Creative Writing

• A concentration within the English major
• A minor available to any student

According to a recent poll, 1,500 CEOs think the number one “leadership competency” is creativity. From solving problems to doing in depth research, creativity matters in real world situations. While it takes critical thinking to identify a problem, it takes creative thinking to come up with solutions. Creative Writing at Le Moyne can help develop your creative side.

The Creative Writing Curriculum

Students complete the curriculum by moving through a sequence of five required courses. Four courses must be writing workshops; one must be in modern or contemporary literature. Creative writing workshops are taught seminar-style and limited to 15 students. We offer courses in:

• Fiction
• Playwriting
• Poetry
• Scriptwriting (TV and film)
• Creative Nonfiction
• Special topics (including “the short story cycle” or “food as metaphor”)
• Independent studies for specialized writing projects

Whether they share their passion with others or nourish a secret talent, many students write poems, stories, plays, and scripts. The Creative Writing Program offers a stimulating and supportive environment for students to pursue their passion for imaginative writing. We’ll help find the writer in you.

Detailed information about the creative writing program can be found in the Le Moyne College catalog.

Congratulations to the 2021 recipients of the Newhouse Writing Awards. Please click on any title to read more about the judges and their comments on the winner's work. 

The Nine Mile Prize in Poetry recognizes an outstanding poem submitted by a Le Moyne College full-time undergraduate in the creative writing program. There are no criteria for “outstanding,” only an awareness of the craft and art of poetry, and faithfulness to the materials of the poem.
The winner will be selected by Nine Mile magazine editors Robert Herz and Stephen Kuusisto, receive a $50 cash prize, and publication in a forthcoming issue of Nine Mile (https://www.ninemile.org/). All submissions to the Newhouse Poetry Award by creative writing concentrators and minors are eligible for the Nine Mile Prize in Poetry.

The 2021 Nine Mile Prize in Poetry has been awarded to Nikita Sharkey for “My Father Smiles Like Fire and I Live in the Flicker.” Robert Herz and Stephen Kuusisto selected a runner-up, McKenna Dicamillo, whose poem “rock beats icarus” will also appear in Nine Mile.

Creative Writing Program students have been accepted into MFA and other graduate programs at top universities around the country. And they publish their work in nationally-distributed magazines, win awards, have their plays produced, and publish books.

Graduates in Creative Writing have found employment in various careers, including:
Management • Marketing • Law • Journalism • Film • Education • Library Science • Public Relations • Publishing • Medicine

What Graduates say about the Creative Writing Program

The CRW program at Le Moyne College not only disciplined me to write, and write a lot, immersing me in the craft of literary composition, but I also gained something of tremendous value, community. The culture of the creative writing program blessed me with dedicated teachers and peers who ultimately shaped my life.
– Tara Taylor, ’00, MFA in Poetry, North Carolina State University

Being a creative writing student at Le Moyne helped me to prepare for the confidence and out of the box thinking that one needs in order to be successful in law school. As a creative writing student, I acquired the ability to read critically and present my personal thoughts and opinions aloud, which are both vital skills for law school.
– Michelle McCabe, ’14, SUNY Buffalo Law School & recipient of the CALI Award (highest grade in research and writing class)

I came out of the program with new ways of self-expression, professors who are still more than willing to help with recommendations and feedback on my writing, and a set of teaching tools that I now use in private tutoring. It's more than I expected and I wouldn't trade my experiences in the program for anything!"
– Tamara Keeney, '08, Information Technology and Public Relations

I loved the creative writing program at Le Moyne College; it's where I really felt I came alive as a writer. I learned and grew through my classes and the encouragement of my professors, without which I would not have felt confident enough to pursue the next level.
– Kelly Addams, ’09,  MFA in Fiction, Emerson College

I learned to write poetry, fiction, plays, and screenplays, and most importantly, I learned how to use the knowledge…of how to write in one genre to strengthen my writing in others. I see things every day in screenwriting that I learned by studying poetry, fiction, and plays at Le Moyne.
– Joe Bates, ’14, MFA in Screenwriting, DePaul University

My creative writing courses taught me how to use the power of language and images to impress and convince. As Hemingway said, "You don't need big words to create big emotions."
– Hannah Wilder ’14, Career in Advertising

I knew I'd be at home in the program before I even got here; I didn't know that I'd fall in love. Because of creative writing at Le Moyne, I wrote a novel, edited a literary journal, made best friends, met influential authors, and learned the meaning of living meaningfully. Now I'm in grad school, teaching, and writing. In other words, my dreams came true.
– Ashley O’Mara ’11, doctoral candidate, Syracuse University

How do I join the Creative Writing Program?

Students join the program by declaring a creative writing concentration (if an English major) or a creative writing minor (if a major in another department). In either case, the requirements are the same: 4 writing workshops and 1 literature course.

Mission Statement

The Creative Writing Program enables English majors with a concentration in Creative Writing and Creative Writing minors to become writers and critics of poetry, fiction, plays, nonfiction, and scripts through participation in writing workshops and individual tutorial sessions with instructors, and through the study of contemporary writing and traditional literature.

Learning Goals

Students who take the Creative Writing concentration should be able to:

1. create and revise successive drafts of their own imaginative writing (poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, plays, film scripts and/or new or hybrid forms such as the prose poem)
2. employ techniques and strategies appropriate to imaginative writing in one or more genres (or a hybrid genre). For example a student poet might demonstrate facility with metaphors, sound patterns, enjambment; a fiction writer might do so with dialogue, plot development, flashback.
3. express reasonable, balanced opinions of peer writing during class workshop discussion, along with constructive suggestions for revision
4. complete and organize a manuscript of fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, tv or film scripts, plays, or works in new or hybrid genres (such as the prose poem). This manuscript can consist of a single work or multiple works that demonstrate professional presentation of the creative writing, appropriate to the genre(s) represented. As a whole the manuscript should be correctly formatted and free of errors – of a quality that could be submitted to a professional journal for publication. Manuscript length will vary according to genre and instructors’ individual requirements.