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PrincetonUniversity |
Program in Creative WritingEach semester 120-150 students from all classes and a wide range of departments enroll in workshops and tutorials in poetry, fiction, and translation sponsored by the Program in Creative Writing. Their reasons for doing so are as different as their backgrounds and styles. Some see the courses as a revealing supplement to their work in literaturethey are stimulated by the experience of knowing a poem or story from "the other side of the page." A few intend careers as writers. Others are refining their skills in communication. Most would simply say that the writer's struggles with the unruly thing we call language and with our vague and even more unruly hearts constitute the keenest and most exciting of all intellectual challenges. Princeton's creative writing faculty is one of the most distinguished in the nation. All of the program's instructors are "real writers." All define themselves primarily as poets or novelists, and even the youngest have published at least one distinguished book in their genre. They are all experienced teachers, and their energy is focused exclusively on undergraduate writers; the program offers no graduate degrees. The program's workshops are small (enrolling an average of nine to ten students) and demanding. It is normal in a poetry workshop, and not unusual in fiction, to have a piece of writing due weekly. Because a workshop is, much more than most courses, a group effort, instructors may be vehement about the niceties of participation and citizenship. Perfect attendance is the norm, late work is rare, and lack of preparation (that is, not being sufficiently acquainted with the student work submitted for the week) is considered a grave discourtesy to other members of the workshop. Because of limitations on enrollment, admission to the program's courses is by applicationa writing sample and a short form, which are due approximately a month before course cards. Competition, depending on the semester, is moderate to fairly intense. The program faculty is painfully aware that it cannot predict the future from the applications; we cannot tell which students will blossom with the twelve weeks of intense practice and feedback a workshop provides. We know we are inadvertently turning away fine writers and would very much like to admit many more students than we are currently able. But for now, selectivity is a fact of life, and we can only urge students who do not find a place upon first application to try again. The creative writing program offers courses but has no majors. Each year, however, twelve to fifteen seniors from various departments write a creative thesis (a novel, or a collection of poems, short stories, or translations) under the direction of the program faculty. Students who have completed four workshops in the program (part of that requirement may be waived in unusual circumstances) apply for permission to write a creative thesis in the spring of junior year. Applicants are judged on the quality of their work and on their discipline and commitment. The program welcomes applications from talented students in all departments, but students in departments other than English (where approval of the creative thesis for those who meet the program's standards is usually routine) must secure the approval of their home department. In a given year, 70&endash;95 percent of students writing creative theses will be English majors. Students in comparative literature, history, politics, the Woodrow Wilson School, psychology, sociology, and Slavic, and Romance languages have been given permission to undertake creative theses in the past half-dozen years. The creative thesis is, no mistake, much more difficult than a regular thesis. Students start full speed in September (indeed they've often made considerable progress in the summer), meet with their supervisors twenty to forty times during the year, and are normally revising fiercely right up until the deadline. Students and faculty agree that the creative thesis is just about the most exhausting and rewarding experience Princeton has to offer. What next? The Program in Creative Writing is about as far from preprofessional as college gets, and there is a certain amount of unworldliness among its students. If you're on the fast track, you probably won't get along with us. But in fact, writers of creative theses don't seem to have more trouble than other humanities students in deciding what they're going to do next. A few (one in each of the last two years, both fiction writers) get their theses accepted for publication. A few end up in graduate writing programs. Many win fellowshipswe've had Rhodes scholars, Mellons, a Keasbey. Graduate school in English is a natural next step. But teaching, law school, publishing, advertising, business school, and voluntary poverty have all been popular options.
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