Creative Writing

The Creative Writing program at Seattle University takes the stand that good readers make good writers. Rather than offering a stand-alone writing degree, the Seattle University English Department offers a literature-focused English major with a Creative Writing concentration in the belief that developing critical reading and analytical skills is essential to a writer’s evolution.

Program Benefits

• Literature-focused undergraduate English/Creative Writing degree
• Personal attention from faculty
• Classes in multiple genres
• Seattle University/Elliott Bay Book Company Reading Series
• Visiting writer/professors
• Fragments literary magazine
• Portfolio completion

Emphasizing the craft of writing and the close reading of classic and contemporary texts, Seattle University’s Creative Writing program includes core English classes in British, American and ethnic literature as well as writing courses in multiple genres, including fiction, poetry, creative non-fiction, and playwriting or screen writing.

As a result Creative Writing students not only acquire experience writing creatively, they also hone their skills writing about the great works of literature they encounter as English majors.

Why study Creative Writing? To think outside the norm. To develop the ability to write with wit and grace. To learn to tell compelling stories. These are some of the great benefits of studying Creative Writing. Students who study English and Creative Writing develop strong research, reading and writing skills—skills that easily translate into careers in fiction writing, journalism, academia, marketing, advertising, and technical writing, as well as government, law and business. Learn more about career possibilities here.

Degrees offered:

• Bachelor of Arts in English/Creative Writing
• Bachelor of Arts in English/Creative Writing with Departmental Honors
• English/Creative Writing minor

The Uniquely Seattle University Experience: Creative Writing Students English majors who read and respond to literature in class and in writing, and in the process learn to see how great writers make language work for them.

The program offers creative writing classes across genres including fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry and script writing as well as in special topics such as the graphic novel, science fiction, literary fiction, screenplay writing and others.

While Creative Writing students will have the opportunity to work closely with English and Creative Writing faculty in the English department, they will also have the chance to study with visiting professors from the Pacific Northwest’s vibrant artistic community. Visiting writers have included fiction writer Kathleen Alcalá, Washington State Poet Laureate Sam Green, comic/graphic novelist Peter Bagge, detective fiction writer Skye Moody, science fiction author Steven Barnes, and screenplay writer Stewart Stern.

As part of their program, students can acquire additional experience by contributing to the 50-plus-year-old Fragments literary magazine, attending literary readings at the nearby Elliott Bay Book Company, competing for the Gerald Manley Hopkins SJ writing prize, participating in internships at publishing companies, magazines and arts organizations, studying abroad in Paris or Ireland and other locales, attending the opera and building portfolios of their work.

Students also will have the chance to become part of the dynamic cultural and literary community that thrives in Seattle, Washington.

Come join us! Contact Dr. Susan Meyers, Director, Creative Writing Program, Department of English, meyerss@seattleu.edu.