The English Department offers a major in English focusing on Creative Writing as well as a writing concentration for non-English majors. A number of creative writing classes fulfill the Cultural Arts and Appreciation requirement, part of the general education requirements for all students. For more information, please refer to the Queens catalog.

Study in creative writing offers skills for both life and work. Alumni of our program have earned graduate degrees in creative writing from MFA programs such as the prestigious University of Iowa, while others have gone on to work for Bank of America, non profit organizations, and NBC News. They become writers, teachers, editors, even pharmacy technicians, media programmers and information directors. Join us to study and write in the encouraging environment of Queens.

In addition to taking workshop-style seminars in the genres of fiction, poetry and creative nonfiction, students develop an important background by taking courses in literature and literary studies. Each semester, the department sponsors a reading to expose students to contemporary writers. Recent guests include Queens alumna Ashley Capps, who read from her prize-winning poetry collection "Mistaking the Sea for Green Fields," and distinguished poet Susan Ludvigson, author of eight volumes of poetry. These guests visit classrooms in addition to giving a public reading. In January and May, students may also attend readings by faculty in the Queens Low-Residency Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing. For more information about the MFA program, contact Dr. Mike Kobre.

The English Department supports "Signet," the Queens undergraduate literary magazine, which gives students the opportunity to serve as editors. And each spring, Queens honors student creative writing with the Marjorie Blankenship Melton Creative Writing Award in Fiction and Creative Nonfiction and the Paul Newman Poetry Award. The winners are judged by off-campus writers and include cash prizes.

Faculty in the Undergraduate Creative Writing Program include Professors Morri Creech, Julie Funderburk, Charles Israel, and Craig Renfroe.