’ identities and improve readability.

Many of Stanford’s creative writing lecturers will be phased out over the next two years, as the University restores the Jones Lectureship’s term limit as part of the restructuring of the Creative Writing Program.

The restructuring, executed under the recommendation of a working group formed after the lecturers secured pay raises last September, was announced in a Zoom meeting on Wednesday, Aug. 21 by Humanities and Sciences dean Debra Satz, Humanities and Arts senior associate dean Gabriella Safran and Creative Writing Program co-director Nicholas Jenkins. The working group was composed of creative writing faculty members but no Jones Lecturers. 

The Jones Lectureship came with a four-year cap that only began to be enforced on fellows hired after 2019, but over the course of the years, some lecturers have stayed longer than the terms of the program. With the restoration of the original term-limited appointments, however, all current Jones Lecturers — including those hired prior to 2019 — will be let go within the next two years.

Some lecturers have already been affected; for instance, Rose Whitmore was dismissed in 2023 after winning that year’s Phi Beta Kappa Teaching Prize.

For Casey, a lecturer who requested the use of a pseudonym due to fear of professional retaliation, the Wednesday meeting felt cold and awkward.

“It was like we were garbage,” Casey said. “They didn’t even acknowledge how difficult this news would be, and when they did give us time to ask questions, the way they fielded the questions, particularly [Jenkins], it was just very cold and very dismissive.”

Safran disagreed with Casey’s characterization in a statement on behalf of the Creative Writing Program and the School of Humanities and Sciences. The Daily also reached out to the University for comment but has not obtained a response.

During the Wednesday meeting, the deans told the lecturers that they would be “cycled out.” They clarified that it meant the lecturers’ jobs would be “terminated,” Jones Lecturer Tom Kealey told The Daily. Some lecturers will be teaching for an additional year, while others will be teaching for two more years. Kealey called the situation a “future fire.” 

“We were brought in to discuss the ‘restructuring’ of the overall program, and then we were all fired,” Kealey said. One lecturer even told him the meeting felt like the Red Wedding from Game of Thrones. 

Five minutes after the meeting, an email from Christina Ablaza, the administrative director of the Creative Writing Program, informed the lecturers that they could sign up for one-on-one meetings to discuss their individual situations. 

Lecturers to be affected by the decision were frustrated that they had no say in the phase-out. But Satz and Safran do not have voting power in the working group either — only the faculty members do. The faculty members made the decision “to fire all 23 of their junior colleagues” in what Kealey called a “secret meeting.” 

“I got the impression that the deans themselves were confused as to why the professors had voted to fire them,” Kealey said.

Kealey believed that 10 out of all the creative writing faculty members on the working group only taught 13 undergraduate classes last year, while the same number of Jones Lecturers would have taught 50 classes. Lecturers also advise about 90% of students in the Creative Writing Program and 50% of students in Department of English, he estimated.

Many students expressed concerns that they will lose a strong community of creative writing peers and classes. They are also confused as to what the program will look like in the future. 

Students are receiving information from each other, lecturers, a recently created Instagram page called “ripstanfordcw” (which stands for rest in peace, Stanford creative writing) and even from Fizz, an anonymous social media platform. The confusion comes a week before course enrollment is set to begin on Sept. 5.

Students have tried to voice their displeasure with the current decision. A petition , started by Kyle Wang ’22 M.A. ‘23, has received over 600 signatures from students and alumni. He began the petition after talking to some of his friends about the positive impact many of the Jones Lecturers have had on their lives. Other community membes tried to write emails to University administrators.

In an online announcement published on Wednesday, Aug. 28, the Creative Writing Program states that Stanford will increase “the number of creative writing classes to better meet high student demand as well as ensuring competitive compensation for both the lecturers and fellows.” According to the statement, more details will be released in the fall. 

“I know they said that they were having meetings and they’re reworking [the program], but it’s not very transparent,” said English major Skya Theobald ’25.

Mia Grace Davis ’27, a prospective English major, wanted to take “English 190E: Novel Writing Intensive,” a class known for its popularity and limited enrollment, in the fall. Now she is not even sure if it will be offered in the future. 

For Davis, the main appeal of Stanford had always been its Creative Writing Program, but “it’s kind of falling apart as we’re watching it,” she said.

To students who have taken numerous creative writing classes like Theobald, it doesn’t make sense why lecturers are being cycled out when the program wants to meet the growing demand for creative writing. 

Prospective English major Annabelle Wang ’27 said what’s happening has even made her reconsider her course of study.

“It definitely makes the English major less desirable,” she said of the phase-out. “I think for students and the student experience, it’s going to be a really big loss. A lot of community is going to be lost.”

Theobald also expressed concerns the variety of creative writing classes will be reduced. A lot of them such as “English 190G: The Graphic Novel” and “English 190E: Novel Writing Intensive” are rarely offered at other universities, but incoming freshmen now may not have the same opportunities to explore those classes. For instance, specialized classes like “The Graphic Novel” may not be offered again if the lecturers who teach them are let go, Kealey said.

Students felt that the Jones Lecturers have shaped the way they view their own writing. Lydia Wang ’27 had often struggled to understand the value of her writing, but her lecturers were the ones to help her realize there is a place in the world for what she creates. 

“That’s the type of impact that really changes people, and when people change, they can change the world as well,” she said. “So I really hope that Stanford learns to value the humanities, and especially creative writing, because we’re creating change, and we’re creating something for ourselves.” 

Some lecturers remain hopeful that the restructuring, which is ongoing, will be reconsidered.

“I may be naive, but I still believe in Stanford. I think Stanford is much better than this,” Kealey said. “I think as light is shed on this, enough people are going to say, ‘This doesn’t make our university better. It makes our university much worse.’”

Judy N. Liu '26 is the Academics desk editor for News and staff writer at The Daily.

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