Explore Courses

This workshop is geared toward students who have an interest in creative writing and would like to develop their skills and writing practice across genres. Students read and write free verse poetry, short prose, drama, fiction, and creative nonfiction with the goal of developing a final portfolio of revised work.

Students are introduced to a range of technical and imaginative concerns through creative exercises and discussions, and exposed to all aspects of the writing process, including generating ideas, writing and revising drafts, and editing. Students practice their literary craft with an attentive group of peers under the guidance of an experienced instructor. They write extensively, read and respond to excerpts from outstanding works of literature, and participate in candid, helpful critiques of their own work and that of peers. Students are expected to come to the class with an openness to various approaches toward literature and writing. Classes are supplemented by conferences with the instructor.

Parallel universes and the supernatural have the power to reveal truths often hidden behind the veil of modern life. Situating oneself in realities other than one’s own imparts lessons in empathy, possibility, and advancement in our real world. From Dune to The Hunger Games, both beloved and feared characters in such fiction have united legions of readers-turned-writers over many continents and generations through the art of world-building. 

The course’s aim is to explore and create immersive, exciting fiction that incorporates the unreal—from surreal short stories to excerpts from epic fantasy novels. In this one-week intensive, students will think and write about the futuristic, uncanny, magical, and speculative, and how these elements mesh with our individual writing goals. 

Students will analyze published works of Science Fiction and Fantasy from a writer’s standpoint, considering: what effect did this have on the reader, and how did the writer create this effect? What draws us to these genres? How can we create work that is compelling, original, artful, and fun? Through discussion and writing exercises, we’ll focus on topics including world-building, hero/villain relationships, plot, magic, and suspense. 

In this course, students will uncover the power of imaginative fiction by reading selections of cornerstone texts in the genre, both past and present, and use the techniques discussed in the pieces to write their own original works. Classes are supplemented by conferences with the instructor.

This course is designed for advanced students who seek an intensive experience in the writing of fiction. Students explore diverse styles of and approaches to fiction, and learn essential skills for writing their own short prose works, including stories, flash fiction, novellas, and pieces that may be developed, following the session, into novels. Students participate in rigorous daily discussions on craft and workshops, as well as one-on-one conferences with their instructor. 

The course culminates in a final portfolio composed of carefully revised pieces that implement instructor and peer feedback.

Though this course is intended primarily for older students, it is open to highly qualified rising freshmen and sophomores.

This rigorous one-week course is designed to teach students the ins and outs of novel writing, from conception to outlining to the writing itself. Whether interests lie in literary fiction, young adult, fantasy, or any other genre, students will learn we focus on how to structure and plot a successful novel. Areas of exploration include establishing conflict, world-building, character work, pacing, and how to create an effective scene.

Students share their writing in a workshop setting and receive in-depth feedback from both their peers and the instructor. The course includes asynchronous work, which students are expected to complete between class sessions. Not only does this course impart a greater understanding of what it means to craft a long-form work of fiction, but it will also help students become stronger and more confident in their overall writing skills.

In this intensive course, students are introduced to the key tenets of writing and performing comedy. With the guidance of professional New York City performers and writers, they learn how to generate writing through improvisational comedy. Budding comedians and comedy writers learn how to make people laugh both on and off the page, a skill that can take practitioners down a variety of career paths on stage and in film and television. 

Participants hone their comedic sensibilities with a wide variety of exercises and readings and build confidence by learning the art of “Yes, and…” Areas of exploration include sketch comedy, improvisational comedy, and stand-up. 

This rigorous one-week course is designed to teach students the essential techniques of short story writing by contextualizing the form throughout history—from Edgar Allan Poe to James Baldwin, to contemporary practitioners, including Joy Williams and Jhumpa Lahiri. By encountering the work of renowned authors from a writer’s perspective, students will utilize the 5 key elements of the short story—plot, character, setting, conflict, and theme—to arrive at what is finally a common goal: to make readers feel through original, compelling, and climactic prose. 

Students will share their writing in a workshop setting and receive in-depth feedback from both their peers and the instructor. The course includes asynchronous work, which students are expected to complete between class sessions. Not only does this course impart a greater understanding of what it means to write short stories, but it will also help students become stronger writers through the use of economized and well-crafted language.

This foundational course, adapted from Columbia's MFA in Writing program, serves as a generative exploration of the creative writing process. Students receive instruction in key genres, idea generation, creation and development of drafts, and basic revision and editing skills. 

Through frequent and diverse readings and writing exercises, students hone elements of craft through the development of voice, imagery, characterization, dialogue, rhythm, and narration. Students work in poetry, prose, fiction, and creative nonfiction. Works produced by acclaimed writers, as well as by students in the class, form the basis of discussion in the workshop process.

A range of technical and imaginative concerns will be introduced through exercises and discussions, where students will produce their own writing for the critical analysis of the class. Students will begin to develop the critical skills that will allow them to read like writers and understand, on a technical level, how accomplished creative writing is produced.