Creative Writing at Lawrence

The English Department provides a number of opportunities for students to explore their interests in creative writing. Rather than offer a creative writing major or minor, we view creative writing as an active component of the English major. Aspiring poets may, for example, take courses in nineteenth-century American literature and twentieth-century experimental poetics, both with the same professor. The department offers introductory and advanced courses in poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. Courses are typically taught as “workshops” in which students spend the term reading and discussing one another’s work. These discussions often continue outside of class, either between students in the dining halls or dormitories, or in a faculty member’s office. A number of students have chosen to complete creative projects—a collection of poetry or stories, a novel or a memoir—as honors theses, and have gone on to pursue advanced M.A. or M.F.A. degrees in creative writing at top programs across the country.

In recent years, students have had the opportunity to interact with a number of nationally and internationally renowned poets and fiction writers who have visited Lawrence to read from their work. Students talk with the writers during small group luncheons, informal question-and-answer sessions, and visits to classes. Workshops are often structured around these visiting writers: students read and discuss the writers' work prior to the visit, and the writers frequently participate in the workshop. On occasion, a visiting writer will accompany a group of students to Björklunden, Lawrence’s conference and retreat center in Door County, Wisconsin, for a weekend writing seminar. The annual Fox Cities Book Festival also brings to Lawrence, Appleton and the surrounding communities a number of prominent authors and poets. For more on our recent and upcoming visits, please check out the events page.

The department regularly schedules student poetry readings and awards several annual creative-writing prizes, while Lawrence students organize writers’ group meetings and produce Tropos, the University’s undergraduate literary journal.