Creative Writing Major
Hone your creativity, writing, and editing skills at Cornell College
Cornell’s Creative Writing Program has been named a Top Program by CreativeWritingEDU. That’s because you can study many writing genres, learn about the writer’s life from working writers, and write more than you ever thought possible in 18 days.
Our world is hungry for effective communicators and creative thinkers. Adept writing is central to all career fields, and learning the skills to transform your thoughts to the written word will empower you to communicate for yourself, for others, and for an entire organization. Whether you’re most interested in long-form writing like novels, or shorter forms like zines, flash fiction, poems, and essays, you’ll explore a wide array of creative writing approaches that you’ll understand deeply and transform into a style of your very own.
When you study One Course At A Time, you’ll be able to have dedicated focus for your writing. You can combine a few hours of writing, research and reading, workshopping, and editing all into one day without needing to shift focus to another subject. And there's time for you to write.
The flexibility of the block plan allows professors to set aside long blocks of time for her students to write without distractions or other obligations intruding, which is a writer’s dream. Professor Rebecca Entel brings in alumni and local writers to share tips and participate in write-in sessions on campus. Entel says that students of the course leave with more confidence in their abilities and develop more discipline to tackle big projects. She also says that students often express how meaningful it is to them to work on projects they’ve been thinking about for years. Learn about how this influenced Riley Sullivan to pursue a double major in creative writing and religion.
Explore more aspects of creative writing.
Center for the Literary ArtsOpen Field MagazineHonors and Awards
Creative writing courses and degree requirements
Writers write. That’s how we grow as writers and find inspiration. At Cornell you’ll have the opportunity to find inspiration both on campus and outside the traditional classroom by taking courses that lead you into the field or taking on internships for credit where you will work with organizations on real writing projects that help you clarify your goals, make connections, and complete meaningful tasks.
Creative writing capstone
Your capstone allows you to devote an entire block to a creative project of your choice in a small Senior Workshop with close mentoring by a faculty member. In addition to writing, workshopping, and framing your work with an artist's statement, you will plan for the future by learning about publishing, speaking with alums about their paths since graduation, and hearing from panels of working writers. You will complete your major with a project to be proud of and a plan for including creative work in your post-college life in meaningful ways. This hands-on capstone satisfies an Ingenuity in Action experience–and past capstone projects have won awards, received Honors, been published, featured at Student Symposium, and served as writing samples for applications.
Research opportunities for writers
Research for creative writers can take many exciting forms: reading, exploring the archives, traveling, interviewing, observing, experiencing something new. Undergraduate research at Cornell is an opportunity for you to explore subject matter that is important to you that isn’t offered as a formal course in the curriculum. You will work closely with a faculty advisor and internal or external mentor to dive into a subject. A research project can be completed as a block-long project during the school term or during the summer as a part of the Cornell Summer Research Institute. Research projects satisfy one of your Ingenuity in Action requirements.
Off-campus study opportunities
Many courses allow you to get out of the classroom and get lost in the archives or explore the world. You will have many opportunities to work on and design projects that combine academic inquiry and creative practice. Our program regularly offers off-campus classes to study Chicago’s vibrant literary scene, creative writing in the Bahamas, and nature writing in the Wilderness Field Station in northern Minnesota.
Internship opportunities for writers
As a writer, you’ll want to explore different styles of writing and how your writing can be used in the wider world. Recent student internships in creative writing have included editing for Cleaver Magazine and Small Harbor Publishing, reporting and writing for IowaWatch.org, and learning about arts administration in creative writing at the Chautauqua Writers’ Center. The Berry Career Institute and the Ingenuity in Action program can help you identify opportunities, assist with funding for qualified experiences, and help you prepare your internship applications and resume.
What are Cornell students doing in internships? Check out their blogs
Writing career and graduate study paths of alums
Our recent graduates have gone on to establish careers as technical writers, copyeditors, editors (websites, educational materials, newsletters), grant writers for nonprofits, communications directors, video game story developers, librarians, college instructors (creative writing and composition), high school teachers, private tutors, guidance counselors, journalists and Fulbright Scholars in Spain and Germany.
We also see students pursuing advanced degrees in:
Editing and publishing: Denver Publishing Institute, Colorado; University of Chicago, Illinois; Columbia University, New York
Creative writing: NYU-Paris, University of Miami, Writer's Foundry at Saint Joseph's University
Library school: University of Sheffield, University of Illinois, University of Wisconsin, University of Iowa
Master’s programs: M.A. Program at Western Illinois University in Literature, Writing Studies, and Cultural Studies, and the NYU M.A. in Humanities and Social Thought
The Berry Career Institute can help you identify what you’ll pursue with your knowledge of effective communication through digital media.