Students find their voice through Creative Writing major

Those looking to fill that empty gap in next semester’s schedule may want to look for a new challenge for their imagination: the creative writing department.

Besides those kids who camp out on the fifth floor of John Jay, hoping to spot Frederico García Lorca’s ghost, many students never give much thought to taking a class in the creative writing department. But the truth is that Columbia’s brick pathways have also been stepped on by the feet of many great authors: J.D. Salinger, Langston Hughes, Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac... the list goes on. With its convenient location in New York City, Columbia may be called an international mecca for all things literary, and has always been a breeding ground for young writers.

Even students uninterested in constructing the perfect sestina should know that a creative writing class can enhance problem solving in every subject, from anthropology to biophysics. Alan Ziegler, the professor and director of pedagogy and teacher training at the School of the Arts’ writing department, says, “Some of the most interesting students are those coming from outside of the major.”

But students who spend their weekend nights at poetry readings may fit perfectly into the major. The major is constructed of three parts. “In the major, students take five workshops and four seminars, and three related courses. We find that with that three-part approach we offer the best balance,” said Sam Lipsyte, the associate director of undergraduate creative writing for the department.

In the workshops, students’ writing is critiqued by a small group of other students at the same writing level.
The workshops are broken into three genres: fiction, non-fiction, and poetry, with classes at beginning, intermediate, advanced, and senior levels. Registration for the beginning classes is the same as that for any other class at Columbia—anyone can get in if it hasn’t filled up already. But higher up workshops requires a writing sample, though no priority is given to upperclassmen.

Although many students have complained about the lack of classes and the difficulty of registration, Ben Marcus, the chair of the undergraduate writing program, defended the major. “The major is really new. We are really attentive to the way the major is unfolding. If anything, we’d like to offer more: more seminars, more diversity, more workshops—we hate to turn students away from our courses.”

For registration for the fall, students will have all summer to prepare a writing sample to get into the section of their dreams. Interested students simply need to get on the department’s listserv to be notified of the due dates. “Registration can be kind of intimidating, but it works out usually for the best and you end up in a class you’ll learn from and enjoy,” said Erica Weaver, CC ’12, a current student in a beginning poetry workshop.

In seminars, students can focus on a particular element, craft, or genre in a rigorous setting. Seminars offered for this fall include courses on the first-person narrator, translation work, and the lyric poem. Amy Benson, a lecturer and administrator for the department, said, “What I really love about the major itself is that combination of seminar and workshop—they [students] are getting a chance to focus on their writing with the workshop and an opportunity to be really rigorous in the seminar, focusing on the philosophical and ethical questions of ‘why do this, why bring the pen to the page.’”

The benefits of taking a class in creative writing are numerous—aside from personal cultivation, students also get the chance to take classes with established and published writers.

“I would say the best reason to take the workshops is for the knowledge and experience of the professor. It’s not everyday that you get successful, published authors critiquing and giving advice about your work,” said Jordan Lord, CC ’12.

Tags: Arts & Entertainment, Kassy Lee, Krista Mar, creative writing