Overview
Since 2014, the Creative Writing Concentration in the Department of English has fostered creative self-expression in undergraduate students across numerous disciplines on Carleton’s campus. Our workshop-based courses offer enriching intellectual and creative environments where students can craft and share their most cherished personal visions with their instructors and peers in a supportive and collegial setting. Our workshops evolve to meet the interests of our students, featuring courses such as Spoken Word Poetry, Writing About Climate Crisis, and Screenwriting, as well as workshops in poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. Our workshops are increasingly popular, drawing students from Neuroscience, Math, Engineering, Journalism, and more. Instructors are professionals in their field and witness firsthand how students from this range of disciplines benefit from engaging with their creative side as they discover and cultivate their writing voices and practices in ways that will continue to serve them in their professional and personal lives for years to come.
The Background
While Creative Writing is a burgeoning area in the Department of English, and while the Department strives to cultivate our capacity to offer experiential writing opportunities to an increasing number of students across campus, we require additional support to accomplish our goals. We are strengthening our collaboration with the Ottawa International Writers Festivals so as to foster creativity at Carleton and within the Ottawa community more broadly.
The Rollout
With your generous support, the Creative Writing Enhancement Fund will enhance a number of student experiential learning opportunities, including:
- The Annual Spring Showcase of Literary and Dramatic Arts: This event celebrates the creative achievements of Carleton students by providing a platform for students to read and perform their creative pieces in front of an audience, including their peers.
- An enriched collaboration with the Ottawa International Writers Festival (OIWF): This collaboration will enable us to invite OIWF authors to engage with students through readings, meet-and-greets, and one-day workshops to hone their skills in creative writing.
- Hosting a collaborative Writer-in-Residence with the OIWF for a three-month term, with priority going to an Ottawa-based BIPOC writer: A Writer-in-Residence would consult with a diverse array of students across campus about their writing, visit classes, and have time and space to work on their own projects during the residency.
The Impact
Carleton students of all academic disciplines will participate in an enriched and evolving lineup of OIWF-partnered creative writing events and activities on and off campus while continuing to benefit from our workshop-based courses and our popular “Introduction to Creative Writing” course.
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