A creative writing minor at MassArt instructs you to become an inventive and skillful writer who explores the material and aesthetic possibilities of words on the page, the stage, or the screen. It guides you as an attentive reader of literature to make literature yourself that gives voice to your perspectives and stories yet unheard. It also allows you to envision new avenues for your writing-from journals and books, to canvases, sculptures, gallery walls, and buildings. With this rich intertwining of the visual and the verbal, you learn to move flexibly across languages and genres and to amplify the vital, cutting-edge synergy of image and word. Your voices, stories, and ways of making meaning multiply.
The minor also aims to attract prospective students interested in visual and verbal arts and to raise the visibility of MassArt as a place where visual artists or designers thrive as creative writers. Even further, graduates with the minor will have sharpened their skills as storytellers and wordsmiths for a wide range of activities and careers.
COURSES & FINAL PROJECT
Complete general education requirements while you focus on writing creatively by completing 18 credits of literature and creative writing classes in Liberal Arts, generally six 3-credit courses.
Literary Traditions (LALW 200), prerequisite for all courses
Two continuous writing workshops, such as:
Creative Writing: A Multigenre Workshop (LALW 233)
Poetry Workshop (LALW 320)
Fiction Workshop (LALW 342)
Why I Write. Why I Create. (LALW 220) OR Memoir & the Artist (LALW 215) OR Creative Writing: The Essay (LALW 312)
Playwriting (LALW 300). Others may be added
One of the following to explore other genres or word-image project; courses vary by semester:
Children’s Literature (LALW 205)
Graphic Novels (LALW 206)
Fantasy Worlds (LALW 222)
Modernist Word and Image (LALW 306)
Film Script Writing (LALW 338)
Twenty-first Century Novel (LALW 362)
One additional literature or writing course, 200-level or beyond
One 400-level summative elective, topics varying by semester:
Advanced Poetry Workshop (LALW 402)
Writing an Artist’s Statement (LALW 403)
Your Ted Talk (LALW 412)
Advanced Playwriting (LALW 450)
Others may be added
Submission of a final portfolio of writing from courses, and final reading. Important tip: Save all your creative writing from courses or projects.
PROGRAM OBJECTIVES
- write poems, stories, plays, graphic narratives, and more
- distinguish oneself as artist/designer and creative writer
- meet other students with literary aspirations
- connect art or design with writing
- interact with established writers
- read, perform, and publish artist’s own work
- discover innovate ways of writing and communicating
- listen to and learn from diverse writers
- put into practice what you learn from literature
- broaden one’s understanding of social issues through writing
- explore the world of contemporary creative writing
