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Hands of UIUC MFA poets on the workshop table

If writing feels as necessary as breathing, this major is for you.  Or if you have ideas to express, want to change minds, or influence others. This major is also for you if you simply carry that unshakeable dream to write a story, a poem, an essay, or a novel. Bring your dreams, bring those ideas you want so much to express, and join our creative community.

In the creative writing workshop, students learn in small groups of passionate writers how to close read, analyze writing, practice dynamic revision, and listen with empathy.  Our students write and write well, and they are also skilled oral communicators.  They thrive when surrounded by diverse styles, aesthetics, and world views. 

With a Creative Writing major, our students have skills that businesses and non-profits, the startups of Silicon Valley, and a writing-centered online world demand.  Our students find jobs in all writing-related fields.  They also attract employers who need the skills they have honed in our dynamic workshop discussions and craft classes.

“There is no greater agony than bearing an unwritten story inside of you,” Maya Angelou wrote.  We agree.