Program Website

Stetson University's English Department offers a vibrant undergraduate program in creative writing for students of all interests and abilities. The creative writing faculty work with students who love language and wish to experiment in poetry, fiction, dramatic writing and creative nonfiction.

Students interested in committing themselves to creative writing beyond Stetson University will find that the English Department has an excellent record in placing student writers in M.F.A. and Ph.D. programs as well as distinguished writers' colonies and conferences. Stetson's program is a member of The Associated Writing Programs (AWP).

Students with an English major may add a creative writing minor with the completion of 18 additional credit hours. Students with a major other than English may earn a minor in creative writing by successfully completing 21 hours from a menu of courses.

Faculty

Our faculty includes:

• John Mark Powell, MFA, University of South Carolina; M.A.R., Yale Divinity School, assistant professor, teaches courses in fiction writing. He is the author of two novels, Prodigals and Blood Kin and is currently completing his third, The House of the Lord. He has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Breadloaf Writers' Conference and, in 2005, was the Vaclav Havel Fellow in Playwriting to the Prague Summer Program.
• Lori Jean Snook, Ph.D., University of Arizona; associate professor, specializes in dramatic writing, both of plays and film scripts. She currently is working on her fourth script and consults for a Los Angeles production company. She edited Aphra Behn's The Lucky Chance for The Broadview Anthology of Restoration and Early Eighteenth-Century Drama.
• Terri D. Witek, Ph.D., Vanderbilt University; Sullivan Chair in Creative Writing, author of poetry collections "The Shipwreck Dress" (Florida Book Award), "Carnal World," "Fools and Crows," and "Courting Couples" as well as the critical book "Robert Lowell and LIFE STUDIES: Revising the Self"

Special Features

The establishment of the Tim Sullivan Endowment for Writing in 1995 by Art and Melissa Sullivan has added more luster to the strong emphasis on creative writing at the university. The endowment encourages and supports creative writing among students and faculty at Stetson University through several major initiatives including scholarships, campus visits by well-known writers and financial support for conferences.

Course Information

With support from the Tim Sullivan Endowment for Writing, the English Department offers five courses per year in creative writing. Rotated each academic year, the menu includes poetry, fiction, dramatic writing and creative nonfiction at various levels.

In workshops limited to 15 students and individual student-faculty conferences, students read, write, revise and prepare their writing for public readings and submission for publication. Student writings are also published in Touchstone, Stetson's annual literary magazine.

Career Opportunities

Stetson students with strong creative writing credentials have succeeded in careers as magazine editors, technical writers, freelance writers, syndicated columnists, marketing executives and writing teachers.

Scholarships and Financial Aid

Fifteen undergraduate English majors with proven academic and writing abilities hold Sullivan Writing Scholarships annually. These prestigious Sullivan scholarships may be awarded to incoming students as well as to students currently enrolled at the university and can be renewed for four years.

Scholarships assist academically qualified students with strong writing skills in attending the university. Preference is given to English majors with demonstrated strengths in creative writing who possess a verbal SAT score of 600 and a high school GPA of 3.0.

Scholarships range from $3,000 to $6,000 annually. Recipients maintain the scholarship from entry to graduation, provided they maintain a 2.7 grade point average and they take an approved English Department creative writing class by the spring of their junior year.

Scholarship recipients are selected through the university's scholarship award process. As a part of the selection process, students must submit a writing sample for review by the Sullivan Writing Program Committee in the Department of English. The dean of Admissions collaborates with this committee in making the awards.

Department Awards

Annual Sullivan Prizes in creative writing are awarded each spring during the Honors Convocation. The best creative nonfiction, dramatic writing, fiction and poetry win cash awards.

Contact:
Terri Witek
386-822-7729

Full Time Faculty: 3