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.

For more information about the program, contact: Laura Donnelly, Director of Creative Writing, laura.donnelly@oswego.edu