DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, EDUCATION, AND WELFARE OE FORM 6000,2/69 OFFICE OF EDUCATION , t.111%. IltdrUllI 11C,UIVIC. ERIC ACC. NO. ED 041 181 I S DOCUMENTCOPYRIGHTED? YES ta NO II CH ACC. NO. P.A.PUBL. DATE ISSUE ERICREPRODUCTION RELEASE? YES 0 NO AA 000 589 70 RIEDEC70 LEVELOF AVAILABI I-ITY I II HI AUTHOR Rothenberg, Albert TITLE Comprehensive Guide to Creative Writing Programs in American Colleges and Universities. SOURCE CODEINSTITUTION(SOURCE) ECC99225 SP. AG. CODESPONSORING AGENCY LYR56987 EDR S PRICE CONTRACT NO, GRANT NO. 0.75;8.45 REPORT NO. BUR EAU NO. AVAI LABI LI TY JOURNAL CITATION DESCRIPTIVE NOTE 167p. DESCRIPTORS *Creative Writing; *English Programs; *Higher Education; UndergraduateStudy; Graduate Study; Short Stories; Playwriting; Poetry; Scripts; Independent Study; Experimental Programs; Instructional Staff; Recognition; Student Teacher Relationship; Cocurricular Activities; School Surveys I DENT1 Fl ER S ABSTRACT Information on creative writing programs was collected from 1042 out of 1200 American colleges and universities contacted. The following data is presented in tabular form: (1) undergraduate academic status of creative writing; (2) graduate status; (3) offering of a course or courses covering the"core" or basic literary genres of short story, verse, and playwriting;(4) additional or unique course offerings in creative writing, such as TV, radio, film writing; (5) opportunities for independent study and work/study or experimental programs related to creative writing; (6) professional writers on the faculty; (7) opportunities for contact with professional writers through visits, lecture series or a"Writer in Residence" program; (8) prizes and awards in creative writing;(9) opportunities for individual contact with creative writing faculty iv seminars or individual conferences; (10) extra-curricular outlets for practicing and appreciating creative writing. In addition to the general data summary for each school, there are special tables describing special programs in creative writing; specific prizes and awards; and professional writers on school faculties by name. Also, there is a list of schools which do not offer creativewriting programs. The survey method employed in this research is presented as a model for researchof this type. (Author) GP 0 70390 U.S. DEPARTMENT 01 RAM, EDUCATION & WELFARE OFFICE OF EDUCATION THIS DOCUMENT HAS BEEN REPRODUCED EXACTLY AS ii;ECEIVED FROM 1HE PERSON OR ORGANIZATION ORIGINATING IT.POINTS OF VIEW OR OPINIONS STATED DO NOT NECESSARILY REPRESENT OFFICIAL OFFICE Of EDUCATION POSITION OR POLICY, COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE TO CREATIVE WRITING PROGRAMS IN AMERICAN COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES ALBERT ROTHENBERG, M.D. WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF JUDITH G. SCOTT This investigation was supported by a Public Health Service Research Scientist Career Program Award number 23,621 from the National Institute of Mental Health. The Public Health Service assumes no responsibility for the contents. "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED Copyright, 1970, by Albert Rothenberg, M.D. BY aeSm.-e-4' TO ERIC AND ORGANIZATIONS OPERATING UNDER AGREEMENTS WITH THE U.S. OFFICE OF EDUCATION. FURTHER REPRODUCTION OUTSIDE THE ERIC SYSTEM REQUIRES PERMISSION OF THE COPYRIGHT OWNER." Acknowledgment In an extensive project such as this, a largenumber of people are necessary to carry outand design the various procedures. Mrs. Judith G . Scott is responsible for the original survey ofover 200 colleges and universities which determined the basic design of this guideland contributeda good deal of the information contained within it.I would also like to thank the numerous secretaries who carried out thelaboriOus tasks of mailing, typing, collating, and indexing which the later part cif this project required.For the later part of the project,I would especially like to thank Mrs. Georgia Goeters who contributed many of her own ideas in the course of transcribingthe data, organizing the tables and typing the final fnanuscript.I, however, assume full responsibility for interpretation of the informationreceived, and the editorship of the final report,. Albert Rothenberg, M.D. I.Introduction The information contained in this guide isbased on responses to a questionnaire sent to 1200 AmericanColleges and Universities. All schools contacted areregionally accredited and are listed in the mostcomprehensive survey of American Colleges and Universities currently available, ComparativeGuide to American Colleges, 1968-69 Edition by James Cass and Max Birnbaum(New York: Harper and Row). An unusually high response of1042 replies to the questionnaire were received. In order to facilitate the response,self-addressed stamped envelopes had been included with all 1200 inquires, a relatively simplequestionnaire form was used and two subse- quent mailings were sent out.The first follow-up mailing was sent to clarify mixups in mailing and to gain additionalinformation in doubtful or confusing cases. Also, numerouslong distance calls to schools were made forthe same purpose. A good deal of additional information was collected as a result ofthese procedures. The second follow-up mailing consisted of a letter toschools which had not responded at all. These schools were again invited to reply to the questionnaireand informed that lack of response to this final inquiry wouldbe taken as presumptive evidence of absence of any creative writing teaching in the school and wouldbe so indicated in the final report. A small number of schools responded to this last mailing andthe data they supplied is included in this guide. The claim to be acomprehensive guide, then, is based on the inclusion of definite information on an unusually extensivenumber of schools and on the report of negative results,i .e., negative results which provide informationof their own. The ten-question questionnaire was developed from an initial surveycarried out by Mrs. Judith G. Scott. Mrs. Scott collected extensiveinformation (through catalogues, 2 mailings and phone calls) oncreative writing teaching at over200 colleges and universi- ties.From this data and from ourknowledge of crucial considerations inteaching and literary creativity based on ourresearch experience, we determinedthat information about ten particular areas wouldprovide a clear picture of a creativewriting program; this information could be used toevaluate the effectiveness of any given program.These ten areas are:(1) undergraduate academic statusof creative writing as a discipline; (2) graduate status;(3) offering of a course or coursescovering the "core" or basic literary genres of short story, verse,and playwrighting; (4) additional orunique study course offeringsin creative writing;(5) providing opportunities for independent and work/study or providingexperimental programs related to creativewriting;(6) pro- viding contact with professionalwriters on the faculty;(7) providing contact with professional writers through visits,artists' lecture series or a"Writer in Residence" program;(8) offering prizes or awards in creativewriting; (9) teaching creative writing through individual contactwith the faculty in small seminars orindividual conferences; (10) providing outletsfor practicing and appreciatingcreative writing outside the classroom(extra-curricular or non-curricularoutlets). The rationale for focusing onthese ten areas will now bebriefly discussed along with the specification of the actualquestions asked on thequestionnaire. The questions were thefollowing: Question 1:Does your school offer a creativewriting major? minor? concentration? Although it is certainly possible toemphasize creative writing without ithaving formal academic status in termsof a major, minor, or concentration,positive answers to this question would indicate theschool's serious commitment to thefield and, presumptively, a fairlylarge number of courses. 3 Question 2:Is there graduate work in creative writing? (M.A.,M.F.A.,or Ph.D.) Although it may be argued that persons seriously interested in creative writing would benefit from a defini ie experience with serious scholarship ina particular dis- cipline such as English, Psychology, etc., the provision of graduate work in creative writing allows for continued development of the student's skills and even more than with formal undergraduate status for creative writing, graduatecourses and graduate degrees in creative writing indicate the school's serious commitment to the field. Question 3: Do the courses offered include short story,verse, and playwrighting? Freedom to choose the type of literary genre in which a young writer functions best seems crucial in helping develop such a personal skillas creative writing. Although schools having faculty who are only skilled in one genre probably do well to restrict their teaching to that genre, the provision of opportunities to work inany of the "core" areas of creative writing indicates the scope of the teaching available.Playwrighting rather than novel writing is included in our definition of "core"genres because it is unrealistic and unwarranted in most cases to expecta student to work on a novel in the usual one semester creative writing course but opportunities for playwrighting such as writing one-act ploys could reasonably be included. Question 4: Are there additional courses in creative writing? For example: TV, radio, film writing. This question was designed to elicit information about uniquecourses in a school's program and clarify the scope of the creative writing curriculum. Also, with so much attention given