Welcome!
Thanks for your interest in Creative Writing at Reed College! Here you'll find some general information about what we do and what we hope for our students.
The first thing you should know is that we are not an official department. Rather, we exist within the English Department, which we think of as a good thing. The more you know about the larger world, literary history, Shakespeare or Faulkner, for example, the better your writing will be. That's a fact.
We offer ten Creative Writing courses a year, all of which fulfill Group 1 Requirements; we hope these courses will help you hone your craft and experiment with new ways of writing while also providing opportunities to participate in a larger writing community.
The path to writing a creative thesis in the English Department depends on when you were first enrolled at Reed. Please see the Creative Writing requirements for details.
Courses are taught as workshops by practicing writers. Students write works of poetry and fictional and non-fictional prose, which are then distributed to other participants in the workshop for review and critique. In addition to discussions of your own work, many of our courses entail some degree of reading the work of published authors. Additionally, when possible, we try to offer students the opportunity to participate in workshops, discussions and meetings with visiting writers. And, students are encouraged to participate in literary events both on and off campus and to create such events of their own.
We encourage students from all disciplines to take creative writing courses. Admission requires consent of the instructor based on a writing sample. Each of our classes is capped at fifteen students to insure that the creative work environment remains a space wherein student work is the primary focus.
Creative theses are only available for students who are English majors. Details are here.
If you have additional questions, please don't hesitate to contact one of us. We'll be most happy to talk with you.
Sincerely,
The Creative Writing Faculty