Our new B.A. in Creative Writing path is being offered to students who enroll beginning in Fall 2021 and beyond. To review the previous degree please take a look below at the B.A. in English: Creative Writing section.
To review the degree requirements and roadmap options please visit our academic bulletin.
If you are reviewing your Degree Progress Report and the courses taken do not reflect in their corresponding areas, please email Katherine Kwid at kkwid@sfsu.edu to look into getting that updated.
Last offered in the Spring 2021 semester, the undergraduate major of English; Creative Writing combines the academic specifications of the traditional English major with the experiential needs of the writing student. If you joined our major before the Fall 2021 semester please read below for information about your degree. If you have joined us in Fall 2021 or after, please review the B.A. in Creative Writing page to find your degree requirements.
Students who enter this program should do so only under the strongly held assumption that they have abilities as writers that may be fostered and trained by such a discipline as described here. It is hoped that this combined program of writing and literature will lead students to a cohesive study and discipline that combines breadth with intensity. Accordingly, some greater latitude of choice in literature courses is allowed in the creative writing major. Studies will lead them to a degree in English with a creative writing emphasis. Ample guidance of the creative writing advisors helps insure that students will not be deprived of a sense of the history of literature. In this regard they will continue to be fully qualified as potential graduate students in English as well as prepared should they wish to continue as M.A. or M.F.A. candidates in a creative writing program.
The 42 unit B.A. balances 27 semester units of writing courses with 15 semester units of literature courses designed to increase the student's depth and breadth of knowledge. The required 9 semester hours of Creative Process classes can be chosen from topics such as: Personal Narrative, American Poetics, Contemporary World Poetry, Style in Fiction, The Short-Short Story and Plays: Reading and Viewing. Also required is a course chosen from one of two areas: "Theory and Language" or "Writing from the American Experience," which includes a selection of courses from the departments of English, Ethnic Studies and Women Studies.
Being sheltered doesn’t cut down on opportunities to volunteer for literary organizations: it creates new ones. Many organizations are interested in working at a distance with our students this fall. Early in my search for workable community engagement, quite a few organizations have stepped forward to express interest in CW 675 and 875 students:
These include Nomadic Press, Associated Writing Programs (AWP), Writeaways Residency, Foglifter Magazine, Poetry Flash, Berkeley Poetry Festival, Lyrics and Dirges Reading Series, the Milvia Street Journal, two different organizations that connect writers to incarcerated people, Amnesty International: these are some of the new organizations.
Students will also be free to make their own connection for a writing projects that sustain us through COVID. Class meets at the beginning and end as a group; you do your community project in the middle and contribute through I-Learn to an ongoing discussion of your project. Email Andrew Joron, ajoron@sfsu.edu if you want to get your own community project idea approved before the class.
CW 675/875 Community Projects in Literature is an opportunity to gain experience in the fields of publication, teaching and arts administration which will make valuable additions to your resume. Though each internship will be individually shaped you will make a commitment of at least six hours a week for the length of the semester to earn three units credit.
Below is link to a list of organizations which you may use as a guide to finding a community project or you can find one on your own. This list includes on-campus opportunities such as the Poetry Center. You also may create your own project as well; for example, teaching writing workshops in community, institution or school settings or creating a reading series.
Typically, the organizations listed will ask you for a brief resume; try to give them some idea of the kinds of experience you already have. For example, did you work on a campus journal, can you operate a computer, file and write clearly?
View our list of Community Projects Leads.