yale creative writing major

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Student creative writers will read their works live on youtube.

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Every year, senior English majors with a concentration in creative writing celebrate the end of the academic term by giving readings of their works before a campus audience. This year, that culminating event — known as the “Creative Writing Concentrators’ Ball” — will have a different format, but will be as exultant as ever.

The 21 creative writing concentrators will showcase their original works in a Zoom session that will be livestreamed on Yale’s YouTube channel. The event takes place on Wednesday, April 22, at 7 p.m., and anyone can tune in .

“ Typically, the ball coincides with Bulldog Days and brings out 150 to 200 guests — friends, faculty and family members, and other students who may be interested in the craft of writing,” said Richard Deming, senior lecturer in English and director of creative writing. “Each student reads for about five minutes from a work that is their capstone project. These projects include a whole range of works — collections of poetry or short stories, long nonfiction pieces, parts of novellas, plays. So often work is written in isolation or seclusion; this presentation is a public celebration of their hard work.”

Yale’s creative writing concentration is an intensive track for English majors who are serious about writing fiction or nonfiction. Students are typically accepted for the program at the end of their junior year. They are taught by professional writers in small classes and also work with faculty mentors in one-on-one sessions.

For the students, sharing their work with the community is especially meaningful this year due to the interruption of their campus studies in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Deming said.

“ Literature, the arts in general, is ever the unfolding biography of humanity’s resilience — and the students want to add their voices to the moment, to show that Yale students, come what may, neither sway nor blink,” he said.

One advantage of the livestream event is that more of the students’ family members and friends will be able to experience the readings.

He acknowledges, however, that recent weeks have also brought challenges for the student writers.

“ These students were down to the last lap of writing when campus closed,” explained Deming. “They lost the ability to wholly focus on that challenge. It’s hard to write in moments of uncertainty. But they did.”

Deming said the end-of-year celebration would not have been possible without the support of Cynthia Zarin, the writing concentration coordinator who pairs the mentors and mentees and “moves everything forward,” and John Harford, director of educational technology and media for the Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning, who handled some of the technological challenges of livestreaming the event.

“ The creative writers do regret the loss of intimacy and presence they will experience by not celebrating on campus before an in-person audience, because being online rather than in the same room means losing a feeling of immediacy,” said Deming. “The move to an online venue is not what anyone would have asked for, but since we have this technology to find ways to connect, it’s exciting that there’s still a way for the students to share their work with an audience.”

Watch the Creative Writing Concentrators’ Live Stream readings.

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Introductory & intermediate writing courses.

A complete listing of all English course offerings is available on  Yale Course Search .

Introductory Writing Courses

Engl 114, writing seminars..

Instruction in writing well-reasoned analyses and academic arguments, with emphasis on the importance of reading, research, and revision. Using examples of nonfiction prose from a variety of academic disciplines, individual sections focus on topics such as the city, childhood, globalization, inequality, food culture, sports, and war.

Click here for this year’s ENGL 114 Section Topics and a Video Introduction

ENGL 115, Literature Seminars.

Exploration of major themes in selected works of literature. Individual sections focus on topics such as war, justice, childhood, sex and gender, the supernatural, and the natural world. Emphasis on the development of writing skills and the analysis of fiction, poetry, drama, and nonfiction prose.

Click here for this year’s ENGL 115 Section Topics and a Video Introduction

ENGL 120, Reading and Writing the Modern Essay.

Close reading of great nonfiction prepares students to develop mastery of the craft of powerful writing in the humanities and in all fields of human endeavor, within the university and beyond. Study of some of the finest essayists in the English language, including James Baldwin, Joan Didion, Leslie Jamison, Jhumpa Lahiri, George Orwell, David Foster Wallace, and Virginia Woolf. Assignments challenge students to craft persuasive arguments from personal experience, to portray people and places, and to interpret fundamental aspects of modern culture.

ENGL 121, Styles of Professional Prose.

A seminar and workshop in the conventions of good writing in a specific field. Each section focuses on one professional kind of writing and explores its distinctive features through a variety of written and oral assignments, in which students both analyze and practice writing in the field. Section topics, which change yearly, are listed at the beginning of each term on the English departmental website. This course may be repeated for credit in a section that treats a different genre or style of writing; may not be repeated for credit toward the major. Formerly ENGL 421.

Prerequisite: English 114, 115, 120, or another writing-intensive (“WR”) course at Yale.

This course may be repeated for credit in a section that treats a different genre or style of writing (but you can’t count more than one section of English 121 for credit toward the English major); ENGL 121 and ENGL 421 Nonfiction Writing may not be taken for credit on the same topic.

Click here for this year’s ENGL 121 Section Topics and Descriptions  (Spring only)

ENGL 123, Introduction to Creative Writing.

Introduction to the writing of fiction, poetry, and drama. Development of the basic skills used to create imaginative literature. Fundamentals of craft and composition; the distinct but related techniques used in the three genres. Story, scene, and character in fiction; sound, line, image, and voice in poetry; monologue, dialogue, and action in drama.

ENGL 125, Readings in English Poetry I.

Introduction to the English literary tradition through close reading of select poems from the seventh through the seventeenth centuries. Emphasis on developing skills of literary interpretation and critical writing; diverse linguistic and social histories; and the many varieties of identity and authority in early literary cultures. Readings may include  Beowulf ,  The Canterbury Tales , Middle English lyrics,  The Faerie Queene ,  Paradise Lost , and poems by Isabella Whitney, Philip Sidney, William Shakespeare, Amelia Lanyer, John Donne, and George Herbert, among others.

ENGL 126, Readings in English Poetry II.

Introduction to the English literary tradition through close reading of select poems from the eighteenth century through the present. Emphasis on developing skills of literary interpretation and critical writing; diverse genres and social histories; and modernity’s multiple canons and traditions. Authors may include Alexander Pope, William Wordsworth, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Robert Browning, W. B. Yeats, T. S. Eliot, Langston Hughes, Gertrude Stein, Gwendolyn Brooks, Elizabeth Bishop, and Derek Walcott, among others.

ENGL 127, Readings in American Literature.

Introduction to the American literary tradition in a variety of poetic and narrative forms and in diverse historical contexts. Emphasis on developing skills of literary interpretation and critical writing; diverse linguistic and social histories; and the place of race, class, gender, and sexuality in American literary culture. Authors may include Phillis Wheatley, Henry David Thoreau, Herman Melville, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Frederick Douglass, Gertrude Stein, Langston Hughes, Ralph Ellison, Flannery O’Connor, Alan Ginsberg, Chang-Rae Lee, and Toni Morrison, among others.

ENGL 128, Readings in Comparative World English Literatures.

An introduction to the literary traditions of the Anglophone world in a variety of poetic and narrative forms and historical contexts. Emphasis on developing skills of literary interpretation and critical writing; diverse linguistic, cultural and racial histories; and on the politics of empire and liberation struggles. Authors may include Daniel Defoe, Mary Prince, J. M. Synge, James Joyce, C. L. R. James, Claude McKay, Jean Rhys, Yvonne Vera, Chinua Achebe, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, J. M. Coetzee, Brian Friel, Amitav Ghosh, Salman Rushdie, Alice Munro, Derek Walcott, and Patrick White, among others.

ENGL 129, Tragedy in the European Literary Tradition.

The genre of tragedy from its origins in ancient Greece and Rome through the European Renaissance to the present day. Themes of justice, religion, free will, family, gender, race, and dramaturgy. Works include Homer’s  Iliad  and plays by Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Seneca, Shakespeare, Racine, Ibsen, Chekhov, Brecht, Beckett, and Soyinka. Focus on textual analysis and on developing the craft of persuasive argument through writing.

ENGL 130, Epic in the European Literary Tradition.

The epic tradition traced from its foundations in ancient Greece and Rome to the modern novel. The creation of cultural values and identities; exile and homecoming; the heroic in times of war and of peace; the role of the individual within society; memory and history; politics of gender, race, and religion. Works include Homer’s  Odyssey , Vergil’s  Aeneid , Dante’s  Inferno , Cervantes’s  Don Quixote , and Joyce’s  Ulysses . Focus on textual analysis and on developing the craft of persuasive argument through writing.

Questions? Contact Erica Sayers or Jane Bordiere.

Introduction to Creative Writing

You are here, engl s123e (crn: 30774).

Online Course. Introduction to the writing of fiction, poetry, and drama. Development of the basic skills used to create imaginative literature. Fundamentals of craft and composition; the distinct but related techniques used in the three genres. Story, scene, and character in fiction; sound, line, image, and voice in poetry; monologue, dialogue, and action in drama. Enrollment limited to 14 students. 1 Credit. Session A: May 27 – June 28. Tuition: $5070. Technology Fee: $85. ( View syllabus )

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Supplementary materials.

You should think carefully before submitting supplementary material with your Yale College application. Most successful applicants submit only the required application materials. Because the Admissions Committee gives greatest weight to the required documents, it is recommended that you focus your energy primarily on those elements of the application.

If you have a substantial and well-developed talent that cannot be conveyed adequately in the rest of your application, you may consider submitting an audio recording, musical score, art samples, writing samples, scientific research paper, film, or dance video. Please do not contact faculty to request an audition or review of your work. 

How to submit supplementary material

• Audio recordings, musical scores, art samples, film samples, and dance videos should be submitted through  SlideRoom . See detailed instructions below.
• Science or engineering research should be submitted via the STEM Research Supplement Form. See detailed instructions below.
• Other academic work, including creative writing should be submitted via the application or application update. See detailed instructions below.

Using SlideRoom - visual art, music, film, or dance

SlideRoom  is an online platform that facilitates the submission of digital files to the Office of Undergraduate Admissions. If you are considering the possibility of submitting material, create a SlideRoom account before submitting your application .  Once your application is submitted you will not be able to access the SlideRoom program. To submit art, music, dance, or film as a supplementary material, you must send your material through SlideRoom by the appropriate application deadline: November 1 for Single-Choice Early Action candidates ; January 2 for Regular Decision candidates; March 1 for transfer candidates.

When submitting material to Yale through SlideRoom, first select the specific category that corresponds with your chosen application platform (Coalition Application, Common Application, or QuestBridge Application) and application round (Single-Choice Early Action or Regular Decision). Next, select the program that corresponds with the type of material (e.g., music, art) you plan to submit. Applicants who are eligible for an application fee waiver through the Common Application or Coalition Application, and applicants who are QuestBridge Finalists, will have the SlideRoom fee waived.

Before submitting materials through SlideRoom, review the detailed instructions for visual art, music, film, and dance below.

Optional Arts Supplement Questionnaire

Students who indicate their intention to submit a visual art, music, film or dance supplement with their application will have the option to complete the Arts Supplement Questionnaire. The form allows applicants to provide additional context for their submission. The optional form will appear on an applicant’s  Yale Admissions Status Portal . Information provided on the Questionnaire, like other parts of the application, are subject to audit and verification. Review our Frequently Asked Questions for more details. 

The deadline to submit the Optional Arts Supplement Questionnaire is November 8 for Single-Choice Early Action applicants and January 9 for Regular Decision applicants.

Supplementary materials - visual art

Whether or not you wish to major in art as an undergraduate, if you are an advanced visual artist, you may consider submitting an art portfolio as part of your application. Please bear in mind that Yale School of Art faculty members review selected portfolios, not admissions officers. You should only consider submitting work if your artwork is a strong and important part of your application and demonstrates a high level of ability for a high school artist. You should limit the submission to between 5 and 8 pieces.

Supplementary materials - music

Whether or not you wish to major in music as an undergraduate, you may consider submitting a recording of your playing, or a musical score, if it demonstrates a high level of musical ability. Yale College does not conduct auditions. Please bear in mind that Yale music professors review selected audio recordings and scores, not admissions officers. You should consider submitting work only if your playing or composing is a strong and important part of your application and demonstrates a high level of artistry for a high school musician. Additional guidelines about music submissions can be found on the  Department of Music  website.

Yale offers a B.A./M.M. program for students with exceptional abilities in performance who are also interested in a liberal arts education. Students may apply to this program during the same admissions cycle in which they apply to Yale College. (Yale College students also have the option to apply after their junior year.) The auditions held by the Yale School of Music for admission to the B.A./M.M. program are not related to the submission of supplementary music material as part of a Yale College application. Please follow the instructions above if you would like a music recording or score to be part of your Yale College application. Additional information can be found on the Yale School of Music website .

Supplementary materials - film

Whether or not you wish to major in Film and Media Studies as an undergraduate, if you are an advanced filmmaker you may consider submitting a sample of your work as part of your application to Yale. Please bear in mind that Yale film faculty review submissions, not admissions officers. You should only consider submitting work if your filmmaking is a strong and important part of your application and demonstrates a high level of ability for a high school filmmaker.

Supplementary materials - dance

Whether or not you wish to concentrate in dance studies as an undergraduate, you may consider submitting a dance video as part of your application. Yale College does not conduct dance auditions for applicants. Please bear in mind that Yale dance faculty review selected dance recordings, not admissions officers. You should consider submitting work only if your dancing is a strong and important part of your application and demonstrates a high level of ability and artistry for a high school dancer. The video should be no more than fifteen minutes in length and may contain a single work or excerpts of different pieces. 

Supplementary materials - science or engineering research

If you have been engaged in advanced science or engineering research, you may consider submitting a Science or Engineering Research Supplement. To submit a Science or Engineering Research Supplement follow these steps before and after submitting your application:

• Indicate your intention to submit Science or Engineering supplement when completing the application by responding Yes to the question, “Do you wish to submit an arts or science/engineering supplement as part of the admission process to Yale University?”
• After your application has been submitted and received by the admissions office, activate your  Yale Admissions Status Portal . You will receive a confirmation email with a personalized link and PIN.
• Complete the STEM Research Supplement Form, which will appear in the “Forms” section of your status portal. 

The deadline to submit the STEM Research Supplement Form is November 8 for Single-Choice Early Action applicants and January 9 for Regular Decision applicants .

The STEM Research Supplement form will allow you to attach a research paper or abstract. It also includes the option to invite a research mentor to submit a letter of recommendation electronically or via mail or fax to the admissions office. Full research papers are generally more helpful than abstracts. If your research incorporated work from many individuals or was part of a larger project, please indicate your specific contributions when completing the form.

Supplementary materials - academic work

If you are a creative writer whose work has been recognized at a regional or national level, you may consider submitting a sample of your work as part of your application. A carefully chosen short piece, or a collection of four or five poems, is preferable to a long manuscript or a large number of poems. Bear in mind that the required application essays are the most important “writing samples” in an admissions file. You should insert your creative writing sample into the Additional Information section of the Common Application or Coalition Application. If you are unable to include the creative writing sample with your application, you may also upload your work through your Yale Admissions Status Portal using the Update Application form. 

Supplementary materials - extra recommendations

The vast majority of successful applicants submit only required letters of recommendation. If you feel the need to submit extra information, you may ask one additional recommender to write on your behalf. The most useful extra recommendations provide new information and dimension to a candidacy, rather than repeat the strengths and qualities found elsewhere in the application. The recommender should know you well personally or have mentored you closely in some capacity.

Please ask the person writing a supplementary letter of recommendation to send their letter via to the admissions office via postal mail (PO Box 208234 New Haven, CT 06520) or use the document upload tool available via the counselor information page . Please ask the person writing the letter to include the following in the document: your full, legal name as it appears in your application, the name and location of the school you currently attend, and your date of birth.

If you have been engaged in advanced science or engineering research, you should consider requesting a letter of recommendation from a research mentor who has been involved personally with your work. Follow the instructions in the science or engineering research section above to submit your research via the STEM Research Supplement Form and invite a research mentor to submit a letter of recommendation.