Welcome to the Fiction Writing Department at Columbia
College, home to the Story Workshop approach
and one of the largest, most successful creative
writing programs in the country.
The Fiction Writing Department
offers four-year undergraduate BA and BFA
majors in Fiction Writing and in Playwriting (Interdisciplinary
with the Theater Department),
as well as minors in Fiction, Creative Nonfiction
(with English and Journalism) and Playwriting
(with Theater). It also offers graduate programs
leading to an MFA in Creative Writing—Fiction, to an MA
in the Teaching of Writing, and to a Combined
Degree.
CSPA Gold Crown (2006)
CSPA Silver Crown (2005)
The nearly 600 students registered in the Fiction Writing
Department come from very diverse backgrounds; and the
approach, as well as course offerings, are designed
both to engage that diversity of voices, cultures, and
visions and to prepare students for successful work
in novel, short
story, and creative
nonfiction essay, as well as in playwriting, publishing,
electronic applications of fiction writing training,
and the teaching of writing. In addition, training
received in core Story Workshop classes and in
the most extensive offering of supplementary Specialty
and Critical Reading and Writing courses of any
program in the country enhances skills essential
for success in a wide variety of professions.
At Columbia, you will be trained in all aspects
of the creative process, not simply the editing
skills developed in traditional workshops found
at other creative writing programs. The nationally
renowned Story Workshop
CSPA Gold Crown (2004)
CSPA Silver Crown (2003)
method of teaching
writing, originated and developed by former Department
Chairperson John Schultz and used in
the four-level core sequence, focuses on helping you
hear your own individual l voice and provides a supportive,
interactive, and challenging environment for developing
your
CSPA Gold Crown (2002)
CSPA Silver Crown (2001)
reading, writing,
listening, speaking, critical thinking, and imaginative
problem-solving capacities.
In addition to specially
designed discovery activities in class, you will
receive direct guidance from personal conferences
with faculty whose own excellent writing is matched
only by their commitment to excellent teaching.
An unparalleled range of other supports and opportunities
await you, including Story Workshop peer tutoring,
the Fiction Writers at Lunch mentoring program,
study abroad in Prague, residence at the Semester
in L.A. program, Story Workshop tutor training
and community outreach teaching, excellent internships,
editing on
department journals, an annual Career
Night, and a host of undergraduate and graduate open
mic and other readings.
The Fiction Writing Department sponsors
the acclaimed Story Week Festival of Writers each spring,
cosponsors Creative Nonfiction Week each fall, and offers
an active Visiting Writer program, including numerous
class visits by writers, agents, editors, and publishers
on a regular basis, all of which will expose you to
the best professionals in the writing world. Visiting
writers such as Irvine Welsh,
CSPA Silver Crown (2000)
CSPA Silver Crown (1999)
Edwidge Danticat,
Jane Hamilton, Junot Diaz, Hubert Selby, Jr.,
Dave Eggers, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Richard
Price, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Valerie Wilson
Wesley, Sherman Alexie, Dorothy Allison, Charles
Johnson, Sandra Cisneros, and many others
reflect the rich diversity of voices that the
department seeks to foster among its students
The Fiction Writing Department
is home to two journals. F Magazine,
the nationally distributed journal primarily devoted
to novels in progress, features the work of award-winning
writers from Columbia and around the world, and
has won a number of Illinois Arts Council prizes.
And the student-edited,
award-winning
magazine Hair Trigger, featuring
the best of the best from Story Workshop and other classes
in the Fiction Writing program, is a perennial winner
of national prizes, including first-place awards from
the Associated Writing Programs, from the Coordinating
Council of Literary Magazines, and from the Columbia
University Scholastic Press Association.
Every year, our student writers in
Hair Trigger win top CSPA individual
awards in Traditional Fiction, Experimental Fiction,
creative nonfiction Essay, and Humor categories. “A
beautiful, impressive magazine,” the CSPA judge
commented on Hair Trigger 26, which
won a Silver Crown award in
March 2005.
“The stories are exceptional in their scope
and ambition, and range of styles or genres—from
realism to parody to fantasy or ‘magical
realism.’ The creative nonfiction constitutes
some of its best writing. The essays reach and
take risks at the same time as they adopt a fearless
honesty toward their subjects.”
Gold Crown CSPA awards to Hair
Trigger 14, 17, 23, and 25
are among the over twenty top prizes given to
this magazine in national competitions. Of Hair
Trigger 14, the AWP judge said, “Hair
Trigger walks away with first prize."
CSPA Silver Crown (1998)
CSPA Gold Crown (1996)
Writing students work
with a faculty of professionals engaged in writing novels,
short stories, creative nonfiction essays, plays, radio
scripts, screenplays, prose for children and young adults,
and various types of genre fiction. The work of Fiction
Writing students reflects this rich variety of forms,
modes, and genres. At Columbia, you will also learn how
to put your imaginative, conceptual, critical
thinking, organizational,
and communication skills to work flexibly and
well in a wide range of jobs and professions.
We invite you to peruse our web
site and contact us for more information about
the tradition of excellence in the Fiction Writing
Department at Columbia College Chicago. Let us
help you learn how to tell the stories you want
to tell and, in the process, open up new possibilities
for a more fulfilling future.
Randall Albers Chairperson
Fiction Writing Department
