English
The power of written words remains a constant in every generation. In our English program in literary studies, you'll cultivate valuable skills in writing and critical thinking while exploring literary works by diverse writers. Courses stress the importance of critical reading, literary history, writing, and research to provide you with a background suitable for many kinds of careers. Our diverse faculty teaches and publishes across the historical and theoretical spectrum, and students benefit from an interdisciplinary mix (for example, a course on crime fiction co-taught by faculty in English and sociology).
Creative Writing
For over fifty years undergraduate writers have been receiving degrees in creative writing from SUNY Oswego. The poet Lewis Turco established creative writing at Oswego in 1963 and since then the program has prospered. We have seven full-time faculty writers, a host of visiting and adjunct writers, and two hundred and twenty five students in our major and minor. The Program in Creative Writing is one of the largest and best staffed undergraduate writing programs in the United States, and it has been recognized by the national organization, Associated Writing Programs (AWP).
Students in the program may concentrate in poetry, fiction, graphic storytelling (comics & graphic novels), screenwriting, and creative nonfiction. In consultation with the writers in the program, students choose to focus their work in a combination of two of these genres. Introductory courses in each genre are followed by workshops; these workshops are in turn followed by senior seminars that focus upon specific issues. A workshop in writing the short story, for instance, may be followed by a senior seminar in writing science fiction and fantasy, or mysteries, or flash fiction.
By the time they graduate students in creative writing are adept at multiple forms of writing, public speaking and performance, critical thinking, and they understand the professional standards and requirements of the discipline. If writing is your passion, contact Laura Donnelly [email protected]