Creative Writing: Introductory and Advanced Workshops
Level: Open to students entering grades 11 or 12 or freshman year of college in fall 2010.
Session: I, June 28-July 16, 2010; II, July 20-August 6, 2010
Days & Time: Monday-Friday, 10:00-11:00 AM, 11:15 AM-12:45 PM, and 3:00-4:30 PM, with elective 1:30-2:30 PM
Instructor(s): Creative Writing staff (see below)
Related Course: Students interested in this course might also be interested in Creative Writing: Master Classes, offered in Session II, and Theatrical Collaboration: The Actor, the Director, and the Playwright, offered in both sessions.
"I grew in confidence and ability in my writing and had a great time throughout the class."
–Lily Mallinckrodt-Reese, 2009
"I liked the work-shopping, the involvement, and sharing intelligent feedback and thoughts."
–Sebastian Swain, 2009
"The instructors were some of the most interesting people I’ve met."
–Will Hayward, 2009
Course Description
Creative Writing is offered by the Summer Program for High School Students in conjunction with the creative writing program in Columbia’s School of the Arts, one of the most distinguished creative writing programs in the country. Overseen by Professors Binnie Kirshenbaum (Chair of Creative Writing), Sam Lipsyte (Director of Undergraduate Studies), and Alan Ziegler, the creative writing courses are designed to challenge and engage students interested in literary creation, providing them with a substantial foundation for further exploration of their creative work.
On the basis of demonstrated ability and preparation, students enroll in either introductory or advanced workshops, which allow them to practice their literary craft with an attentive group of their peers, under the guidance of an experienced instructor. Students also choose an elective (see Electives). Introductory and advanced workshops expose students to many aspects of the writing process, including generating ideas, writing and revising drafts, and editing. To support this work, students read excerpts from outstanding works of literature in order to investigate what can be accomplished on the page.
Students write extensively and participate in candid, helpful critiques of their own work and that of their peers. Instructors also examine work individually with students during conferences. Students are expected to come to the workshops with an openness to various approaches toward literature and writing.
Creative Writing: An Introductory Workshop
A course designed for students who have not had extensive experience in creative writing. Through frequent writing exercises, participants develop such writing resources as voice, imagery, characterization, dialogue, and narration. Experimentation is encouraged.
Applicants must submit 3-5 pages of any kind of writing demonstrating a command of grammar and punctuation.
The Creative Writer at Work: An Advanced Workshop
This workshop is geared toward students who have considerable experience in creative writing or who demonstrate unusual talent. Assignments are paced so that manuscripts may be extensively developed. Each student writes free verse poetry, prose poetry, a scene for a play or movie, and a short story.
Applicants must submit 2 samples, 3-7 pages total (longer submissions are acceptable), consisting of poems, short stories, and/or scripts.
Electives
Students choose to participate in one of the following electives:
Comedy Writing: Students spend class time reading and writing comedy. Student work is compiled into a comedy magazine at the end of the program.
Comics/Graphic Novel: Students spend class time reading and writing comic books and selections from graphic novels. Student work is compiled into a magazine at the end of the program.
Genre Fiction/Horror/Crime/Sci-Fi/Fantasy: Students spend class time reading and writing different types of genre fiction.
Journalism: Students produce a news magazine, including but not limited to campus and neighborhood news, book/music/art/restaurant reviews, interviews/profiles, and op-eds.
Publishing House: Students discuss the craft of editing and participate in a hands-on publishing project.
Translation: Students work together and with the instructors to translate literary works from different languages. Student work is compiled into a translation journal at the end of the program.
Independent Project: Students complete an additional writing project and take part in extra conferences.
Specific course information, such as hours and instructors, are subject to change at the discretion of the University.
Instructors
Below are some of the instructors who will be teaching in the Creative Writing Program.
Faculty
Dan Bevacqua
Dan Bevacqua has lived in New Jersey, Vermont, California, Massachusetts, and New York. He is a graduate of Emerson College with a B.F.A. in writing, literature and publishing.
Faculty
Thom Blaylock
Thom Blaylock received his M.F.A. from Columbia University's School of the Arts in 2007. His stories, essays, and reviews have appeared in The Believer, The Irish Times, Libertas, U-Blue, and Project Flamingo. A former editor of Columbia: a Journal of Literature and Art and a contributing editor at Guernica: A Magazine of Art and Politics, Thom currently teaches writing to graduate students in Columbia's Mailman School of Public Health, where he also edits the Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law. He lives in New York.
Faculty
Brie Bouslaugh
Brie Bouslaugh is an M.F.A. candidate in fiction at Columbia University and holds a B.F.A. in writing, literature and publishing from Emerson College. She has also studied deaf culture in America, and is conversational in American Sign Language. Bouslaugh is currently working on a collection of short stories and lives in Brooklyn.
Faculty
Rachel Carter
Rachel Carter is in the process of finishing her M.F.A. from School of the Arts Writing Program at Columbia, with a concentration in nonfiction writing. She earned her B.A. degree from the University of Vermont. While there, she studied English and women's studies. She is currently an instructor in the University Writing Program at Columbia, where she teaches Freshman Writing.
Faculty
Meehan Crist
Meehan Crist is reviews editor at The Believer and teaches Undergraduate Writing at Columbia University, where she is also a fourth-year M.F.A. candidate in nonfiction writing. Previously, she was nonfiction editor of Columbia: A Journal of Literature and Art and editorial assistant at Bitch Magazine: A Feminist Response to Pop Culture. Her reviews, essays, and articles have appeared in publications such as Poets & Writers Magazine, Small Spiral Notebook, Bitch, and The Believer. Everything After, her nonfiction book investigating the intersection of neuroscience, philosophy, and memoir is forthcoming from Houghton Mifflin.
Faculty
Ann DeWitt
Ann DeWitt is pursuing her M.F.A. in fiction writing at Columbia 's School of the Arts. Her short story, "Influence?" has appeared as part of Esquire Magazine's Napkin Fiction Project. She is currently the fiction editor of Columbia : A Journal of Literature and Art. Ann previously served as an associate literary agent at The Literary Group International.
Faculty
Matthew Di Paoli
Born and raised in Queens, Matthew Di Paoli is a graduate of Boston College, where he received the Dever Fellowship for creative writing. He has recently completed his M.F.A. in fiction at Columbia University and his novel The Other Side of Morning. He has been published in the West Coast Journal.
Faculty
Emily Feder
Emily Feder teaches in the Undergraduate Writing Program at Columbia University. She is also an M.F.A. candidate in nonfiction writing at Columbia’s School of the Arts. She writes primarily about immigration issues and has worked for human rights and refugee resettlement organizations in Serbia, Russia, and Croatia, including the International Rescue Committee and USAID. She received a School of the Arts Hertog Research Fellowship in 2008.
Faculty
David Gerrard
David Gerrard received his M.F.A. in fiction writing in 2007 from Columbia's School of the Arts. He is the 2003 recipient of the Brownstein prize for fiction.
Faculty
Thomas Hummel
Thomas Hummel's work has appeared or is forthcoming in 1913: A Journal of Forms, The Canary, Colorado Review, Fence, Modern Review, VOLT, and elsewhere. He works for the Estate of Jackson Mac Low and the Nature Theater of Oklahoma. He lives in Manhattan.
Faculty
Kristina Jipson
Kristina Jipson is an M.F.A. candidate in the School of the Arts Poetry Program at Columbia, expecting to graduate in May 2008. She is also an instructor in Columbia 's University Writing Program, where she currently teaches General Studies students and works as a peer consultant.
Faculty
Marina Kaganova
Marina Kaganova received a B.A. with honors in creative writing with a concentration in poetry & fiction, classics, and English at The University of Arizona, where she was a recipient of the Hattie Lockett, Desmond Powell and Margaret Sterling awards for poetry, an English Department scholarship and a four-year tuition waiver. She has published two translations for the Tretyakov Gallery magazine. Presently, she is a second-year M.F.A. candidate with a concentration in poetry at Columbia, graduating in October 2009. She holds a position as a teaching assistant/tutor at the SEEK department of John Jay College.
Faculty
Ryan Kearney
Ryan Kearney is a former staff writer, editor, and critic for several newspapers in the Boston area, as well as the alt-weekly New Haven Advocate and the music website, Pitchfork.com. He is currently at work on a travel memoir set in Latin America.
Faculty
Julie Limbaugh
Julie Limbaugh is in the process of finishing her M.F.A. from Columbia, with a concentration in nonfiction writing. She earned her B.A. and master’s in education and English from Truman State University. While there, she studied English and Spanish. Julie has lived all over the world from Hawaii to Australia to Spain to New York, but Missouri is still where she calls home.
Faculty
Joshua Marcus
Joshua Marcus is an M.F.A candidate in creative writing at Columbia University. His essays have appeared in publications such as The Times Literary Supplement and San Francisco Bay Guardian. He will serve as an instructor for the University Writing Program starting next fall. He has taught creative writing to grade school students in Harlem and has tutored writing for 15 years.
Faculty
Carey McHugh
Carey McHugh received her M.F.A. from Columbia University's School of the Arts. Her poems have appeared in Smartish Pace, Boston Review, Denver Quarterly, and elsewhere. Her chapbook, Original Instructions for the Perfect Preservation of Birds &c., was selected by Rae Armantrout for the Poetry Society of America's 2007 New York Chapbook Fellowship. She currently lives in Manhattan and teaches writing in the Bronx.
Faculty
Jen Miller
Jen Miller is a fiction student in Columbia 's School of the Arts. She has a master's degree in journalism from Columbia and has published in The New York Times, The Christian Science Monitor, and Smithsonian.com. She is also the author of Inheriting the Holy Land: An American's Search for Hope in the Middle East (Ballantine Books, 2005), a narrative non-fiction book about Israeli and Palestinian teenagers. She is currently teaching creative writing in the Columbia Artists/Teachers program and writing her first novel.
Faculty
Kristen O'Toole
Kristen O'Toole is an M.F.A. candidate in the fiction concentration of Columbia University's Creative Writing Program. She received a B.A. in English from Bates College in 2002. She has taught creative writing workshops for middle and high school students and directed Columbia Artists/Teachers, an organization that offers arts and creative writing programs to educational sites around New York. She has contributed to Boston, Portland and Phoenix newspapers, Publishers Weekly, Esquire's Books Blog, and flavorwire.com. Her fiction has appeared in Gigantic, Flatmancrooked, Fogged Clarity, and Anderbo.com, where she is an associate editor.
Faculty
Matthew Parker
Matthew Parker is a recent graduate of Barrett's Honors College at Arizona State University, where he earned a bachelor's degree in English literature. Before returning to school he was employed in such diverse trades as carpentry, drywall, auto mechanics, and set design. He is now working on a memoir and a graphic novel while earning his M.F.A.
Faculty
Bridget Potter
Bridget Potter is an instructor in Columbia 's University Writing Program and a candidate for an M.F.A. in the nonfiction writing program in the School of the Arts here. Her work has been published twice in Quarto. She comes to academia after a career as a television producer and executive. Most notably, she headed original programming at HBO in its formative period. She later produced the first season of HBO's acclaimed series Oz and also developed, with Tom Hanks, their Emmy Award winning mini-series From Here to the Moon. At NBC she headed Entertainment Programming on the east coast where she supervised Saturday Night Live and The Conan O'Brian Show, among other programs.
Faculty
Debra Resnicoff
Debra Resnicoff has been leading creative writing workshops at the Summer Program for High School Students for a decade. Inspired by her Columbia students, Debra founded creativeapplicationcoach.com, an academic and admissions counseling service. She received a B.A. in literature and writing and an M.F.A. in film from Columbia University. Debra is a published and produced author. Like most former screenwriters she still dreams in three-act structure. She is currently working on a book of short stories.
Faculty
Christina Rumpf
Christina Rumpf received her B.A. in English from Columbia University in 2004 and is currently completing her M.F.A. in nonfiction writing at Columbia 's School of the Arts. She has received the Louis Sudler Award for the Arts and the Arthur Ford Prize for Poetry. She is also an alum of Columbia 's Summer Program for High School Students.
Faculty
Ana Saldamando
Ana Saldamando holds a B.A. from Barnard College and is pursuing her M.F.A. in fiction writing at Columbia University 's School of the Arts. She is currently working on a novel and lives in Brooklyn.
Faculty
Gordon Sauer
Gordon Sauer is a M.F.A. candidate in Columbia University's School of the Arts. Originally from Texas, he received his B.A. with honors in English literature from Texas A&M University, where he won first place for undergraduate fiction in the Charles Gordone Award competition. He earned his M.A. in English and American literature from Clemson University. Sauer is an instructor in Columbia's Undergraduate Writing Program, is on the nonfiction board for Columbia: A Journal of Literature and Art and writes for Columbia College Today.
Faculty
Kathleen Savino
Kathleen Savino is a third-year fiction student in Columbia 's School of the Arts. Some of her publications include: the Columbia Poetry Review, Venus Magazine, and Threshold: Passages from Prague. She teaches university writing for the Undergraduate Writing Program, as well as a class in personal essay writing through Columbia Artists and Teachers. She is currently working on a hybrid novel titled How to Sleep Jackknife and a collection of poems titled Lampblack.
Faculty
Sarah V. Schweig
Sarah V. Schweig is nearing the completion of her M.F.A. in poetry at Columbia University. She has taught creative writing classes at Harlem Academy and at Columbia University and has also held two internships at The New Yorker. Her work has been published in Western Humanities Review and VerseDaily.
Faculty
Lauren Spohrer
Lauren Spohrer teaches Undergraduate Writing at Columbia University, where she is also a third-year M.F.A. candidate in fiction writing. Before coming to Columbia, she was a producer at National Public Radio, and a contributor to Wonkette. Her work has been published by Esquire, McSweeney's Internet Tendency, Metro International, GIGANTIC, Coconut Poetry, Thieves Jargon, Glitterpony and Boog City. She's the associate editor of the literary annual, NOON.
Faculty
Ruchika Tomar
Ruchika Tomar completed her B.A. in English literature from the University of California, Irvine. She is currently a candidate in fiction at Columbia University.
Faculty
Carrie Vasios
Carrie Vasios holds a B.A. in history from Yale University. She is a second-year M.F.A candidate in fiction at Columbia University's School of the Arts. Carrie teaches undergraduates in University Writing at Columbia. She is currently working on a novel.
Faculty
Karolina Waclawiak
Karolina Waclawiak received her B.F.A. in screenwriting from the University of Southern California and is currently in the M.F.A. fiction program at Columbia University. She is the assistant editor for The Believer and a Pen America Mentor for Prison Writers. She is currently writing a novel about Los Angeles.
Faculty
Christopher John Williams
Christopher John Williams was born and bred in Trinidad and Tobago. He graduated from Yale University in 2009, where he attempted to establish a literary writing and criticism group and also worked closely with writers such as John Crowley and Leslie Woodard. In the summer of 2009, he was awarded a scholarship to the Advanced Fiction Workshop of the New York Summer Writers Institute, where he studied under esteemed fiction writer Rick Moody. He is presently at work on two books - one a novel-in-stories about burgeoning child sexuality on a fictional Caribbean island and its relationship to the vestiges of colonialism, the other an alternative 'historical' novel about the pre-mankind war waged in heaven that resulted in the fall of Lucifer.
Faculty
James Yeh
James Yeh is a second-year M.F.A. student in fiction at Columbia University 's School of the Arts. He is also managing editor of Columbia: A Journal . He received a B.A. in English from Clemson University . His work has appeared in The Morning News, Yankee Pot Roast, and other places. He is currently working on a short story collection.
Specific course information, such as hours and instructors, are subject to change at the discretion of the University.
