Aspiring writers hone their craft at INTRO

In the spring of 2002, a group of Master of Fine Arts students in writing sat down with professor Alan Ziegler to discuss the limited number of teaching opportunities.

“At that point I had just become the chair of the graduate writing division, and so I was in a position to make things happen,” Ziegler reflected. And so he did—Ziegler collaborated with the students to create the Columbia Artist/Teachers program. The first introductory creative writing, or INTRO, workshops were launched that fall.

Seven years later, under the direction of Chris Garrecht-Williams, a second-year MFA student and the CA/T coordinator, the workshops have expanded in size and have evolved from broad introductory courses to become more specialized and content-oriented.

Taught by graduate students in the School of the Arts, these free and non-credit creative writing workshops are held for two hours every week in Dodge Hall. The first class started on Oct. 5 and, upon the teachers’ discretion and degree of student interest, will last for four to six weeks.

With classes ranging from Fundamentals of Crafting a Short Story to Fantastic Fiction to Contemporary Lyric Styles, these workshops offer a diverse selection for students wishing to engage in introductory creative writing. Many of the instructors had completed Ziegler’s prerequisite training course, Writer as Teacher as well as taught creative writing at local schools.

The INTRO courses are open to all Columbia affiliates, including graduate school students, and even aspiring lawyers, architects, and engineers have enrolled. However, INTRO classes target undergraduates. The workshops may be especially attractive for students who are unable to enroll in creative writing courses due to their limited capacity (most are capped at 15 students) or those who are interested in applying for intermediate or advanced creative writing courses and would like to polish their submission pieces.

The workshops offer students an in-depth perspective of an array of writing genres from fiction to nonfiction to poetry. Fundamentals of Crafting a Short Story, for example, is taught by Karolina Waclawiak, second-year MFA student in writing with a concentration in fiction. The class focuses on elements of storytelling as well as on approaches to fiction, and in-class writing assignments are based upon the works of authors from Cheever to Hemingway. Waclawiak’s goal is for students to “feel comfortable enough to take chances and be fearless in their writing.”

Alyssa Barrett, another second-year MFA student with a fiction concentration, shares the same sentiment. In her workshop Shoplifting and Short Fiction, she claims that by imitating an author’s story structure or stealing details from their own experiences, students are able to “realize how much freedom they have in their writing.”

Students and teachers alike benefit from the INTRO workshops. “I wish there were more classes like this,” Diana Rastegayeva, BC ’12, said. “I like the fact that it’s taught by graduate students because they’re down to earth.” At the same time, MFA students are able to gain valuable teaching experience. “It’s a win-win situation,” Ziegler said.

The response to the INTRO workshops was “phenomenal,” according to Garrecht-Williams. Around 240 students signed up for workshops, and Garrecht-Williams was unable to place 60 of them into classes.

He said he hopes in future years that “students receive credit and for teachers to receive some amount of financial compensation.” Given the weekly two-hour time commitment, this credit would enforce students’ regular attendance and accountability. If teachers had financial support, the number of INTRO instructors would increase, and this would better accommodate the students’ overwhelming interest in creative writing classes.

Garrecht-Williams said he is confident the program will attract additional funds and continue to grow.

“I feel there’s a certain momentum,” he said.