Creative writing is an ever-expanding field of study, with more and more schools offering it as a separate major from your standard English track. Unfortunately, as more creative writing programs crop up, it can be hard to separate the wheat from the chaff and figure out which programs are the best! Here are some of the top places to study creative writing nationwide.
For international students interested in studying creative writing, the proliferation of college creative writing programs across the United States is great – it offers a wealth of different options to fit any student’s learning style. But with so many choices comes the difficult task of narrowing your search down to the best schools for creative writing.
There’s no cut-and-dried way to determine the best schools by location, size, or any other clear criteria; instead, the top schools for creative writing stand out thanks to intangibles like reputation and quality of instruction. To help you start out your hunt, we give you some of the very best schools for creative writing in the US.
The University of Iowa
The University of Iowa in Iowa City is one of the top schools for creative writing largely thanks to its astoundingly prestigious Program in Creative Writing, known informally as the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Housed in an unassuming building on the school’s modest Midwestern campus, the Writers’ Workshop can be easily passed over by international students. Don’t make that mistake!
The Writer’s Workshop is a graduate program, awarding students an MFA in English upon completion. A student’s education there is built around either the Graduate Fiction or Graduate Poetry workshop, which she will take during all four semesters of the program. Outside of this intensive core writing focus are various other seminars on specific writing techniques as well as limited slots for electives in completely unrelated fields.
Even undergraduates in the English major’s Creative Writing Track will have some available courses through the esteemed Writers’ Workshop, making Iowa one of the best schools for creative writing undergraduates and graduates alike.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology
That’s right, the famously tech-oriented Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge (just outside of Boston) is surprisingly one of the country’s top schools for creative writing as well! Already known to many international students for its prowess in engineering and technology, M.I.T. also offers a unique and highly effective program in creative writing.
Creative writing is one of three writing disciplines offered through M.I.T.’s Writing and Humanistic Studies department as part of its Bachelor of Science in Writing, with the other two areas being Science Writing and Digital Media. While students can certainly focus only on creative writing, the presence of the other two writing types within the same degree program allows international students to diversify their writing education in a way just not possible anywhere else. The creative writing instruction itself is centered on fiction, nonfiction prose, and poetry, with additional classes covering more specific issues or genres like Writing about Race and Writing Science Fiction. If you’re looking for one of the top schools for creative writing, don’t overlook M.I.T. just because of its reputation as a techie’s paradise!
It can be a tough task, but putting in your research and finding the best schools for creative writing will help you pinpoint your top school to embark upon your writing career. Be open to different locations and learning styles, and you’ll have plenty of great options at your disposal!
Creative Writing Programs
Visit the Study in the USA School search to find schools that offer programs of study in Creative Writing.
