Fall 2024 Creative Writing Course Application Information
Read all instructions before submitting your application(s):
Please submit your completed application(s) by 11:59 pm ET on Sunday, April 7. LATE APPLICATIONS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED.
There are absolutely no exceptions to this deadline; please do not contact the instructor or the department if you miss this deadline, simply apply again next term. Applications may time out if you leave them open long enough, so keep this in mind (don't click the submit button at 11:59 pm; leave adequate time to troubleshoot in case there are submission issues).
· When creating a Submittable account, please use your Harvard email address, not your personal account.
· You must submit a separate application to each course (up to 4), using the application links below. Please be sure to upload the appropriate materials for each course, and provide the same course preference order on each application. Your first choice workshop must be ranked first on each application, and so on. Any applications with inconsistent rankings will be disqualified.
· Note to students outside of FAS and HDS: if your registration timeline does not conform to that of FAS, please still follow the application instructions and timeline listed on this page, and if admitted, you will be permitted to cross-register and enroll when your registration period begins.
· You may not edit or resubmit an application once you have applied. Please be sure your application materials are finalized and accurate before submitting.
· Students may take only one creative writing courses per semester. A course may be repeated provided the student has the permission of the instructor and the Director of Undergraduate Studies of the Department.
· Harvard affiliates who are unable to enroll in creative workshops for official academic credit are still welcome and encouraged to apply but will only be reviewed once degree-seeking undergraduate and graduate students are considered. Non-credit seeking students are asked to indicate this status in their letter of interest, and if admitted are expected to fully engage and participate in the workshop.
· Students will be notified of application decisions by 5:00 pm on Friday, April 12 and will receive a separate email notification for each course once decisions have been made. Each student can be admitted to only one course. The creative writing faculty meets to discuss all applications to prevent multiple acceptances. Applicants not admitted to a workshop on April 12 will be considered for spots that open up in workshops after the initial notifications have been sent out. Students will be notified by the English Department should a professor wish to offer them an open spot.
*Some creative writing workshops will hold a few spots for the late August/early September Fall 2024 course registration period for incoming first-semester students. Students already on the waitlist will still be in consideration, but decisions for these spots will not be made until late August 2024. A note will be added indicating which workshops are holding spots at the end of their individual Submittable course descriptions as well as at the end of their course descriptions on the Harvard English Department website:https://english.fas.harvard.edu/english-courses.
· We suggest adding notifications@email.submittable.com to your email contacts to ensure any notifications (submission confirmations and application decisions) reach your inbox.
Thursday, 3:00-5:45 pm
Intended for students with prior fiction-writing and workshop experience, this course will concentrate on structure, execution and revision. Exploring various strands of contemporary and recent literary fiction – writers such as Karl Ove Knausgaard, Rachel Cusk, Chimamanda Adichie, Douglas Stuart, Ocean Vuong, etc – we will consider how fiction works in our present moment, with emphasis on a craft perspective. Each student will present to the class a published fiction that has influenced them. The course is primarily focused on the discussion of original student work, with the aim of improving both writerly skills and critical analysis. Revision is an important component of this class: students will workshop two stories and a revision of one of these.
NOTE: This course is holding 2 spots for the late August/early September Fall 2024 course registration period for incoming first-semester students. Students already on the waitlist will still be in consideration, but decisions for these spots will not be made until late August 2024.
Supplemental Application Information: Please submit 3-5 pages of prose fiction, along with a substantive letter of introduction. I’d like to know why you’re interested in the course; what experience you’ve had writing, both in previous workshops and independently; what your literary goals and ambitions are. Please tell me about some of your favorite narratives – fiction, non-fiction, film, etc: why they move you, and what you learn from them.
Tuesday, 9:00-11:45am
This course is a workshop intended for students who are interested in writing longer form narratives from the first-person point of view. The “I” at the center of any novel poses a perspective that is all at once imaginatively powerful and narratively problematic, uniquely insightful and necessarily unreliable. We will read from roughly twelve novels written in the first-person, from Marilynne Robinson and W.G. Sebald, to Valeria Luiselli and Teju Cole, and ask questions (among others) of why this form, why this style? And, as a result, what is lost and what is realized in the telling? Primarily, however, students will write. Our goal will be to have a student’s work read and discussed twice in class during the semester. I am hoping to see at least 35-40 pages of a project —at any level of completion—at the end of term.
Supplemental Application Information: Please write a substantive letter telling me why you’re interested in taking this class, what writers (classical and contemporary) you admire and why, and if there’s a book you have read more than once, a movie you have seen more than once, a piece of music you listen to over and over, not because you have to but because you want to. Students of creative nonfiction are also welcome to apply.
Tuesday, 12:00-2:45 pm
This course will serve as an introduction to the fundamentals of writing fiction, with an emphasis on the contemporary short story. How can we set about creating “big” worlds in compact spaces? What unique doors can the form of the short story open? The initial weeks will focus on exploratory exercises and the study of published short stories and craft essays. Later, student work will become the primary text as the focus shifts to workshop discussion. Authors on the syllabus will likely include Ted Chiang, Lauren Groff, Carmen Maria Machado, and Octavia Butler. This workshop welcomes writers of all levels of experience.
NOTE: This course is holding 2 spotsfor the late August/early September Fall 2024 course registration period for incoming first-semester students. Students already on the waitlist will still be in consideration, but decisions for these spots will not be made until late August 2024.
Supplemental Application Information: Please submit a letter of introduction. I’d like to know a little about why you are drawn to studying fiction; what you hope to get out of the workshop and what you hope to contribute; and one thing you are passionate about outside writing / school. Please also include a very brief writing sample (2-3 pages). The sample can be in any genre (it does not have to be from a work of fiction).
Wednesday, 3:00-5:45 pm
The course will consist of two halves. In the first hour of each class, we will be doing close readings/literary-critical analyses of an assigned text (see below, ‘Course Schedule’, for all the reading material for the semester), with the aim of isolating some aspect of the craft of writing in order to take bearings for your own. We will be looking at technical things such as point of view, free indirect discourse, narration, character, interiority, style, movement, affect, but also at broader issues: metaphysics, politics, inequality, race, colonialism/imperialism, the white gaze. You will not only have read the assigned text with critical rigor but also taken notes of the points you want to raise in class. While I do not expect you to hand in short critical essays on the texts, I will be looking for engaged, alert discussions, so it may help to have something written down to facilitate our conversations. Please note: Reading the assigned text is obligatory. Previous Creative Writing workshop experience is desirable. If you’re writing YA fantasy, there are other courses on offer that would be a better fit.
In the second half of the class, divided into two equal segments of 55 minutes each, we will be workshopping the writing of two students. To this end, every week two students will hand in something they have written, to the tune of 2,500-5,000 words, to me and to everyone in the group, ideally one week before their turn. At our first meeting, I will circulate a rota for you to put down your names and walk you through the syllabus, the aims and objectives of the course, workshop rules, expectations, requirements etc. For our first workshopping session, two students should hand in work five to seven days before. Our goal is for each of you to have two turns, and approximately 5-10,000 words of your work critiqued, by the time semester ends. Copies of these writing samples will be returned to you at the end of each workshop with comments from me and from everyone in class. Work submitted must be single-sided, double-spaced, paginated and, ideally, bearing a title. It must have your name on it and, on the top right-hand corner of the first page, my name and ‘Advanced Fiction, Fall 2024’.
Supplemental Application Information: Please submit 3-5 pages of creative writing in prose (fiction is preferable, but non-fiction is also fine) along with a substantive letter of introduction in which you write about why you’re interested in this course; what experience you’ve had writing, especially what Creative Writing workshops you’ve already taken at Harvard; some of your favourite writers; what some of your favourite works of fiction are and why.
Monday, 12:00-2:45 pm
An introductory workshop where we will learn to read as writers and study all aspects of the craft of fiction writing, including such topics as character, point of view, structure, time, and plot. The first weeks will focus on writing exercises and reading contemporary short fiction. As the semester progresses, the focus of the workshop will shift to creating and discussing your own work at the table.
Supplemental Application Information: Please submit ONLY a letter to me. I want to know what your favorite work of fiction is and why; and then tell me something you are passionate about and something you want to be better at; and, lastly, tell me why of all classes you want to take this one this semester. Please no writing samples.
Monday, 3:00-5:45 pm
An introductory workshop where we will learn to read as writers and study all aspects of the craft of fiction writing, including such topics as character, point of view, structure, time, and plot. The first weeks will focus on writing exercises and reading contemporary short fiction. As the semester progresses, the focus of the workshop will shift to creating and discussing your own work at the table.
Supplemental Application Information: Please submit ONLY a letter to me. I want to know what your favorite work of fiction is and why; and then tell me something you are passionate about and something you want to be better at; and, lastly, tell me why of all classes you want to take this one this semester. Please no writing samples.
Wednesday, 12:00-2:45pm
This course will consider critical writing about art–literary, visual, cinematic, musical, etc.—as an art in its own right. We will read and discuss criticism from a wide variety of publications, paying attention to the ways outlets and audience shape critical work. The majority of our readings will be from the last few years and will include pieces by Joan Acocella, Andrea Long Chu, Jason Farago, and Carina del Valle Schorske. Students will write several short writing assignments (500-1000 words), including a straight review, during the first half of the semester and share them with peers. During the second half of the semester, each student will write and workshop a longer piece of criticism about a work of art or an artist of their choosing. Students will be expected to read and provide detailed feedback on the work of their peers. Students will revise their longer pieces based on workshop feedback and submit them for the final assignment of the class.
Supplemental Application Information: Please write a letter of introduction (1-2 pages) giving a sense of who you are, your writing experience, and your current goals for your writing. Please also describe your relationship to the art forms and/or genres you're interested in engaging in the course. You may also list any writers or publications whose criticism you enjoy reading. Please also include a 3-5-page writing sample of any kind of prose writing. This could be an academic paper or it could be creative fiction or nonfiction.
Monday, 3:00-5:45 pm
There are few literary forms quite as flexible as the personal essay. The word comes from the French verb essai, “to attempt,” hinting at the provisional or experimental mood of the genre. The conceit of the personal essay is that it captures the individual’s act of thinking on the fly, typically in response to a prompt or occasion. The form offers the rare freedom to combine any number of narrative tools, including memoir, reportage, history, political argument, anecdote, and reflection. In this writing workshop, we will read essays beginning with Montaigne, who more or less invented the form, and then on to a varied selection of his descendants, including George Orwell, E.B. White, James Baldwin, Susan Sontag, Joan Didion, David Foster Wallace and Rebecca Solnit. We will draft and revise essays of our own in a variety of lengths and types including one longer work of ambition. A central aim of the course will be to help you develop a voice on the page and learn how to deploy the first person—not merely for the purpose of self-expression but as a tool for telling a story, conducting an inquiry or pressing an argument.
NOTE: This course is holding 2 spots for the late August/early September Fall 2024 course registration period for incoming first-semester students. Students already on the waitlist will still be in consideration, but decisions for these spots will not be made until late August 2024.
Supplemental Application Information: To apply, submit a brief sample of your writing in the first person along with a letter detailing your writing experience and reasons for wanting to take this course.
Tuesday, 9:00-11:45am
How does one tell -- vividly, interestingly -- the story of a life? How do we access a private life, or situate it in a public world? What if the subject is dead, or is famous, or is a dog, or is oneself? How do we ask the right questions in interviews, or know where to begin? This course will examine the art of writing narrative nonfiction about individual lives. We will read and discuss examples of profiles, biographies, and memoir/personal essays, paying special attention to structure, language, and style. We will also read and discuss each other’s work. Students are expected to produce (and to revise) two pieces of longform nonfiction writing. Readings by authors such as Hilton Als, Rachel Aviv, Robert Caro, Hermione Lee, Hua Hsu, and others.
*This course is holding 1 spot for the late August/early September Fall 2024 course registration period for incoming first-semester students. Students already on the waitlist will still be in consideration, but decisions for these spots will not be made until late August 2024.
Supplemental Application Information: To apply, please write a letter introducing yourself and explaining your interest in the course. Include a few examples of profiles, nonfiction books, or essays that you admire, along with a sentence or two explaining why. No other writing sample is required.
Tuesday, 12:00-2:45pm
In this workshop-based class, students will think deeply about how music is often at the center of their experiences, may it be as a song, an album, an artist, their own relationship with an instrument, etc. This class will entail writing true stories about one's life in which the personal and music orbit and/or entangle each other. This will include some journalism and criticism, but above all it will ask you to describe how and why music matters to your lived life. We will read work by Hayao Miyazaki, Jia Tolentino, Kaveh Akbar, Oliver Sacks, Susan Sontag, Adrian Matejka, among many others, (as well as invite and talk with guest speaker(s)). This class is open to all levels.
Supplemental Application Information: Applications for this class should include a 2-3 page (double-spaced if prose, single-spaced if poetry) creating writing sample of any genre (nonfiction, fiction, poetry), or combination of genres. Additionally, I ask that students submit a 250-word reflection on their particular relationship with creative writing and why this course appeals to them. This class is open to students of all writing levels and experience.
Thursday, 3:00-5:45 pm
In this hands-on writing workshop, we will study the art of narrative journalism in many different forms: Profile writing, investigative reportage, magazine features. How can a work of journalism be fashioned to tell a captivating story? How can the writer of nonfiction narratives employ the scene-by-scene construction usually found in fiction? How can facts become the building blocks of literature? Students will work on several short assignments to practice the nuts-and-bolts of reporting, then write a longer magazine feature to be workshopped in class and revised at the end of the term. We will take instruction and inspiration from the published work of literary journalists such as Joan Didion, John McPhee, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc, and John Jeremiah Sullivan. This is a workshop-style class intended for undergraduate and graduate students at all levels of experience. No previous experience in English Department courses is required.
Supplemental Application Information: Please write a substantive letter of introduction describing who you are as writer at the moment and where you hope to take your writing; what experience you may have had with journalism or narrative nonfiction; what excites you about narrative journalism in particular; and what you consider to be your strengths and weaknesses as a writer. Additionally, please submit 3-5 pages of journalism or narrative nonfiction or, if you have not yet written much nonfiction, an equal number of pages of narrative fiction.
Wednesday, 3:00-5:45 pm
Whether it takes the form of literary journalism, essay, memoir, or environmental writing, creative nonfiction is a powerful genre that allows writers to break free from the constraints commonly associated with nonfiction prose and reach for the breadth of thought and feeling usually accomplished only in fiction: the narration of a vivid story, the probing of a complex character, the argument of an idea, or the evocation of a place. Students will work on several short assignments to hone their mastery of the craft, then write a longer piece that will be workshopped in class and revised at the end of the term. We will take instruction and inspiration from published authors such as Joan Didion, James Baldwin, Ariel Levy, Alexander Chee, and Virginia Woolf. This is a workshop-style class intended for undergraduate and graduate students at all levels of experience. No previous experience in English Department courses is required.
Supplemental Application Information: Please write a substantive letter of introduction describing who you are as writer at the moment and where you hope to take your writing; what experience you may have had with creative/literary nonfiction; what excites you about nonfiction in particular; and what you consider to be your strengths and weaknesses as a writer. Additionally, please submit 3-5 pages of creative/literary nonfiction (essay, memoir, narrative journalism, etc, but NOT academic writing) or, if you have not yet written much nonfiction, an equal number of pages of narrative fiction.
Wednesday, 3:00-5:45 pm
The arc of this writing workshop will follow, step by step, the process of researching and writing a single long piece of science journalism: finding and pitching story ideas; reporting in depth and at length; outlining and structuring your story; choosing a narrative voice and strategy, crafting leads and “overtures,” and forging connections between your story and its larger contexts. As a group, we’ll also work as editors on one another’s ideas and pieces. And since reading good prose is the best way to learn to write it, we’ll be closely reading an exemplary piece of narrative science journalism each week. Students will be expected to complete a draft and a revision of a substantial piece of science journalism by the end of the term.
NOTE: This course is holding 2 spots for the late August/early September Fall 2024 course registration period for incoming first-semester students. Students already on the waitlist will still be in consideration, but decisions for these spots will not be made until late August 2024.
Supplemental Application Information: To apply, submit a brief sample of your non-academic writing along with a letter explaining your reasons for wanting to take this course and describing your science experience, if any.
Thursday, 3:00-5:45pm
In this workshop-based class, students will consider themes that intersect with the Young Adult genre: gender and sexuality, romantic and platonic relationships and love/heartbreak, family, divorce and parental relationships, disability, neurodivergence, drug use, the evolution/fracturing of childhood innocence, environmentalism, among others. Students will write true stories about their lived lives with these themes as well as intended audience (ages 12-18) specifically in mind. For visual artists, illustrating one’s work/essays is something that I invite but of course do not require. We will read work by Sarah Prager, Robin Ha, ND Stevenson, Laurie Hals Anderson, Dashka Slater, and Jason Reynolds.
Supplemental Application Information: Applications for this class should include a 2-3 page (double-spaced if prose, single-spaced if poetry) creating writing sample of any genre (nonfiction, fiction, poetry), or combination of genres. Additionally, I ask that students submit a 250-word reflection on their particular relationship with creative writing and why this course appeals to them. This class is open to students of all writing levels and experience.
Monday, 12:00-2:45pm
Initially, students can expect to read, discuss, and imitate the strategies of a wide range of poets writing in English; to investigate and reproduce prescribed forms and poetic structures; and to engage in writing exercises meant to expand the conception of what a poem is and can be. As the course progresses, reading assignments will be tailored on an individual basis, and an increasing amount of time will be spent in discussion of student work.
NOTE: This course is holding 2 spotsfor the late August/early September Fall 2024 course registration period for incoming first-semester students. Students already on the waitlist will still be in consideration, but decisions for these spots will not be made until late August 2024.
Supplemental Application Information: Please submit a portfolio including a letter of interest, ten poems, and a list of classes (taken at Harvard or elsewhere) that seem to have bearing on your enterprise.
Tuesday, 9:00-11:45 am
This workshop will be an exploration into the ways that poets in the past have reckoned in print with the personal and the public, while also provided students with a fundamental understanding of what the public/private dichotomy is, as seen through the works of James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, Yusef Komunyakaa, Lucille Clifton, Jack Gilbert and others, with the ultimate goal being to produce a body of work of their own that is aware of both its referents and singularities. Students will be expected to produce drafts on a weekly basis.
Supplemental Application Information: Please submit a portfolio including a letter of interest, up to ten poems, and a list of classes (taken at Harvard or elsewhere) that seem to have bearing on your enterprise.
Tuesday, 12:00-2:45 pm
This workshop will be an exploration into the ways that poets in the past have reckoned in print with the personal and the public, while also provided students with a fundamental understanding of what the public/private dichotomy is, as seen through the works of James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, Yusef Komunyakaa, Lucille Clifton, Jack Gilbert and others, with the ultimate goal being to produce a body of work of their own that is aware of both its referents and singularities. Students will be expected to produce drafts on a weekly basis.
Supplemental Application Information: Please submit a portfolio including a letter of interest, up to ten poems, and a list of classes (taken at Harvard or elsewhere) that seem to have bearing on your enterprise.
Tuesday, 12:45-2:45pm
By guided reading, classroom discussion, one on one conference, and formal and structural experimentation, members of the Advanced Poetry Workshop will look to hone, deepen, and challenge the development of their poetic inquiry and aesthetic. Students will be required to write and submit one new poem each week and to perform in-depth, weekly critiques of their colleagues' work.
Supplemental Application Information: Please submit a portfolio including a letter of interest, ten poems, and a list of classes (taken at Harvard or elsewhere) that seem to have bearing on your enterprise.
Wednesday, 12:45-2:45pm
“I’ve often noticed that we are not able to look at what we have in front of us,” the Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami said, “unless it’s inside a frame.” For our communities confronting invisibility and erasure, there’s an urgent need for new frames. In this workshop, we’ll explore a community-engaged approach to documentary and fiction filmmaking, as we seek to see our world more deeply. We’ll begin with screenings, craft exercises, and discussions around authorship and social impact. Then we each will write, develop, and shoot a short film over the rest of the semester, building off of intentional community engagement. Students will end the class with written and recorded materials for a rough cut. Basic equipment and technical training will be provided.
NOTE: This course is holding 1 spot for the late August/early September Fall 2024 course registration period for incoming first-semester students. Students already on the waitlist will still be in consideration, but decisions for these spots will not be made until late August 2024.
Supplemental Application Information: Please submit a brief letter explaining why you're interested to take this class. Please also discuss what participants/communities you might be interested in engaging with for your filmmaking projects. For your writing sample, please submit 3-5 pages of your creative work from any genre (screenwriting, poetry, fiction, non-fiction, etc.)
Tuesday, 12:00-2:45 pm
The short film, with its relatively lower costs of production and expanded distribution opportunities, has become one of the most disruptive, innovative modes of storytelling--and is often an emerging filmmaker's first step into a career. This course will introduce students to the basics of short form screenwriting, including narrative theory/structure, character design, and dialogue/voice. In the first quarter of the semester, we will hone dramatic techniques through several craft exercise assignments and in-class writing. In the following weeks, students will write two short screenplays. Throughout the semester, we will be workshopping and doing table reads of student work, discussing screenplays and craft texts, and screening a wide array of short films. The emphasis will be on discovering a sense of personal voice and completing two short screenplays (under 20 pages).
NOTE: This course is holding 1 spot for the late August/early September Fall 2024 course registration period for incoming first-semester students. Students already on the waitlist will still be in consideration, but decisions for these spots will not be made until late August 2024.
Supplemental Application Information: Please submit a brief letter explaining why you're interested to take this class. You may comment on what films/filmmakers inspire you and what kind of subject matter you may be interested to write about. For your writing sample, please submit 3-5 pages of your creative work from any genre (screenwriting, poetry, fiction, non-fiction, etc.)
Monday, 12:00-2:45pm
This workshop introduces the television pilot with a focus on prestige drama and serialized comedy. Students will excavate their own voice and explore the structure and execution of pilot writing through a first draft of their own original script. With intensive reading and discussion of student work we will examine elements of TV writing, such as treatments and outlines as well as character, dialogue, tone, plot, and, most importantly, vision. Over the semester, we’ll turn ideas into worlds and worlds into scripts.
Supplemental Application Information: Prior experience in dramatic writing is encouraged, though not necessary. Please submit a 5-10 page writing sample (preferably a play or screenplay, but all genres are acceptable). Also, write a few sentences about one of your favorite television shows and why you wish to write for TV.