Creative Writing

Nateskate · Nov 6, 2008

A number of years back I went to a seminar at a University that had a creative writing major. It was fun, and every class gave me ideas that I probably wouldn't have thought of- fun things, although nothing related to my WIP, and ultimatley, nothing I worked on subsequently.

I'm wondering what famous writers were creative writing majors???

Pila · Nov 7, 2008

I can't name any off the top of my head, but I am majoring in creative writing next year (I took year off after high school)

It was between that or going to med school, hah. So instead of making 220+k being a pathologist, I get to be a struggling homeless writer, or so my family tells me.

TrickyFiction · Nov 7, 2008

Oddly, I don't know of any writers. But I do know that the Decemberists' lead singer and songwriter has a MFA in creative writing. It shows in his songs to, IMO. Each one is like a short story.

NeuroFizz · Nov 8, 2008

Another interesting question is...are there well-known writers on the faculty of the creative writing programs? The program at my university has Clyde Edgerton--a well-known novelist, for sure. It also has Philip Gerard.

TrickyFiction · Nov 8, 2008

NeuroFizz said:
Another interesting question is...are there well-known writers on the faculty of the creative writing programs? The program at my university has Clyde Edgerton--a well-known novelist, for sure. It also has Philip Gerard.

My school had Bill Ransom as a creative writing prof. Now he's a dean.

(happy for him; sad I never got a chance to take his class while he was still teaching.)

Red-Green · Nov 8, 2008

Two folks from my MFA program have had novels published, but the most famous person out of our program is Taylor Mali, but he's a poet.

Nateskate · Nov 8, 2008

Hmmm? Now I'm wondering if I shouldn't have broadened the question. I'm wondering if there are statistics about such things?

Do more waiters become published? Cops?

I imagine alot of writers at least had a stint in journalism.

Creative Writing was relatively new to the school near me.

Cybernaught · Nov 8, 2008

TrickyFiction said:
Oddly, I don't know of any writers. But I do know that the Decemberists' lead singer and songwriter has a MFA in creative writing. It shows in his songs to, IMO. Each one is like a short story.

Certainly true! And I just saw them again last night! Colin was hanging on the second-floor ledge. Crazy!

But to the question, I think Stephen King was a Creative Writing major.

Cybernaught · Nov 8, 2008

NeuroFizz said:
Another interesting question is...are there well-known writers on the faculty of the creative writing programs? The program at my university has Clyde Edgerton--a well-known novelist, for sure. It also has Philip Gerard.

My college has Stephen Dunn, a Pulitzer-prize winning poet. I want to take his class, but he only teaches in the spring and it closes faster than Gary Coleman's bank account.

Danger Jane · Nov 8, 2008

Interesting article here:

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200708/edward-delaney-mfa

There are many great writers who graduated MFA programs. There are others who did not. Who's to say whether those who went would have succeeded without, or vice versa? It's a very personal thing, I think.

My school has a very impressive creative writing department...I'm excited to get into upper-level courses where I know at least that everyone's revised what they've turned in for workshop.

Susan Breen · Nov 8, 2008

Very interesting article. Thanks for sharing it.

kuwisdelu · Nov 8, 2008

David Foster Wallace came out of an MFA program. I believe Jonathan Safran Foer may have, too--he's also a visiting professor of creative writing at Yale right now.

ejket · Nov 8, 2008

According to the Iowa Writers' Workshop website: "Workshop alumni have won sixteen Pulitzer Prizes (most recently Philip Schultz in 2008), as well as numerous National Book Awards and other major literary honors. Four recent U.S. Poet Laureates have been graduates of the Workshop."

Nateskate · Nov 9, 2008

ejket said:
According to the Iowa Writers' Workshop website: "Workshop alumni have won sixteen Pulitzer Prizes (most recently Philip Schultz in 2008), as well as numerous National Book Awards and other major literary honors. Four recent U.S. Poet Laureates have been graduates of the Workshop."

I wonder out of that number, how many had degrees in creative writing first. I love workshops and would like to attend more. Lol, I think I'd like to be on the other end in the future. My magazine publisher was an MFA grad, and I think he caught them by surprise, because almost everyone else wanted to write, and he started a successful publication.

dclary · Nov 9, 2008

The proportion of great authors with an MFA in writing is probably very nearly the same to great rock stars with an MFA in music. -- It's certainly possible, but not at all necessary.

Adam Hammonds · Nov 9, 2008

ejket said:
According to the Iowa Writers' Workshop website: "Workshop alumni have won sixteen Pulitzer Prizes (most recently Philip Schultz in 2008), as well as numerous National Book Awards and other major literary honors. Four recent U.S. Poet Laureates have been graduates of the Workshop."

Well, Iowa, yeah.

dclary said:
The proportion of great authors with an MFA in writing is probably very nearly the same to great rock stars with an MFA in music. -- It's certainly possible, but not at all necessary.

Spot on. Seems the successful mfa-grad is the exception.

And Safran Foer at Yale? Jesus. Am I the only one that finds his writing ultra-precious and offensively exploitative of gut-wrenching human miseries like the Holocaust and 9/11? I mean, I guess he can't write another book until the next one hits. Hopefully he'll be waiting a while.

scheherazade · Nov 9, 2008

Not many had undergrad degrees in creative writing - probably because this is a pretty modern thing to major in. I think undergraduate programs in creative writing have really only existed for a couple of decades. Even the creative writing MFA program has only really been around for - what? - 70 years or so, and also only become really popular in the last few decades. Certainly if you look at literary novelists who are under age 50, a lot of them have MFAs.

On the other hand... if you look at the number of writers with degrees in English, and perhaps coursework in creative writing workshops (which also only really came into popularity in the 60s or so) then that number would be much higher. On the other hand, there are still lots of writers with the furthest degree possible from creative writing -- med school (Michael Crichton, William Carlos Williams), chemistry (Kurt Vonnegut), etc.

Nateskate · Nov 10, 2008

scheherazade said:
Not many had undergrad degrees in creative writing - probably because this is a pretty modern thing to major in. I think undergraduate programs in creative writing have really only existed for a couple of decades. Even the creative writing MFA program has only really been around for - what? - 70 years or so, and also only become really popular in the last few decades. Certainly if you look at literary novelists who are under age 50, a lot of them have MFAs.

On the other hand... if you look at the number of writers with degrees in English, and perhaps coursework in creative writing workshops (which also only really came into popularity in the 60s or so) then that number would be much higher. On the other hand, there are still lots of writers with the furthest degree possible from creative writing -- med school (Michael Crichton, William Carlos Williams), chemistry (Kurt Vonnegut), etc.

I think there are alot of former cops that write novels. And more than a fair share have included waiting tables as one of their prior gigs. I think police see such a diverse cross-section of life, it makes sense. And I guess doing pots and pans offers lots of time to think, "How the heck do I get out of here?"

ejket · Nov 10, 2008

Nateskate said:
I think there are alot of former cops that write novels. And more than a fair share have included waiting tables as one of their prior gigs. I think police see such a diverse cross-section of life, it makes sense. And I guess doing pots and pans offers lots of time to think, "How the heck do I get out of here?"

I think I have a great job for a writer: night shift hospital porter. Lots of blood, dementia, and death, nice peaceful lulls in between to reflect on it all, and (the reason I transferred to this shift) time to read.

You'd think that this environment would make me morbid, but I'm a disgustingly cheerful guy.

Nakhlasmoke · Nov 11, 2008

ejket said:
I think I have a great job for a writer: night shift hospital porter. Lots of blood, dementia, and death, nice peaceful lulls in between to reflect on it all, and (the reason I transferred to this shift) time to read.

You'd think that this environment would make me morbid, but I'm a disgustingly cheerful guy.

I believe it was Ken Kesey who wrote One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest while working night shift in a mental hospital (and taking acid, but I digress)

Hummingbird · Nov 11, 2008

I thought about taking a Creative Writing course, but there is so much information that can be learned for free and a bit of time. I say the AW Watercooler is a creative writing course. ^__~

I just started working towards a degree in Psychology. So far that's been helpful.

Everything else I've learned about writing has been through here, research, and practice.

dclary · Nov 11, 2008

Regardless of whether a degree will make you a better writer or not, which I question, the fact remains that writing WILL make you a better writer, and for THAT reason I'd always recommend taking creative writing courses. Very often, as a very function of taking that class, you end up writing! (Yeah, I know, isn't that weird?)

Nateskate · Nov 11, 2008

ejket said:
I think I have a great job for a writer: night shift hospital porter. Lots of blood, dementia, and death, nice peaceful lulls in between to reflect on it all, and (the reason I transferred to this shift) time to read.

You'd think that this environment would make me morbid, but I'm a disgustingly cheerful guy.

That's probably true. Look how many people like E.R, House, Grey's Anatomy. There's something about a hospital setting and people standing on the edge of life and death.

Nateskate · Nov 11, 2008

Hummingbird said:
I thought about taking a Creative Writing course, but there is so much information that can be learned for free and a bit of time. I say the AW Watercooler is a creative writing course. ^__~

I just started working towards a degree in Psychology. So far that's been helpful. Everything else I've learned about writing has been through here, research, and practice.

When I took a Creative Writing seminar it was different than what I gleaned here, more intense and it forced me to think in different ways. If I wasn't entirely focused on such an intensely demanding project- a long novel series, it sparked novel ideas that I'd have never thought of.

When I'm done with this project I intend to be done period. It's in scale like the Lord of the Rings and the Silmarillion combined.

But with that said, I've learned a great deal from Absolute Write, because there are people here, or who have passed through, who are as qualified to teach creative writing as many teachers are. To them I owe a debt of gratitude for sharing and offering advice.

All the same, I'm not speaking against Creative Writing courses. Many benefit from them and come away with things that they would not get here. But this is a special place that also offers a great deal. They're just apples and oranges in some ways. Both are good fruit.

Cybernaught · Nov 11, 2008

My undergrad degree is a B.A. in Literature with a Creative Writing concentration. The degree itself is just paper, but the concentration requires me to clock a lot of credit hours in creative writing courses.

Which I like. I love the demand and the deadlines. I like anything that's writing intensive. It keeps me in practice. Could I do this without majoring in writing? Absolutely. But it's all that really interests me, so hopefully I'll get something useful out of the degree.

I'm also looking into an MFA in Creative Writing, although I hear it's difficult to snag a university job since everyone wants one these days.

Creative Writing

Who?

The grad students did it

Who?

KoalaKoalaKoala!

Decker

Decker

Revolutionize the World

Noobus Perpetuus

Unabashed Mercenary

Human

Noobus Perpetuus

yes

Pen, Paper, Prepared. ...Write!

Unabashed Mercenary

Decker