Shifting the Paradigm - Creative Writing goes Virtual
Creative Writing Specialization in English
Performance.
Poetry.
Screen & Stage Plays.
Story-telling . . .
CREATIVE WRITING SPECIALIZATION FOR UNDERGRADUATE ENGLISH MAJORS
This specialization offers courses for students interested in developing an original creative voice and a critical intention in their imaginative writings. Students may explore a variety of genres, including: poetry; writing for performance; dramatic writing for stage and screen; testimonio; creative nonfiction; the memoir; short and long fiction; oral and community story-telling; digital expressions, works in translation, and more.
Many courses emphasize embodied practice on the road to writing, and integrate discussions of the building blocks of ‘craft’ with larger discussions of indigenous language recuperation, social equity, the environment, decolonization and globalization. The specialization is designed to respond to the specificity and diversity of the students across the UCSB campus. The program especially encourages participation from historically underrepresented writers.
Faculty: Professors Stephanie Batiste, Felice Blake, Brian Donnelly, Yunte Huang, Shirley Geok-Lin Lim, Cherríe Moraga (Specialization Director); Ben Olguín, Swati Rana, Amrah Salomán and Candace Waid.
The English Department’s Creative Writing specialization is affiliated with Las Maestras Center for Xicana Indigenous Thought, Art and Social Practice, where students are offered on-going conversations with visiting writers and artists and access to off-campus community-based learning opportunities. For details regarding course requirements, contact: the undergraduate advisor at: thomashuff@hfa.ucsb.edu
In Spring 2020, Maestra Moraga’s class, “Chronicles of Desire – Creative and Critical Nonfiction Writing went online. A class of 25 students, we met virtually for a full eleven weeks. In the final weeks of the quarter, students also worked virtually in small groups to create a series of Final Public Chronicles in response to COVID-19 — its death toll; its impact on frontline workers; its deeply personal meanings from multiple cultural perspectives. We offer you this video as one example of our collective voice; created by the following writers, in order of presentation: Vicky López; Raveen Sivashanker; Olivia Berriz; Preetha Swaminathan; and, Lane Murphy.
THE LATINX PUBLC VOICE — A Graduate Seminar — Spring 2021
“In the Good Company” of students from the Departments of English, Chicana/o Studies & other UCSB grad programs. Through engagement with selected critical and literary texts by Latinx, Native and feminists of color writers, the course intends to make visible this invisible population changing the face and mind of the United States of North America. The course also serves to support students to develop a “public voice” in their own writings.
Writing for Performance Course . . . Fall 2019
Student Playwrights, Screenplay Writers and Performance Writers. Fall 2019, Taught by Maestra Moraga.
Writing for Performance
Taught by Profe Cherríe Moraga. Fall 2019.
Flor y Canto
In Xochitl, In Cuicatl
Poetry Reading and Writing: Fall 2018; to be offered again Fall 2020.
Poetry courses are offered consistently by people of color faculty in the department, as part of the Creative Writing specialization and a developing Race and Ethnicity specialization.
Visiting Writers
Faculty – Areas of Expertise:
· Poetry – Professors Lim, Huang, Moraga, Olguín, Rana, Salomón
· Fiction/Short Narrative/Testimonio –Professors Blake, Moraga, Olguín,
· Performance/Playwriting – Professors Batiste, Moraga
· Screenplay Writing – Professor Moraga
· Creative Non-fiction/Memoir –Professors Batiste, Blake, Lim, Moraga, Salomón, Waid
· Editing/design/publications – Professor Brian Donnelly, Catalyst Magazine
Course Requirements
For Creative Writing Specialization
Some of these courses are new or redesigned and will be added to UCSB catalogue and the department website, as they become available, beginning as early as Fall 2020. Previous creative writing courses through Spring 2020 may have different course numbers, but credit will be given for them. Check with the Director for any questions or concerns.
Lower Division
ENGL 10 AG. Introduction to Creative Writing – All genres.
(in lieu of this, ENGL 10, Intro to Literary Studies)
Required Courses for Upper Division – 4 courses – 16 unit total
Any 3 of the following courses
ENGL 106 CW Writing & Design for Publication - Catalyst Magazine
ENGL 106 A Screen/Playwriting Workshop
ENGL 106 B Advanced Screen/Playwriting Workshop
ENGL 107 The Craft of Fiction.
ENGL 107 S Advanced seminar in Fiction Writing
ENGL 108 MG Mixed Genre Creative Writing.
ENGL 108 CC Chronicles of Desire - Creative Critical Writing
ENGL 108 LP Latinx Performance.
ENGL 109 The Craft of Poetry.
ENGL 109 S Advanced seminar in Poetry Writing
ENGL 182 AA-ZZ The Craft of Prose -- Creative Nonfiction
ENGL 182 MA Memoir and Autobiography -- Texts & Writing Workshop
ENGL 182 LN Literary Nonfiction -- Texts & Writing Workshop
ENGL 183 AA-ZZ Creative Writing as Embodied Practice
ENGL 183 T Testimonio -- Texts and Praxis
ENGL 183 SW Spoken Word – Poetics and Praxis
ENGL 183 WP Writing for Performance
Plus: 1 ethnic-specific course within the major *
A least 25% creative writing required. Current options include:
ENGL 128 MM Modern Memoir
ENGL 134 AA-ZZ Studies in Literature of Cultural and Ethnic Communities in the United States
ENGL 134 FC Flor y Canto – Poetry Reading & Writing
ENGL 165 LW Life Writing -- Theories, Text and Creative Nonfiction
ENGL 176 AA-ZZ Performance of Literature
ENGL 176 BC The Performance of Literature - Black California
Upon completion of requirements, submit application for “Certification in Creative Writing” to Undergraduate Advisor.
* Students must confirm with Professor in advance their intention to apply CW Specialization credit for the course.
For full course descriptions visit: https://english.ucsb.edu/courses
To apply for Creative Writing Specialization, contact:
Thomas Huff, Undergraduate Advisor: thomashuff@hfa.ucsb.edu