Creative Writing

Good writers are good readers. Welcome to the Creative Writing Program at Seattle University! English majors have the opportunity to concentrate either in Literature (English/Lit) or creative writing (English/CW). Both choices lead to the B.A. in English. We do not offer a B.F.A.  in creative writing because we believe that undergraduate students are best served in their creative ambitions by becoming superlative readers of the writing ancestors who will inspire and instruct them in the development of their own voices. Because our English program focuses strongly on critical thinking and analysis, English/CW majors will be able to deconstruct the great texts of the past and the present to learn how the greats work their magic.

Our core belief: you cannot be a fine writer if you are not a perceptive and analytical reader. Even experimental writers need to read well to know what they are rejecting. 

This is why the difference between the Lit and CW tracks is only four courses (20 credits). Whereas Lit students take additional directed electives in areas of literary history, theory, and national literatures, CW students take four applied writing courses in at least three genres: Poetry, Fiction, Creative Non-Fiction or writing for stage and screen. Students in other majors may also minor in English/CW.  

The Creative Writing Program at Seattle University is distinguished by the presence of famous visiting writers who reside in the Pacific Northwest. Some of our Distinguished Visiting Writers have included Kathleen Alcalá (literary fiction); Sam Green (current Poet Laureate of Washington State); Peter Bagge (comics and graphic novels); Skye Moody (detective fiction); Steven Barnes (science fiction); and Stewart Stern (screenplays). In addition, the English Department faculty includes professors who write and teach creative writing on a regular basis.

Creative Writing students have the opportunity to earn Departmental Honors, to study abroad in the Ireland and Americans in Paris programs, to present work at the undergraduate research conferences both on campus (SUURA: Seattle University Undergraduate Research Association conference) and nationally at NCUR, the National Conference of Undergraduate Research.

In addition, Creative Writing students have the opportunity to contribute to and edit FRAGMENTS: A JOURNAL OF LITERARY AND VISUAL ARTS, the university’s annual literary magazine; to organize writing groups through the Literary Society; and to meet important visiting writers through the Writer’s Reading Series—six to eight events throughout the year that bring important writers in all genres to campus. The Passport to the Arts program will encourage Creative Writing students to go off campus to the stimulating arts events available in the city of Seattle, a vibrant center of artistic accomplishment, and the Front and Center Opera program will expose writers to an important and enriching collaborative genre.

We believe that the Creative Wiring program at Seattle University maintains an admirable balance between academic achievement and creative development that will lead, at graduation, to broad job opportunities (since most employers welcome those who can speak and write well), and thorough preparation for MFA or PhD programs in both literature and creative writing.

Come join us! Contact Dr. Sharon Cumberland, Director, Creative Writing Program, Department of English, slc@seattleu.edu.