Lesli Marchese, Campus Carrier Deputy News Editor
As of August 2014, incoming undergraduates at Berry now have the opportunity to major in creative writing. In the past, students interested in following a creative writing pathway had to declare an English major with a writing focus.
Sandra Meek, Dana professor of English, rhetoric and writing, said the goal for this new major is to “create an innovative program that combines extensive literary study and studio practice in creative writing with environmental components and with community service.”
Meek said that this will allow for students to “have more classroom experience in creative writing, and for their ideal pathway to be clearer on their transcripts.”
The emergence of the creative writing major was both necessary and beneficial after “careful study of [Berry’s] current curriculums in comparison to peer and aspirant institutions,” Jim Watkins, associate professor of English, rhetoric and writing, said.
Senior Chelsea Risley, an English major with a writing focus, believes that the creative writing major is beneficial to students “who want to write and to be published.” Risley said the new major will spark more interest in creative writing at Berry, which she hopes will attract more students to the department.
“The English department attracts a specific kind of personality,” Risley said. “It will be good to have more creative types around Berry.”
long with the addition of the creative writing major, the English department has added courses to the 200, 300 and 400 levels. This allows professors greater flexibility in variable themes for their upper-level classes Watkins said.
At the 200 level, “Introduction to Creative Writing” has been added. An introduction level class allows professors more flexibility in their approach to the class, including teaching it across multiple genres.
This also allows students to take a creative writing course earlier in their college career, which Meek believes will be a “better indicator to students who wish to enter into the creative writing program.”
The department has also introduced new writing, fiction and poetry classes in the 300 and 400 levels, including “Writing and Community” and “Writing about Place: Nature, Culture, Environment.”
“Writing and Community” will integrate creative writing and community service. The class, taught by Meek, will be instituting a program at the Sara Hightower Regional Library in Rome to offer a creative writing elective to area teens. In addition to that, the class will be organizing and presenting a benefit reading in Rome for Southeast Elementary School.
The goal of “Writing about Place” Watkins said, is to make “better use of Berry’s unique campus and location.”
“Writing about Place,” which will be taught by William Donnelly in the spring, is an advanced course in creative writing, poetry and prose centered on landscape and the environment.
The English department retitled and renumbered many of their upper-level classes so as to fine-tune the curriculums and place “more careful scaffolding between 300 and 400 level courses.” The fine-tuning of the English and creative writing majors will allow professors to have greater opportunities for “in-depth study in literature, so they can offer courses as broad surveys or individualized topics” Watkins said.
Current sophomores and juniors interested in switching to a creative writing major should talk with their advisors to be sure they understand the changes required.