The Department of English recently introduced a Creative Writing Emphasis. What new opportunities will this program provide for English students?
In these new courses, students will have the opportunity to explore a single genre in depth. Higher levels of creative writing courses allow students to hone critical reading, creative thinking, and writing and communication skills. These skills are not only essential to the budding writer, of course, but also are highly valued in all professional fields and integral to the creation of a whole, well-rounded graduate of a liberal arts college.
“We write with the belief and intention that what we write can indeed change the way we live and the way our readers think.”
Halina Duraj, PhD
The Lindsay J. Cropper Memorial Writers Series brings remarkable poets and writers to campus. How does this reading series augment the Creative Writing Emphasis?
The success of the Lindsey J. Cropper Memorial Reading Series has stimulated campus-wide and community interest in the literary arts. The Cropper Reading Series brings great, contemporary literature to life for students through high-profile authors visiting campus; naturally, students become excited about practicing creative writing themselves.
Professor Duraj, as an accomplished writer and curator of the Lindsay J. Cropper Memorial Writers Series, how would you describe your creative writing processes? How does the art of creative writing affect your perceptions the world?
We labor over and belabor over the smallest of words and gestures while attempting to keep an eye on the whole of a piece. We write with the belief and intention that what we write can indeed change the way we live and the way our readers think.
What are your goals for the future of the program?
We mean to build closer communities to inspire young people to become better writers.
- Anne Malinoski ‘11
