nyu creative writing syllabus

Creative Writing (CWRG1-UC)

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• Program of Study
• Course Offerings

Program of Study (CAS Bulletin)

Creative writing (2022 - 2024).

The minor in creative writing offers undergraduates the opportunity to sharpen their skills while exploring the full range of literary genres, including poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. All students must complete 16 points of coursework in creative writing in order to fulfill the requirements of the minor.

The introductory workshop Creative Writing: Introduction to Prose and Poetry (CRWRI-UA 815, 4 points) or the study away course Creative Writing (CRWRI-UA 9815, 4 points) is generally the required foundational course, to be followed by 12 additional points from the program's CRWRI-UA course offerings.

However, students who begin their minor by taking one of the program's 8-point summer intensives—Writers in New York (CRWRI-UA 818, 819, or 835), Writers in Paris (CRWRI-UA 9818 or 9819), or Writers in Florence (CRWRI-UA 9828 or 9829)—are not required to take the introductory workshop (CRWRI-UA 815, CRWRI-UA 9815, or equivalent). Following completion of one of these 8-point intensives, students may take advanced coursework in the same genre as their summer intensive and/or move directly into an intermediate workshop in an alternative genre. Students may also repeat an 8-credit summer intensive to complete the 16-credit minor. Intermediate and advanced workshops may be taken three times for credit.

The creative writing minor must be completed with a minimum grade point average of 2.0 (C). No credit toward the minor is granted for grades of C- or lower, although such grades will be computed into the grade point average of the minor, as well as into the overall grade point average. No course to be counted toward the minor may be taken on a Pass/Fail basis.

To declare the minor : Students in the College of Arts and Science may declare a creative writing minor by completing the minor declaration form on the program's website. Students in other NYU schools may declare their minors on Albert or as directed by their home schools. The program recommends that all creative writing minors contact the undergraduate programs manager in the semester prior to graduation to verify that their minor declaration is on record and that they have fulfilled (or have enrolled in) all of the appropriate courses for the minor.

Policy on Course Substitutions

Students may petition to apply a maximum of one outside course toward the minor, either as the introductory prerequisite (equivalent to CRWRI-UA 815 or 9815) or as an elective. An outside course is any NYU creative writing course without a CRWRI-UA rubric. To petition to substitute an outside course, students must complete the course substitution petition form (available on the program's website) and provide the course syllabus (as described on the petition form). The undergraduate programs manager will review the submitted syllabus to verify course level and determine substitution eligibility. Students must petition for course substitution prior to registration.

If the program pre-approves a non-NYU course for substitution, it can only be counted toward the minor if 1. the Office of the Associate Dean for Students in CAS has also approved the course credit for transfer, and 2. the student receives a grade of C or better.

Students wishing to begin the creative writing minor while studying away at an NYU site should register for Creative Writing (CRWRI-UA 9815) or, if studying away in the summer, for one of the 8-point intensives offered in Paris and Florence (CRWRI-UA 9818, 9819, 9828, or 9829). These courses are not considered outside courses and will automatically be counted toward the creative writing minor. All other creative writing courses taken away require a petition for substitution and are subject to approval by the program.

Writing Courses

Undergraduate

Bachelor of Arts Degree Requirements Summer 2022

First-Year Program

The Concentration

Interdisciplinary Seminars

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Policies and Procedures

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Experiential Learning at Gallatin

Individualized Projects

Study in Other NYU Schools

Gallatin's Creative + Community Spaces

Gallatin Writing Program

With more than thirty writing courses each semester, Gallatin students have the opportunity to engage in diverse genres and writing practices.

First-Year Writing and Research Seminars use writing to explore a particular theme while helping students to develop their critical writing skills. Recent examples include “ Philosophical Approaches to Identity ," " Intellectual History of Capitalism ," and " Introduction to Trans Studies ."

After taking the foundation courses, Gallatin students may choose from a rich variety of Advanced Writing Courses including fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, comedy-writing, and documentary-writing, as well inter-genre, theme-based writing courses.

Fall 2024 First-Year Writing Seminars

Fall 2024 Advanced Writing Courses

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Creative Writing Courses and the Creative Writing Minor

Find out more about our  Spring 2022 courses and the Creative Writing Minor .

Creative Writing at NYU Shanghai: Worlds within worlds

Crafting a compelling narrative or poem is not only deeply satisfying in and of itself. We tell stories, memorize our favorite lyrics, and share lines from our favorite films because the right words in the right order create deep connections between and among us that resonate not only with our times, but with our pasts and our hoped-for futures. 

Sharpening and refining your skills as a writer and as a reader also makes enormous practical sense. Whatever your career path, the better you are at communication, persuasion and at reading people and situations, the greater your success will be. Careful, sustained practice in reading, writing and discussing fiction, poetry, drama, screenplays, games, films, creative nonfiction and today's emerging digital storytelling forms transfers directly to skills essential to success in business, marketing, journalism, game development, interactive media arts, the sciences — you name it. 

And at NYU Shanghai, we focus not only only writing in English, but on ways in which multilingual writing and literary translation can further enhance and deepen both your creativity and practical communication, analytic, and persuasion skills.

You can also gain valuable experience by working with fellow students and faculty on print and digital publication projects, whether it‘s our annual print journal,  The Poplar Review 杨高 , our student-run online journal Bright Lines 青 思 , or our BackLit video interviews with renowned visiting writers and translators who appear in our NYU Shanghai Literary Reading Series .

At NYU Shanghai, creative writing is not just about you and your words alone — it's also about community, events, connection, learning new skills, and growth.

Finally, if you're a Humanities or Interactive Media Arts major at NYU Shanghai, many of our courses can both fulfill elective credits and enrich and inform your studies in your major. 

Creative Writing Minor requirements 

You can complete the Creative Writing Minor with 16 credits:

• Introduction to Creative Writing (4 credits)
• 8 credits of intermediate or advanced level Creative Writing craft courses
• 4 credits of an additional Creative Writing craft course (of any level) or a designated elective (usually in literature, theater, or film).
• Note: There are 2-credit options both within the Creative Writing area as well as 2-credit electives in other areas that count towards the Creative Writing minor.

You can also take creative writing courses at a number of NYU’s global academic centers. Those looking for intensive summer course have opportunities to enroll in three engaging summer programs: Writers in Paris, Writers in Florence, and Writers in New York.

Humanities majors may take creative writing courses to fulfill some of the major requirements. Please see your academic advisor for more details, or contact the Creative Writing Coordinator .

2021-22 Creative Writing courses

CRWR-SHU 245 | 4 credits | Instructor: David Perry

In this new version of our introductory course, students will focus on writing their own stories, poems, and dramatic dialogues, as in any Intro to Creative Writing course. However, instead of working with a more conventional creative writing textbook, students will study craft through the lens of literary translation, getting “inside” exemplary works of literature by producing their own translations among and between Chinese, English and other languages. Translation will serve as a prompt for student’s own works, providing models and patterns for close study that students can then experiment with, take inspiration from, and adapt (or depart from) in creating their own work. This class recognizes and celebrates the global nature of reading and writing literature in the 21st century, and encourages students from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds to draw on their native tongues, traditions, and techniques in creating compelling work in English — but not just in English (or in one variety of English).   This course fulfills the Introduction to Creative Writing requirement for Creative Writing minors or a Humanities Survey requirement, with approval.

CRWR-SHU 200A | 4 credits | Instructor: Claire Whitenack

Science fiction, fantasy, horror, weird fiction, alternative histories—all fall under the heading of speculative fiction. In this class, students will study and practice worldbuilding, combining imaginative writing with research to create compelling, believable worlds, characters and stories—whether they are situated on other planets, in other dimensions, in magical realms, in super-high-tech futures, or wherever else the imagination can take us.

This course satisfies IMA Seminar and Creative Writing Minor. It is cross-listed with INTM-SHU 295. This course counts for an elective in Creative Writing, IMA and the Humanities major. 

CRWR-SHU 209 | 4 credits | Instructor: Genevieve Leone

In this intermediate creative writing workshop, students will write with the “I.” They will explore narrative possibilities across genres and modes, working at times from direct observation: observation of the self, of the world, and of the shifting relationships between and among all of us and it in its and our countless points and moments. At times, students will draw upon memory, at other times they will pay close attention to that which presents itself to us (as we present ourselves) “in the moment,” and at yet others upon research and reading. Throughout, students will experiment using techniques associated with fiction and poetry to push the “personal essay” in the direction of inspired creative nonfiction, memoir, autofiction, lyric and experimental poetry, and cross- genre hybrids. Along the way, they will develop a richer and more nuanced critical vocabulary to help us talk and think about what they are reading and writing.

This course counts for an elective in Creative Writing, IMA and the Humanities major.   

CRWR-SHU 159 | 4 credits | Instructor: Frances Hwang  | Tue/Thu  1:45-03:00pm,

This workshop course offers a broad introduction to the art of capturing the world around you in your own original fiction and poetry. Through close readings of classic and contemporary examples, intensive in-class workshops, and vigorous revision, students will learn to make their stories and poems live on the page through attention to plot, character, dialogue, language, heartbreaking images and the mystery of the perfect line break.

Pre-requisites: None Equivalency: This course counts for CRWRI-UA 815 Creative Writing: Introduction to Fiction and Poetry Introduction to Creative Writing is a requirement for all intermediate/advanced workshop classes. Fulfillment: Humanities Introductory course.

CRWR-SHU 217 | 4 credits | Instructor: Frances Hwang | Mon 4:15-6:45 pm

This course explores the art of writing short fiction with a focus on linked stories. In discussing what compelled him to write two linked short story collections, Junot Díaz muses, “Maybe I could have written conventional novels from both sets of material but I’m not convinced I could have gotten the same jagged punch, the same longing and silences that rise up from the gaps in and between the linked stories. I guess I’m just hopelessly fascinated by the realities that you can assemble out of connected fragments.” In this course, geared toward intermediate and advanced fiction writers, we explore the jagged power of the linked story collection and what can be gained from the points of connection as well as the narrative gaps between stories. Students will read linked collections by such writers as Junot Díaz, Denis Johnson, Haruki Murakami, Alice Munro, Elizabeth Strout, and Jenny Zhang and will complete several linked stories of their own, gaining appreciation for a form Sonya Chung aptly characterizes as “compression and vast heterogeneity in one!”

Prerequisite: CRWR-SHU 159 Intro to Creative Writing or CRWR-SHU 161 Intro to Literary Translation or Junior/ Senior standing.

Fulfillment: This course will fulfill one of the two the Intermediate Workshop components for the creative writing minor. Humanities other Advanced course.

CRWR-SHU 221 | 4 credts | Instructor: Daniel Woody |  Wed 4:15-6:45 pm

In this intermediate creative writing workshop, students will explore the possibilities of poetry by writing and sharing their own work while also engaging with exemplary works by great poets from a range of traditions, background and times, with a practical emphasis on contemporary poetry and its many vibrant modes and methods. At times, students will experiment with age-old forms such as the sonnet, haiku and sestina; at other times students will pursue the possibilities of contemporary performance poetry and spoken word, Modernist collage and pastiche, postmodern hybrid poetries, and emergent digital poetics. The goal for each student will be to create a body of work that draws on knowledge of traditional forms while also speaking directly to the unique circumstances of our times -- and each individual poet's experience.

Prerequisites: Students must have either 1) completed an Introduction to Creative Writing Course (CRWR-SHU 159 or CRWR-SHU 161) or 2) be of junior or senior standing.

CRWR-SHU 260 | 4 credits | Instructor: Amy Goldman | Tue 3:15-5:45 pm

The premise of this course is that gifted writers highly conscious of their craft teach us more pointedly about creative writing when, juxtaposed to the creative work of each, we hear, see and experience what each identifies as fundamental to his or her writing practice — whether technique, discipline, recurrent battle, avenue of inspiration, self-imposed rule or other. This course looks to such writers as guides from whom we may learn by studying the steps they have taken over time to develop and hone their craft. The course typically (but not always) pairs, each week, one or two pieces of an author’s creative work with another that reflects critically on some aspects of their writing practice, and on the craft of writing. In essence, this is a hybrid course that blends study of creative work with that of writers' critical self-reflection. Students also pursue their own creative writing projects, reflecting critically on their own process along the way. The course readings draw from multiple cultures, literary traditions, and genres including the short story, flash fiction, the novella, the essay, memoir, diary, children’s literature and poetry.

Prerequisite: Writing as Inquiry WRIT-SHU 101/102 OR CRWR-SHU 159 Introduction to Creative Writing OR CRWR-SHU 161 Introduction to Creative Writing: Literary Translation Focus

Fulfillment: This course counts as one of the three intermediate/advanced creative writing workshops required for completion of the Creative Writing Minor. 

WRIT-SHU 245 | 4 credits | Instructor:  Don Belt  |  4:45-6:00pm Tue-Th u

In this seminar and workshop, students use digital storytelling techniques and technologies to capture and make sense of the world around them. Students will use the affordances of various technologies to enhance the impact of their stories. In addition to attending to traditional elements of storytelling, such as language, structure, and style, students will incorporate image, sound, haptics, and design of various media interfaces. Different semesters will focus on different themes or story topics

Prerequisite: A final grade of C or higher in Writing as Inquiry

Fulfillment: IMA/IMB Elective; designated elective for Creative Writing.

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NEW IMA PROGRAM STRUCTURE

This program structure applies to most students joining ima from fall 2022 and beyond..

With over one-third of the curriculum requirements devoted to writing, humanities, sciences, and social sciences, we are making sure that all IMA BFA students explore the intellectual world around them.

IMA students are required to take liberal arts courses offered at NYU’s College of Arts & Sciences. The IMA curriculum has a core set of foundation courses and then students can choose from a wide range of elective classes. Students can also expand beyond liberal arts to take courses in fine arts, business, social work, engineering, or other programs at NYU’s various colleges and schools.

IMA foundational courses introduce students to the fundamentals of computational media through the lenses of design, technology, and culture. Students will have fundamental skills and the capacity and flexibility to discover and pursue their own interests through electives ranging from collaborative game production to critical analysis, from adaptive design to specialized elements of visual and audio design.

The IMA BFA concludes with Capstone in the last semester, which can be a group collaboration or an individual project.

Authoritative curriculum information can be found exclusively in the  University Bulletin . All other content, including this web-page is for informational purposes only. You can find the IMA curriculum on  this page in the Bulletin . Incoming students can learn more about registering  here .

Breakdown of Requirements

128 credits total.

• Liberal Arts & Sciences : 48 credits
• General/Free Electives : 20 credits
• IMA Major : 60 credits

LIBERAL ARTS & SCIENCES – CORE

16 credits .

• Writing the Essay: Art & the World  (EXPO-UA 5: 4 credits) or EXPOS-UA 4 / EXPOS-UA 3 ( for international students placed in these two courses )
• Writing the Essay: The World Through Art  (ASPP-UT 2: 4 credits) or EXPOS-UA 9 for international students who took EXPOS-UA 4 or EXPOS-UA 3
• Texts & Ideas  (CORE-UA 400: 4 credits) or any course approved for this category
• Cultures & Contexts  (CORE-UA 500: 4 credits) or any course approved for this category

LIBERAL ARTS & SCIENCES – ELECTIVES

32 credits .

Students may select from departmentally pre-approved listings of liberal arts courses.  32 credits total  – 8 courses, including 1 course in each area listed below:

• Quantitative Reasoning  OR  select Math, Computer Science, or Engineering courses or courses from relevant/related departments
• Physical Science  OR  Life Science   OR  select Chemistry or Biology courses or courses from relevant/related departments
• Societies & the Social Sciences  OR  select History, Sociology, or Psychology courses or courses from relevant/related departments
• Expressive Culture  OR  select Open Arts or Art courses or courses from other relevant/related departments

Many  CAS courses  can count towards Liberal Arts Electives. See the  Liberal Arts & Sciences category in the Interchange . If a course is not listed in the Interchange, email  [email protected] .

UNRESTRICTED GENERAL ELECTIVES

General or free electives from any program department. These courses may also be used towards double major or minor credits.

IMA MAJOR REQUIREMENTS

60 credits .

• IMA Cohort: Community is a Practice  (IMNY-UT 99: 0 credits)
• Creative Computing  (IMNY-UT 101: 4 credits)
• Communications Lab  (IMNY-UT 102: 4 credits)
• IMA Elective Courses   (24 credits)
• IMA Major Distribution  (24 credits)
• Capstone Studio  (IMNY-UT 400: 4 credits)

IMA Elective Courses

These are general IMA major courses or courses outside of the program that we have identified as counting towards IMA credits. Students must take 6 courses that fulfill this category ( 24 credits total ).  This is a listing of IMA electives. Exact offerings will be available on a semester basis.

IMA Major Distribution 

See courses below . These are primary IMA electives. Students must take a  minimum of 4 credits in each category  ( 24 credits total ). One course will fulfill most categories. If a course does not amount to 4 credits, students will need to take an extra course to complete the 4 credit requirement.

Design & Fabrication

• Design Fundamentals
• User Experience Design
• Introduction to Digital Fabrication
• Methods of Motion
• Immersive Experiences
• Physical Computing
• Designing Interfaces for Live Performance
• Interaction as Art Medium

Programming & Data

• Introduction to Machine Learning for the Arts
• The Code of Music
• Networked Media
• Reading and Writing Electronic Text
• Pixel by Pixel
• Nature of Code
• Live Web 

Project Development & Research

• Creative Approaches to Emerging Media
• Critical Experiences
• Storytelling for Project Development

Tech & Society

• Big Ideas in the History and Future of Technology (2 credits)
• Useless Machines
• Communications and Technology
• Politics of Code
• Design Skills for Responsible

Sample Schedule

Only classes marked with ( * ) must be taken during the assigned semester. Other class requirements may be taken at any semester according to class availability and student preference.

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Intensive Workshop in Creative Writing

MFA in Creative Writing

Other pages in this section:

Our MFA is designed for the writer interested in an immersive writing experience while expanding their knowledge of literary traditions.

Curriculum Overview

Students in the MFA program focus on perfecting their craft, completing courses in literary tradition and practice.

Find out more about the classes offered in our program. 

Meet our incredible faculty.

Learning Expectations

Read our Learning Expectations for the MFA

Our MFA Program

Our program is designed to be flexible, yet rigorous. MFA students complete coursework that includes two to four residential summers in Sewanee, Tennessee, based on their decisions to takes online courses in the fall or spring. We work with you to create a degree path based on your needs. 

MFA students will take eight courses total. Curriculum consists of a combination of writing workshops and courses in forms, craft or literature. 

Following their final semester coursework, MFA students complete their thesis project in fulfillment of their final two credits. Working closely with their advisor, students will complete a manuscript of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, or dramatic writing.

Meet Amanda, L'17

Amanda Shires,  Singer-songwriter  | Nashville, TN

After spending much of her life on vans and tour buses, Amanda, a singer-songwriter, fiddle player, and poet, craved the stimulation of school. In an interview with  Southern Living , the Grammy Award-winning artist said of her decision to pursue an MFA at the School of Letters, "I am fascinated by words, down to the letters that make them up. I wanted to learn more about poetics and how to get better at writing."

Now with seven solo albums (and an MFA) under her belt, Amanda is a seasoned storyteller and performer. She credits what she learned at the School of Letters for making her a more precise and intentional songwriter.

"Before attending Sewanee, I was writing from instinct alone. Now, I have reasons for word choices and reasons that I go one way or another with phrasing."

Her summers in Sewanee also reframed her perspective on writer's block.

"I learned that there's no such thing as writer's block. If writer's block really existed, no one would ever graduate or pass classes. Writer's block is an excuse. If you are not writing anything good at the moment, that's something different and something you have to work through."

Shires' most recent album was named one of the New York Times best albums of the year.

University of the South