Creative Writing
English Major with Creative Writing Concentration
Admissions
The revised undergraduate curriculum affects ONLY those students who arrived at UM in Fall, 2007 or later. All other students wishing to choose the Creative Writing concentration (or already enrolled in the Creative Writing concentration) should follow the requirements listed in their bulletin or contact a Creative Writing advisor (below) for an appointment:
- Professor Jane Alison: jalison@miami.edu
- Professor M. Evelina Galang: mgalang@miami.edu
- Professor Maureen Seaton: mseaton@miami.edu
When should I apply to become a Creative Writing major?
Our deadlines for admission are July 15, October 15 and April 15th. During the 2011-2012 academic year, we celebrate a year of poetry. Students interested in the poetry track need not apply. Simply register for ENG 292. For more details, read on!
Transfer students who have already taken college-level creative writing classes may be admitted during their junior year on a case-by-case basis. Students who are uncertain about applying to the major should consider enrolling in ENG 209, especially if they’ve never done any creative writing before. Students who have applied to the major unsuccessfully may reapply after taking ENG 209. Please note: ENG 209 no longer counts towards the major, through it does count as a writing credit.
Poets, Spoken Word Artists, Hybridists, and All Lovers of the Word!
Come celebrate A Year of Poetry at the University of Miami (aka "Poetic Pandemonium").
No Writing Sample Required for entry into the major this year! You are cordially invited and enthusiastically encouraged to sign up for the poetry track of Creative Writing this coming year—2011-2012—without submitting a Writing Sample. That's right! Everyone welcome—no screening process—all you need is your love of the written and spoken word and your own passion to play, learn, or perhaps even make a difference in our world! You will still need to sign up.
Our Creative Writing Faculty extend this special invitation to you. Please contact our Director, M. Evelina Galang (mgalang@miami.edu), or poet Maureen Seaton (mseaton@miami.edu) for information, a meeting or to sign up. Come write with us!
How can I apply to start a major in Creative Writing?
Step One: Prepare a Personal Statement (2-3 double-spaced paragraphs)
A personal statement describes the writing you’ve done in the past and the writing you’d like to do as a Creative Writing major at UM. If you are planning a double major, make sure you talk about the connection—or disconnection!—between your two areas of interest. Your personal statement should give us a sense of your passions and interests, as well as your goals. It should also include your contact information: full name, email address, cell phone number and C number.
Step Two: Prepare a Writing Sample
Writing sample exercises are described below. Those interested in our poetry track should submit a poetry writing sample (choose 2 of the 5 options). Those interested in our fiction track should submit a fiction writing sample (choose 1 option, 3-5 pages.) You may apply in both genres, though you’ll only be admitted to one. Once admitted to the major, please meet with with Professor Galang, Director of Creative Writing (mgalang@miami.edu) if you want permission to take a workshop outside your designated genre.
Step Three: Submit your Personal Statement and Writing Sample
Bring your Personal Statement and Writing Sample on or before October 15th (for spring enrollment) or April 15th (for fall enrollment) to Lydia Starling in the English Department, Ashe 321. You may also email your Statement and Sample to l.starling@umiami.edu. All applicants will be notified, via email, before semester classes begin.
Non-majors and creative writing minors interested in taking creative writing at UM should enroll in ENG 209. Minors will be admitted to 290/292 after completing 209.
Occasionally, non-majors are admitted to a 290/292 via “permission of the instructor.” Prepare a writing sample (see above) and submit to the instructor of the section in which you wish to enroll. Admission is competitive.
Fiction Track Writing Sample (choose 1)
Option One (exercise by Professor Jane Alison)
Without interpreting or explaining anything, portray one of these experiences in such a way that the reader can understand deeply how the narrator feels about it:
--putting on the clothing or sleeping in the bed of someone dead;
--kissing someone detested or feared;
--preparing a meal that you want to eat but may not, or that you don’t want to eat but must.
Option Two (exercise by Professor Jane Alison)
Write a fiction using one of the following word clusters:
--marble, plum, highway;
--dog, anger, mother;
--boardwalk, cellophane, loss.
Option Three (exercise by Professor M. Evelina Galang)
Using a character from one of your past stories, put him or her at the end of a long, bad, horrible, rotten day. He or she needs something at the store (very badly). The scene opens as he or she enters the store and cannot find the item.
Use your five senses. Don't just tell us about a moment, but create that moment and let it unfold for the reader. You'll want to set us up with the physical world – setting, location, time of day. You'll want to draw a picture with words and allow the action to happen. Your scene should illustrate one continuous moment. Use not only memory and imagination to draw the picture, but explore how your character's body reacts. Use only concrete objects and actions – no abstract words, no exposition, no passive voice. Your mission is to let the reader experience the moment.
Poetry Track Writing Sample (choose 2)
Option One (exercise by Professor Mia Leonin):
Write twenty lines (not sentences) from the point of view of a person experiencing an explosion. What is exploding – a bomb, confetti, another person’s temper? Include the following elements (not necessarily in this order): a color, a plant or animal, detailed description of a body part, an exclamation in a foreign language, slang or dialect, an article of clothing, a prediction. This exercise should be written in the first person present (“I”).
Option Two (exercise by Professor Walter K. Lew):
Write a short poem in either the SONNET or VILLANELLE forms on a topic of your choice. If you choose to submit a sonnet, it may be in either the Petrarchan or Shakespearean rhyme scheme.
Option Three (exercise by Professor Walter K. Lew):
Write a series of three related haiku on a certain theme, such as travel, one's appreciation of natural scenes, or a love affair. Each haiku must strictly follow the 5-7-5 syllable count.
Option Four (exercise by Professor Walter K. Lew):
Write a group of three "found" poems completely (or almost completely) derived from text you select from other sources, such as closed captioning of TV programs, the newspaper, advertisements, or material you are studying in other courses. Don’t forget to document your sources.
Option Five (exercise by Professor Maureen Seaton)
Write a poem (any length) from a painting or sculpture that you're drawn to. Describe the piece literally, tell its story, or try to capture its essence in some way that relates to your own life. Sit with the art and then start writing. Shape your raw material into a prose poem or a line-broken poem. Give it a title and mention the title of the art too. This method of responding to visual art is often called "ekphrasis". Enjoy!
