Creative Writing

The vital presence of creative writing in the English Department is reflected by our many distinguished authors who teach our workshops. We offer courses each term in fiction, poetry, nonfiction, screenwriting, playwriting, and television writing. Our workshops are small, usually no more than twelve students, and offer writers an opportunity to focus intensively on one genre. 

Apply to Creative Writing Workshops

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: TBD

Please visit our course listings for all the Fall 2024 workshops.

Our online submission manager (link below) will open for Fall 2024 applications on Friday, March 22, 2024.

Students who have questions about the creative writing workshop application process should contact Case Q. Kerns at cqkerns@fas.harvard.edu.

To apply online:
submit

Featured Faculty

Teju Cole

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." 

Read more

Creative Writing Workshops

English CACD. The Art of Criticism

Instructor: Maggie Doherty
Monday, 12:00-2:45pm | Location: Barker 018
Enrollment: Limited to 12 students
Course Site

This course will consider critical writing about art—literary, visual, or cinematic—as an art in its own right. We will read and discuss criticism from a wide variety of publications, paying attention to the ways outlet and audience shape critical work. Our focus will be on longform criticism (narrative and/or argumentative) as opposed to short-form, primarily evaluative reviews. The majority of our readings will be from the last several years and will include pieces by Andrea Long Chu, Tausif Noor, Namwali Serpell, and Justin Taylor. Students will write several short writing assignments (500-1000 words) during the first half of the semester and share them with peers. During the second half of the semester, each student will write and workshop a longer piece of criticism about a work of art or an artist of their choosing. Students will be expected to read and provide detailed feedback on the work of their peers. Students will revise their longer pieces based on workshop feedback and submit them for the final assignment of the class.

This course is open to writers of all levels, but writers should have studied or worked creatively in the field of art they plan to engage critically. In other words, if you plan to write art criticism, you should have taken some classes in art history, or you should have a creative practice in the visual arts. Similarly, if you’d like to write film criticism, you should have taken some film studies classes, or you should have a filmmaking background. If you are unsure whether you have the necessary background for this class, please email me.

Apply via Submittable (deadline: 11:59pm EDT on Saturday, August 26)

Supplemental Application Information: Please write a letter of introduction (1-2 pages) giving a sense of who you are, your writing experience, and your current goals for your writing. Please also describe your relationship to the art forms and/or genres you're interested in engaging in the course. You may also list any writers or publications whose criticism you enjoy reading. Please also include a 3-5 writing sample in which you write about art. This sample may be creative (a personal essay, an excerpt from a piece of fiction) or it may be academic. 

English CBBR. Intermediate Poetry: Workshop

Instructor: Josh Bell 
Tuesday, 6:00-8:45pm | 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 reproduce prescribed forms and poetic structures; and to engage in writing exercises meant to expand the conception of what a poem is and can be. As the course progresses, reading assignments will be tailored on an individual basis, and an increasing amount of time will be spent in discussion of student work.

Apply via Submittable (deadline: 11:59pm EDT on Saturday, August 26)

Supplemental Application Information: Please submit a portfolio including a letter of interest, ten poems, and a list of classes (taken at Harvard or elsewhere) that seem to have bearing on your enterprise.

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 poems that engage with other art forms--and we'll test out what a foray into another artistic practice allows us to carry back over into the formal methods and behaviors of poetry. With poems by Keats, Rilke, Auden, Hughes, and Brooks, as well as Kevin Young, Evie Shockley, Ama Codjoe and other contemporary voices.

Apply via Submittable (deadline: 11:59pm EDT on Saturday, August 26)

Supplemental Application Information: Please submit a writing sample of 5-10 poems and an application letter explaining your interest in this course.

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

Instructor: Laura van den Berg
Wednesday, 9:00-11:45 am | Location: Lamont 401
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 can we set about creating “big” worlds in compact spaces? What unique doors can the form of the short story open? The initial weeks will focus on exploratory exercises and the study of published short stories and craft essays. Later, student work will become the primary text as the focus shifts to workshop discussion. Authors on the syllabus will likely include Ted Chiang, Jonathan Escoffery, Lauren Groff, Edward P. Jones, Ling Ma, Carmen Maria Machado, and Octavia Butler. This workshop welcomes writers of all levels of experience.  

Apply via Submittable (deadline: 11:59pm EDT on Saturday, August 26)

Supplemental Application Information: Please submit a brief letter—1-2 pages—that discusses your interest in the course and in writing more broadly. What are you interested in working on and learning more about, at this point in your creative practice? A writing sample is not required for this application.  

English CHCR. Advanced Poetry: Workshop

Instructor: Josh Bell
Monday, 6:00-8:45pm | Location: Barker 018
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 will look to hone, deepen, and challenge the development of their poetic inquiry and aesthetic. Students will be required to write and submit one new poem each week and to perform in-depth, weekly critiques of their colleagues’ work.

Apply via Submittable (deadline: 11:59pm EDT on Saturday, August 26)

Supplemental Application Information: Please submit a portfolio including a letter of interest, ten poems, and a list of classes (taken at Harvard or elsewhere) that seem to have bearing on your enterprise.

English CLLW. Life Writing

Instructor: Louisa Thomas
Tuesday, 9:00-11:45am | Location: Lamont 401
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 the subject is dead, or is famous, or is oneself? What if the subject is a dog? How do we navigate archives or reporting? This course will examine the art of writing narrative nonfiction about individual lives. We will read and discuss examples of profiles, biographies, and memoir/personal essays, paying special attention to structure, language, and style. We will also read and discuss each other’s work. Students are expected to produce (and to revise) two pieces of longform nonfiction writing. Readings by authors such as Hilton Als, Rachel Aviv, Robert Caro, Wesley Morris, Hua Hsu, and others. 

Apply via Submittable (deadline: 11:59pm EDT on Saturday, August 26)

Supplemental Application Information: To apply, please write a letter introducing yourself and explaining why you want to take the course. Include a couple of examples of profiles, biographies, memoirs, or essays that you admire, along with a sentence or two explaining why. All levels of experience are welcome.

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English CPWR. Poetry: Workshop

Instructor: Jorie Graham
Tuesday, 6:00-8:45pm | Location: TBD
Enrollment: Limited to 12 students
Course Site

Open by application to both undergraduates and graduates. Class includes the discussion of literary texts as well as work written by students.

For Spring 2024, the class will be remote only.

Supplemental Application Information: Please submit a portfolio including a letter of interest, ten poems, and a list of classes (taken at Harvard or elsewhere) that seem to have bearing on your enterprise.

Apply via Submittable (deadline: 11:59pm ET on Saturday, November 4)

English CCFS. Fiction Workshop

Instructor: Teju Cole
Tuesday, 6:00-8:45pm | Location: TBD
Enrollment: Limited to 12 students
Course Site

This reading and writing intensive workshop is for students who want to learn to write literary fiction. The goal of the course would be for each student to produce two polished short stories. Authors on the syllabus will probably include James Joyce, Eudora Welty, Toni Morrison, Alice Munro, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Diane Williams.

Supplemental Application Information: Please submit a cover letter saying what you hope to get out of the workshop. In the cover letter, mention three works of fiction that matter to you and why. In addition, submit a 400–500 word sample of your fiction; the sample can be self-contained or a section of a longer work.

Apply via Submittable (deadline: 11:59pm ET on Saturday, November 4)

English CFF. From Fact to Fiction: Finding & Shaping a Story: Workshop

Instructor: Claire Messud
Wednesday, 3:00-5:45pm | Location: TBD
Enrollment: Limited to 12 students
Course Site

In this course, we will explore the evolution of a story from a factual anecdote or incident to a fictional creation. The aims of the semester are to learn to listen to someone else’s story in interviews, and to endeavor to find, from there, the necessary bones for a fictional narrative. What is most urgent? What is most emotionally affecting? What are the details from an interview that stay with you? And from there: what, from a broader account, is the story you are moved to relate? Once you make that choice, how do you do further research, if necessary? How do you select the point of view, the frame, the characters for your fiction? What are the ethics and responsibilities of these choices? We will read work by writers who have transformed fact into fiction, some of whom will visit the class. Past visitors include Geraldine Brooks, Akhil Sharma, Amity Gaige, Meng Jin and Paul Yoon. No previous fiction-writing experience is required for this class.

Supplemental Application Information: Admission by application only. Please submit a brief letter explaining why you're interested to take this class, and, if you've a subject in mind, why it's interesting to you. There is no prerequisite for this course: all who are interested are welcome to apply. For your writing sample, submit 2-5 pages of creative work of any genre. If you haven't written creatively before, you might consider writing a brief character sketch or memoir piece. 

Apply via Submittable (deadline: 11:59pm ET on Saturday, November 4)

English CNL. The Novel Lab: Studying Long-Form Narratives in Fiction

Instructor: Paul Yoon
Monday 3:00-5:45pm | Location: TBD
Enrollment: Limited to 12 students.
Course Site

What defines a novel? And what does it mean to read one as a writer? How does a painter consider a painting or a photographer a photo? This readings class will study novels through the point of view of a practicing writer. We will read one novel a week, with the goal of exploring the ways in which long-form narratives are constructed, from chapter to chapter, from one movement to another—that is, the architecture of it. Please note: this is not a typical workshop. You will not be sharing you work every week, though later on in the semester we may participate in small group workshops and readings. Consider the class an investigation into all the tools a writer has to create fiction, with the end goal of producing 2 - 3 chapters of the beginning of a novel as your final project.

Supplemental Application Information: Please submit ONLY a letter to me. I want to know what your favorite novel is and why; and then tell me something you are passionate about and something you want to be better at; and, lastly, tell me why of all classes you want to take this one this semester. Please no writing samples. Again, note: This is NOT a typical workshop.

Apply via Submittable (deadline: 11:59pm ET on Saturday, November 4)

English CWP. Words & Photographs: Workshop

Instructor: Teju Cole
Wednesday, 3:00-5:45pm | Location: TBD
Enrollment: Limited to 12 students
Course Site

For almost two centuries now, words have accompanied photographs, sometimes to sublime effect. In this writing-intensive workshop, we will model our work on the various ways writers have responded to photographs: through captions, criticism, fiction, and experiments. Students will learn close-looking, research, and editing, and will be expected to complete a “words and photographs” project using their own photographs or photographs made by others. 

Supplemental Application Information: Please submit a photograph and up to a page of text responding (or perhaps not responding) to the photograph. In addition, submit a cover letter saying what you hope to get out of the workshop. The cover letter should mention three books in any genre that have been helpful to your writerly development.

Apply via Submittable (deadline: 11:59pm ET on Saturday, November 4)

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. Exploring various strands of contemporary and recent literary fiction – writers such as Karl Ove Knausgaard, Rachel Cusk, Chimamanda Adichie, Douglas Stuart, Ocean Vuong, etc – we will consider how fiction works in our present moment, with emphasis on a craft perspective. Each student will present to the class a published fiction that has influenced them. The course is primarily focused on the discussion of original student work, with the aim of improving both writerly skills and critical analysis. Revision is an important component of this class: students will workshop two stories and a revision of one of these.

Supplemental Application Information: Please submit 3-5 pages of prose fiction, along with a substantive letter of introduction. I’d like to know why you’re interested in the course; what experience you’ve had writing, both in previous workshops and independently; what your literary goals and ambitions are. Please tell me about some of your favorite narratives – fiction, non-fiction, film, etc: why they move you, and what you learn from them.

Apply via Submittable (deadline: 11:59pm ET on Saturday, November 4)

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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 early 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 mid-late March. Those applications are due, this coming year, on TBA

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 7, 2022. 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.