Center Dedication: November 20, 2009

THE SHAPIRO CREATIVE WRITING CENTER
Wesleyan opens the Shapiro Creative Writing Center and with it new programs that further signal the importance the University attaches to writing:

• the Creative Writing Concentration
• the proposed Writing Certificate for students in any major
• two new student residencies: the Writing Hall for freshman and the Writing House for upperclassmen
• new students events, such as podcasts featuring student writers (click here)

"These curricular initiatives serve both to anchor the place of writing within our curriculum and to let high school students and others know that Wesleyan is an institution where fiction, poetry and non-fiction can be pursued at the highest level," says Wesleyan President Michael Roth '78. "Undergraduates will have more opportunities to pursue creative writing in all its forms and to be recognized for their accomplishments."

THE WRITING CERTIFICATE PROGRAM
The University is developing a certificate in writing, now in the planning stage, open to undergraduate students in any field of study who wish to establish writing as an area of concentrated academic work. As currently outlined, it will serve students with a wide variety of writing interests, for example in narrative nonfiction, journalism, science writing, or arts criticism. In addition to coursework, students will develop a portfolio of their work that they share with other members of the program.


INTENSIVE STUDY IN THE ENGLISH DEPARTMENT: CREATIVE WRITING
The English department has established a concentration in creative writing for English majors who wish to pursue writing intensively at a high level. It is geared toward an intensive focus on creative writing in the context of advanced literary study. The concentration fosters the study of the history and practice of individual genres and of new hybrid forms and offers student writers the opportunity to work closely with the University's full-time writing faculty: Lisa Cohen (creative nonfiction), Anne Greene (creative nonfiction), Paula Sharp (fiction, nonfiction), Deb Olin Unferth (fiction), and Elizabeth Willis (poetry), holder of the Shapiro Chair in Creative Writing.
Please click here for the English Department Website


COURSES WITH SPECIAL EMPHASIS ON WRITING: WRITING ACROSS THE CURRICULUM

Most courses in the humanities and social sciences ask students to write. Faculty members have identified selected courses across the curriculum that particularly emphasize writing. These courses ask students to revise their papers and to discuss work-in-progress with the instructor or with writing tutors assigned to the course. The University's First-Year Initiative Program offers all first-year students the opportunity to take a small seminar or interdisciplinary course. These FYI courses often offer close attention to students' writing.

THE DISTINGUISHED WRITERS SERIES

Please click here for the calendar listing of events.

The Distinguished Writers/New Voices program, the Recent American Poetry series, and the Millett Fellows program offer students the chance to hear contemporary writers discuss their work. Among recent visitors are Michael Ondaatje, Art Spiegelman, Edward P. Jones, Alex Ross, Junot Diaz, Andre Aciman, Amy Bloom, Chimamanda Adichie, Jhumpa Lahiri, Adrienne Rich, Philip Gourevitch, George Packer, Eric Schlosser, Carlo Rotella, Hilton Als, Rebecca Brown, Steven Greenhouse, Robert Hass, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., John Ashbery, Grace Paley, Robert Caro, Jamaica Kincaid, Robert Stone, Russell Banks, Gish Jen, Yusef Komunyakaa, Robert Creeley, C.D. Wright, Susan Howe, Julia Glass, William Finnegan, and Eileen Myles.

Graduates of Wesleyan are admitted to the nation's top writing and journalism programs, and alumni have recently won the Whiting Writer's award, the Drue Heinz Prize (for a collection of short stories), the Edgar Allan Poe Award (for best mystery novel of the year), the National Magazine Award (for fiction), the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, nomination for the National Book Award, and the Pulitzer Prize (biography).


WESLEYAN WRITERS CONFERENCE
Please click here for the Writers Conference home page

This week-long program in fiction, poetry, film, nonfiction, literary journalism, and publishing is held annually in June. Participants from the US and abroad come to campus to study with the Conference's faculty of distinguished writers. Both experienced writers and new writers are welcome. Wesleyan students may enroll or work on the Conference staff. Scholarships are available. Call or e-mail for a brochure: 860-685-3604 or agreene@wesleyan.edu.

Wesleyan University Press

Wesleyan University Press is dedicated to publishing works of enduring scholarly and cultural value, extending the university's mission to a community of readers throughout the world. From its inception in 1957, Wesleyan University Press has been at the forefront in publishing important works of scholarship as well as quality works of poetry and literary criticism. Today, the Press publishes in poetry, music, film, dance, science fiction studies, and regional history. Press titles have collected four Pulitzer Prizes and two National Book Awards. For more information about us or to browse our titles, please visit us at http://www.wesleyan.edu/wespress .


THE WRITING WORKSHOP AND OTHER SERVICES FOR WRITERS
Please click here for the Writing Workshop home page

Students who are writing course papers, honors theses, or creative pieces consult the Writing Workshop at all stages of their writing process- whether they want help getting started, need editorial advice about drafts, or seek long-term tutoring.

The Freeman Writing Program provides English-as-a-second-language services through the Writing Workshop. Alice Hadler coordinates ESL tutoring and academic services for international and bi-lingual students.

Students who have learning disabilities find the Workshop's services and the Writing Mentor Program helpful. Please consult the director of Writing Programs.

Director of Writing Programs, Anne Greene: 860-685-3604 or agreene@wesleyan.edu

ESL program coordinator, Alice Hadler: 860-685-2832 or ahadler@wesleyan.edu

Note: The writing guides for specific areas are being updated and will be available shortly.


THE WRITING TUTOR/WRITING MENTOR PROGRAMS

Join us and become a tutor
Fellowship info

The Director of Writing Programs selects and trains student writing tutors for the Writing Workshop and for courses with special emphasis on writing. A grant from the Ford Foundation, designed to encourage students to consider careers in academia, provides funding for the writing tutor program and for the training course, the Ford Teaching Seminar.

These programs are sponsored by grants from the Ford Foundation and the Mellon Foundation.

Wesleyan was one of the first universities to train undergraduates as writing tutors. Each year approximately 120 students serve as writing tutors in the Writing Workshop, in courses emphasizing writing, and in the new Writing Mentor program, which provides personal writing tutors for first-year students.

Tutor Info                  Tutor Application

Tutors are trained in the Ford Teaching Seminar (English 491 or 492). They receive course credit and a stipend.