CREATIVE WRITING

Shifting the Paradigm

TOWARD HISTORICALLY UNDERREPRESENTED WRITINGS AND WRITERS.

Undergraduate courses OPEN TO ALL in Performance. Poetry. Screen- & Stage-PlayWriting. Creative Nonfiction. Fiction/Story-making. Testimonio. Spoken word and more.

ALSO: GRADUATE SEMINARS IN CRITICAL-CREATIVE WRITING.

Undegraduate Specialization

The undergraduate specialization offers courses for English majors who are interested in developing an original creative voice and a critical intention in their imaginative writings. Students may explore a variety of genres, including: poetry; writing for performance; dramatic writing for stage and screen; testimonio; creative nonfiction; the memoir; short and long fiction; oral and community story-telling; digital expressions, works in translation, and more.  

Many courses emphasize embodied practice on the road to writing, and integrate discussions of the building blocks of ‘craft’ with larger discussions of indigenous language recuperation, social equity, the environment, decolonization and globalization. The specialization is designed to respond to the specificity and diversity of the students across the UCSB campus. The program especially encourages participation from historically underrepresented writers.

The English Department’s Creative Writing specialization is affiliated with Las Maestras Center for Xicana Indigenous Thought, Art and Social Practice, where students are offered on-going conversations with visiting writers and artists and access to off-campus community-based learning opportunities. For details regarding course requirements, contact: the undergraduate advisor at: thomashuff@hfa.ucsb.edu