Creative Writing


Creative Writing
W&L has cultivated great student and faculty writing for decades through the English Department and the literary magazine. Distinguished alumni include Tom Wolfe, Marshall Boswell, Mark Richard, Christian Wiman, Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon, Rebecca Makkai, Matthew Neill Null and Suzanne LaFleur.
The English Department offers a popular creative writing minor. Students do not need to be English majors to minor in creative writing; most major in other subjects.
Scholarships, Internships and Awards
The English Department offers a variety of scholarships as well as awards for both creative and critical writing. Shenandoah has published fiction, poetry and nonfiction from an astounding list of writers including Wallace Stevens, Flannery O’Connor, e. e. cummings, Rita Dove, Ha Jin and many others over its nearly 70-year history.
Students in the Shenandoah Magazine Internship learn the art, craft and business of publishing. A look behind the scenes at a working magazine is a valuable experience for writers and non-writers alike, and promises the hands-on development of skills relevant to a variety of fields after graduation. Students practice and lear literary editing, copyediting, professional communication, budgeting, how to design publicity material, and digital strategies, under the mentorship of a professional editor.
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Read MoreSample Courses
Creating Comics
A course which is both a creative-writing and a studio-art course. Students study graphic narratives as an art form that combines image-making and storytelling, producing their own multi-page narratives through the "writing" of images. The course includes a theoretical overview of the comics form, using a range of works as practical models.
Eco-Writing
An expeditionary course in environmental creative writing. We take weekly "expeditions" including creative writing hikes, a landscape painting exhibit, and a Buddhist monastery. We also research the science and social science of the ecosystems explored, as well as the language of those ecosystems.
The Poetics of Food
This class visits fresh/local/wild food venues each week, where sensory explorations focus on all aspects of foraging, creating, adapting and eating food. Coursework includes guided writing exercises based on the landscape/geography of food both in the field and classroom, with in-depth readings that help us turn topics like food politics, food insecurity, sustainable agriculture and genetically modified foods into poetry.
Topics in Creative Writing
Workshops, literary study and critical writing focused on a variety of creative writing topics across multiple courses. Topics include the practice of writing short fiction, the practice of writing poetry, playwriting and nonfiction.
Meet the Faculty
At W&L, students enjoy small classes and close relationships with professors who educate and nurture.








