Creative Writing Certificate

Students studying

The Creative Writing Program at UIC offers a set of courses for students who wish to practice writing as a art and a craft, providing a complement to UIC’s rigorous coursework in expository writing. Students will engage in and be inspired by works of literature from all cultures and of all time periods from ancient to contemporary, all which will set the ground for themselves to explore the traditional and experimental forms in their own fiction, poetry, non-fiction, plays, screenplays, manga and literary translation. In addition to the general course offerings, students can also take part in various extracurricular creative writing activities, such as Yonsei University’s Academy of American Poets College Prize and The Lab, a creative writing publication produced by the UIC Arts club, CATS.

Students who complete the required number of courses and submit a final manuscript are eligible to obtain UIC’s Creative Writing Certificate. Students in their final year may choose a faculty member of their choice to work on a creative writing senior thesis.

Attaining a Creative Writing Certificate will enhance the resumes of UIC graduates who wish to pursue graduate studies in MFA programs or programs in literature and the humanities. In addition to drawing attention to UIC’s strengths in the liberal arts and its status as one of the very few institutions in Asia to offer creative writing courses, students from majors outside the Humanities will benefit by demonstrating evidence of wider intellectual and artistic interests than their counterparts from other institutions.

Students may earn a creative writing certificate by satisfying the following requirements:

1. Achieving a minimum B average in four creative writing courses, which include the following genres and areas:

Poetry, fiction, non-fiction (nature writing & memoir), literary translation, and play and screenwriting. Of the four courses required for the certificate, students must complete one course in poetry, one in fiction, and one selected from the remaining three areas (either non-fiction or literary translation or play and screenwriting), while the forth course can be from any area. A maximum of two 2000-level (or lower) creative writing courses may count toward the certificate.

2. Submitting a manuscript/portfolio for evaluation according to the following approximate guidelines:

3. Submitting a formal application prior to the start of the student’s last semester.

Please direct all applications and inquiries to Professor Loren Goodman: lorengoodman@yonsei.ac.kr