college creative writing classes

Online courses in creative writing

Part-time study in creative writing

Develop your creativity with an Oxford University short course or award programme.

Need an extra push to finish your novel, poem or play? Completely new to the world of creative writing? Want to improve your analytical reading skills? No matter where you are in your writing journey, or where you are in the world, there is a part-time course to suit you.

Short online courses

Our short online courses in creative writing include live-time weekly classes, day and weekend schools and flexible online courses.

Credit earned from our short online courses is transferable towards our Certificate of Higher Education - a part-time undergraduate course in which you study a main subject discipline but also undertake study in other academic subjects.

Browse short online courses in creative writing

Diploma in Creative Writing

Our two-year, part-time Undergraduate Diploma in Creative Writing allows you to strengthen your ability in four major areas of literary activity — prose, poetry, drama and analytical reading — as well as the chance to specialise in the medium of your choice. You can now opt to take this course mostly online.

Find out more about the Diploma in Creative Writing

Upcoming courses

Advanced creative writing (online).

• Wed 08 Jan 2025 – 21 Mar 2025

Trollope, Eliot, Dickens and Hardy: Reading Victorian Fiction (Online)

Writing lives (online), contemporary british fiction (online).

• Mon 13 Jan 2025 – 28 Mar 2025

Critical Reading (Online)

Literature, creative writing and film studies

Online courses in literature, rita mccormick, tessa fenley, student spotlights.

Yale Creative Writing

• English Department

Students from all disciplines in Yale College enroll in the department’s creative writing courses. For students who wish to try their hand at learning basic elements of craft, the department recommends  English 123, Introduction to Creative Writing . This course, combining the small workshop format with lectures and readings by distinguished writers, offers hands-on experience in fiction, poetry, and drama. It is open to all undergraduates, without prerequisite or application.  Read more …

A comprehensive list of readings at Yale can be found  here .

News and Events

TYR Fiction Writers Announced as Finalists for ASME’s 2023 National Magazine Awards

Anne Fadiman in Harper's on Bunky the Frog

Yale Henry Fellow Emil Sands' article in The Atlantic

Louise Gluck delivers 2022 Foundational Courses Lecture

Yale Younger Poets Prize winner Mary-Alice Daniel '08

Lillie Lainoff ('18) Publishes Debut Novel: One For All

Pictures from some of our recent events can be found here .

Workshops are open by application to Harvard College undergraduates, graduate students, staff, and students from other institutions eligible for cross registration. Submission guidelines for workshops can be found under individual course listings; please do not query instructors.  Review all departmental rules and application instructions before applying.  

Fall 2024 Application Deadline: 11:59 pm ET on Sunday, April 7, 2024. Spring 2025 Application Deadline: 11:59pm ET on Sunday, November 10, 2024.

Please visit our course listings for all the Spring 2025 workshops.

Our online submission manager (link below) will open for Spring 2025 applications on October 23, 2024.

Students who have questions about the creative writing workshop application process should contact Lauren Bimmler at [email protected] .

To apply online:

Click here to Submit

Featured faculty.

Teju Cole  is a novelist, critic, and essayist, and is the first Gore Vidal Professor of the Practice. "Among other works, the boundary-crossing author is known for his debut novel “Open City” (2011), whose early admirers included Harvard professor and New Yorker critic James Wood." 

The Autobiography of My Mother: A Novel by Jamaica Kincaid (1996)

The burning girl by claire messud (2017), the last shot: city streets, basketball dream by darcy frey (2004), once the shore by paul yoon (2009), the emperor's children by claire messud (2007), the woman upstairs by claire messud (2013), the third hotel by laura van den berg (2018), the mountain: stories by paul yoon (2017), spring 2025, english calr. advanced screenwriting: workshop.

Instructor: Musa Syeed Wednesday, 12:45-2:45pm | Location: TBD Enrollment: Limited to 12 students The feature-length script is an opportunity to tell a story on a larger scale, and, therefore, requires additional preparation. In this class, we will move...

English CAMR. Advanced Playwriting: Workshop

Instructor: Sam Marks Monday, 12:00-2:45pm | Location: TBD Enrollment: Limited to 12 students. This workshop is a continued exploration of writing for the stage, with an eye towards presentation. The semester will culminate in a staged reading of each...

English CBBR. Intermediate Poetry: Workshop

Instructor: Josh Bell Monday, 12:00-2:45pm | Location: TBD Enrollment: Limited to 12 students Initially, students can expect to read, discuss, and imitate the strategies of a wide range of poets writing in English; to investigate and reproduce prescribed...

English CBW. Fiction Workshop: Bending Worlds

Instructor: Laura van den Berg Tuesday, 12:00-2:45 pm | Location: TBD Enrollment: Limited to 12 students Julio Cortázar: “The fantastic breaks the crust of appearance … something grabs us by the shoulders to throw us outside ourselves.” This workshop will...

English CCFS. Fiction Workshop

Instructor: Teju Cole Section 1: Wednesday, 3:00-5:45pm | Location: TBD Section 2: Thursday, 3:00-5:45pm | Location: TBD Enrollment: Limited to 12 students This reading and writing intensive workshop for students who want to learn to write literary...

English CDB. Poetry Workshop

Instructor: Reginald Dwayne Betts Section 1 Monday, 3:00-5:45pm | Location: TBD Section 2 Monday, 6:00-8:45pm | Location: TBD Enrollment: Limited to 12 students This workshop will be an exploration into the ways that poets in the past have reckoned in...

English CHCR. Advanced Poetry: Workshop

Instructor: Josh Bell Tuesday, 12:00-2:45pm | Location: TBD Enrollment: Limited to 12 students By guided reading, classroom discussion, one on one conference, and formal and structural experimentation, members of the Advanced Poetry Workshop will look to...

English CLAR. Getting the Words Right: The Art of Revision

Instructor: Laura van den Berg Wednesday, 9:00-11:45am | Location: TBD Enrollment: Limited to 12 students A promising draft is of little use to us as writers if we have no idea what to do next, of how to begin again. This course aims to illuminate how...

English CLPG. Art of Sportswriting

Instructor: Louisa Thomas Monday, 9:00-11:45am | Location: TBD Enrollment: Limited to 12 students In newsrooms, the sports section is sometimes referred to as the “toy department” -- frivolous and unserious, unlike the stuff of politics, business, and war...

English CLR. Introduction to Screenwriting: Workshop

Instructor: Musa Syeed Tuesday, 12:45-2:45pm | Location: TBA Enrollment: Limited to 12 students The short film, with its relatively lower costs of production and expanded distribution opportunities, has become one of the most disruptive, innovative modes...

English CMCO. Creative Nonfiction Workshop: Comedy and Creative Nonfiction

Instructor: Melissa Cundieff Thursday, 12:00-2:45 pm | Location: TBD Enrollment: Limited to 12 students In this workshop-based class, students will be asked to use humor as the bedrock of their creative nonfiction writing. Humor connects us as human...

English CMFG. Past Selves and Future Ghosts

Instructor: Melissa Cundieff Thursday, 3:00-5:45 pm | Location: TBD Enrollment: Limited to 12 students As memoirist and author Melissa Febos puts it: “The narrator is never you, and the sooner we can start thinking of ourselves on the page that way, the...

English CNFJ. Narrative Journalism

Instructor: Darcy Frey Course Site Spring 2025: Thursday, 3:00-5:45pm | Location: TBD Enrollment: Limited to 12 students. In this hands-on writing workshop, we will study the art of narrative journalism in many different forms: Profile writing...

English CNFR. Creative Nonfiction: Workshop

Instructor: Darcy Frey Course Site Spring 2025: Wednesday, 3:00-5:45 pm | Location: TBD Enrollment: Limited to 12 students Whether it takes the form of literary journalism, essay, memoir, or environmental writing, creative nonfiction is a powerful genre...

English CPY. Fiction Writing: Workshop

Instructor: Paul Yoon Monday, 12:00-2:45 pm | Location: TBD Enrollment: Limited to 12 students. An introductory workshop where we will learn to read as writers and study all aspects of the craft of fiction writing, including such topics as character...

English CRLC. Fiction: Craft and Workshop

Instructor: Raven Leilani Section 1: Monday, 9:00-11:45am | Location: TBD Section 2: Monday, 12:00-2:45pm | Location: TBD Enrollment: Limited to 12 students In this creative writing workshop, we will read/annotate workshop pieces and assigned readings. We...

English CWNM. Nonfiction Writing for Magazines

Instructor: Maggie Doherty Monday, 3:00-5:45pm | Location: TBD Enrollment: Limited to 12 students This course will focus on the genres of nonfiction writing commonly published in magazines: the feature, the profile, the personal essay, and longform arts...

English CACD. The Art of Criticism

Instructor: Maggie Doherty Wednesday, 12:00-2:45pm | Location: TBD Enrollment: Limited to 12 students Course Site This course will consider critical writing about art–literary, visual, cinematic, musical, etc.—as an art in its own right. We will read and...

English CACF. Get Real: The Art of Community-Based Film

Instructor: Musa Syeed Wednesday, 12:00-2:45pm | Location: TBD Enrollment: Limited to 12 student Course Site “I’ve often noticed that we are not able to look at what we have in front of us,” the Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami said, “unless it’s inside...

English CAFR. Advanced Fiction Workshop: Writing this Present Life

Instructor: Claire Messud Thursday, 3:00-5:45 pm | Location: TBD Enrollment: Limited to 12 students Course Site Intended for students with prior fiction-writing and workshop experience, this course will concentrate on structure, execution and revision...

English CAKV. Fiction Workshop: Writing from the First-Person Point of View

Instructor: Andrew Krivak Tuesday, 9:00-11:45 1m | Location: TBD Enrollment: Limited to 12 students Course Site This course is a workshop intended for students who are interested in writing longer form narratives from the first-person point of view. The...

Instructor: Josh Bell Monday, 12:00-2:45pm | Location: Barker 018 Enrollment: Limited to 12 students Course Site Initially, students can expect to read, discuss, and imitate the strategies of a wide range of poets writing in English; to investigate and...

English CCSS. Fiction Workshop: The Art of the Short Story

Instructor: Laura van den Berg Tuesday, 12:00-2:45 pm | Location: TBD Enrollment: Limited to 12 students Course Site This course will serve as an introduction to the fundamentals of writing fiction, with an emphasis on the contemporary short story. How...

Instructor: Reginald Dwayne Betts Section 1: Tuesday, 9:00-11:45 am | Location: TBD Section 2: Tuesday, 12:00-2:45 pm | Location: TBD Enrollment: Limited to 12 students Course Site- Section 1 Course Site- Section 2 This workshop will be an exploration...

English CFE. Advanced Fiction

Instructor: Neel Mukherjee Wednesday, 3:00-5:45 pm | Location: TBD Enrollment: Limited to 12 students Course Site The course will consist of two halves. In the first hour of each class, we will be doing close readings/literary-critical analyses of an...

Instructor: Josh Bell Tuesday, 12:45-2:45pm | Location: TBD Enrollment: Limited to 12 students. Course Site By guided reading, classroom discussion, one on one conference, and formal and structural experimentation, members of the Advanced Poetry Workshop...

English CIHR. Reading and Writing the Personal Essay: Workshop

Instructor: Michael Pollan Monday, 3:00-5:45 pm | Location: TBD Enrollment: Limited to 12 students Course Site There are few literary forms quite as flexible as the personal essay. The word comes from the French verb essai, “to attempt,” hinting at the...

English CLLW. Life Writing

Instructor: Louisa Thomas Tuesday, 9:00-11:45am | Location: TBD Enrollment: Limited to 12 students Course Site How does one tell -- vividly, interestingly -- the story of a life? How do we access a private life, or situate it in a public world? What if...

Instructor: Musa Syeed Tuesday, 12:00-2:45 pm | Location: TBD Enrollment: Limited to 12 students Course Site The short film, with its relatively lower costs of production and expanded distribution opportunities, has become one of the most disruptive...

English CMMU. Creative Nonfiction Workshop: Using Music

Instructor: Melissa Cundieff Tuesday, 12:00-2:45pm | Location: TBD Enrollment: Limited to 12 students Course Site In this workshop-based class, students will think deeply about how music is often at the center of their experiences, may it be as a song, an...

English CNSR. Narrative Science Journalism: Workshop

Instructor: Michael Pollan Wednesday, 3:00-5:45 pm | Location: TBD Enrollment: Limited to 12 students Course Site The arc of this writing workshop will follow, step by step, the process of researching and writing a single long piece of science journalism...

English CNYA. Creative Nonfiction Workshop: Young Adult Writing

Instructor: Melissa Cundieff Thursday, 3:00-5:45pm | Location: TBD Enrollment: Limited to 12 students Course Site In this workshop-based class, students will consider themes that intersect with the Young Adult genre: gender and sexuality, romantic and...

Instructor: Paul Yoon Section 1: Monday, 12:00-2:45 pm | Location: TBD Section 2: Monday, 3:00-5:45 pm | Location: TBD Enrollment: Limited to 12 students. Course Site- Section 1 Course Site- Section 2 An introductory workshop where we will learn to read...

English CSJM. Who Do You Think You Are: A Creative Nonfiction Workshop

Instructor: Saeed Jones Thursday, 12:00-2:45 pm | Location: TBD Enrollment: Limited to 12 students People don’t just happen. In this workshop-based class, students will explore the capacity of memoir and cultural criticism to illuminate their...

English CTV. Writing for Television: Developing the Pilot: Workshop

Instructor: Sam Marks Monday, 12:00-2:45pm | Location: TBD Enrollment: Limited to 12 students Course Site This workshop introduces the television pilot with a focus on prestige drama and serialized comedy. Students will excavate their own voice and...

Spring 2024

English cacw. advanced fiction workshop.

Instructor: Paul Yoon TBD | Location: TBD Enrollment: Limited to 12 students Advanced fiction workshop for students who have already taken a workshop at Harvard or elsewhere. The goal of the class is to continue your journey as a writer. You will be...

Instructor: Melissa Cundieff Wednesday, 12:00-2:45 pm | Location: Barker 316 Enrollment: Limited to 12 students Course Site As memoirist and author Melissa Febos puts it: “The narrator is never you, and the sooner we can start thinking of ourselves on the...

English CCEP. Ekphrastic Poetry: Workshop

Instructor: Tracy K. Smith Wednesday, 3:00-5:45 pm | Location: Lamont 401 Enrollment: Limited to 12 students Course Site What can a poem achieve when it contemplates or even emulates a work of art in another medium? In this workshop, we'll read and write...

English CCFC. Poetry Workshop: Form & Content

Instructor: Tracy K. Smith Tuesday, 12:00-2:45pm | Location: Sever 112 Enrollment: Limited to 12 students Course Site In this workshop, we’ll look closely at the craft-based choices poets make, and track the effects they have upon what we as readers are...

English CCIJ. Intermediate Fiction Workshop

Instructor: Jesse McCarthy Thursday, 3:00-5:45 pm | Location: Barker 269 Enrollment: Limited to 12 students Course Site This is an intermediate course in the art of writing literary fiction. Previous experience with workshopping writing is encouraged but...

English CFMR. Interiority & Experience: Writing Character-Driven Fiction: Workshop

Instructor: Claire Messud Wednesday, 3:00-5:45pm | Location: Barker 269 Enrollment: Limited to 12 students This course approaches the writing of fiction with character at its center. If fiction is an exploration of what it’s like to be alive on the planet...

English CGF. Genre Fiction Workshop: Sci-Fi, Speculative Fiction, Horror, The Ghost Story, The New Weird

Instructor: Neel Mukherjee Wednesday, 3:00-5:45pm | Location: Barker 018 Enrollment: Limited to 12 students Course Site The course will consist of two halves. In the first hour of each class, we will be doing close readings of an assigned text, with the...

English CMCC. Covid, Grief, and Afterimage

Instructor: Melissa Cundieff Wednesday, 3:00-5:45 pm | Location: Barker 269 Enrollment: Limited to 12 students Course Site In this workshop-based course we will write about our personal lived experiences with loss and grief born from the Covid-19 pandemic...

English CNFD. Creative Nonfiction

Instructor: Maggie Doherty Tuesday, 12:00-2:45 pm | Location: Sever 205 Enrollment: Limited to 12 students Course Site This course is an overview of the creative nonfiction genre and the many different types of writing that are included within it: memoir...

English CRGS. The Surrounds: Writing Interiority and Outsiderness

Instructor: Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah Thursday, 12:00-2:45 pm | Location: Lamont 401 Enrollment: Limited to 12 students Course Site The essayist, the writer of non-fiction, has historically been an oracle of opinions that most often go unsaid. They do not...

English CVLL. Art of Listening. The Politics and Aesthetics of Sound

Instructor: Valeria Luiselli Wednesday, 12:45-2:45 pm | Location: Lamont 401 Enrollment: Limited to 12 students Course Site This is a course for anyone who is interested in the politics and aesthetics of sound. We will work on developing listening...

Write an Honors Creative Thesis

Students may apply to write a senior thesis or senior project in creative writing, although only English concentrators can be considered. Students submit applications in March of their junior year, including first-term juniors who are out of phase. The creative writing faculty considers the proposal, along with the student's overall performance in creative writing and other English courses, and notifies students about its decision in early April. Those applications are due, this coming year, on March 26, 2025 . 

Students applying for a creative writing thesis or project must have completed at least one course in creative writing at Harvard before they apply. No student is guaranteed acceptance. It is strongly suggested that students acquaint themselves with the requirements and guidelines well before the thesis application is due. The creative writing director must approve any exceptions to the requirements, which must be made in writing by Monday, February 10, 2025. Since the creative writing thesis and project are part of the English honors program, acceptance to write a creative thesis is conditional upon the student continuing to maintain a 3.40 concentration GPA. If a student’s concentration GPA drops below 3.40 after the spring of the junior year, the student may not be permitted to continue in the honors program.

Joint concentrators may apply to write creative theses, but we suggest students discuss the feasibility of the project well before applications are due. Not all departments are open to joint creative theses.

Students who have questions about the creative writing thesis should contact the program’s Director, Sam Marks .

Events Gallery

Writers in the parlor: michael pollan.

Writers in the Parlor: Margaret Atwood

Annie Baker and Sam Gold

Writers in the Parlor: Laura van den Berg & Paul Yoon

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