THE UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAM:

Undergraduate students majoring in English with an emphasis in Creative Writing take courses from the literature offerings of the English Department as well as undergraduate form and technique classes and workshops in the Creative Writing Program. This combination of a traditional literary education, exposure to literature from the perspective of a writer, and intense focus on students' own writing is designed to equip students for a lifetime of artistic growth. A senior capstone course exposes students to issues in the writing profession, publishing, possible career paths, graduate school application, and new literature by emerging writers. 

Additional opportunities for undergraduates include working on or publishing in the undergraduate literary magazine Northwest Boulevard, a reading series, and (for advanced students) teaching Creative Writing through our Writers in the Community Project. 

THE MASTER OF FINE ARTS PROGRAM:

The graduate program at the Inland Northwest Center for Writers offers full curricula in fiction, literary nonfiction, and poetry.  M.F.A. workshops in each genre are small (generally between seven and fifteen) and offered every term.  The literature requirement consists of three form and technique courses (per genre) focusing on historical and contemporary works.  These graduate courses are taught by Creative Writing faculty and are designed to make the study of literature of maximum value to the aspiring writer (rather than scholar or critic).  In order that they might broaden their skills and benefit from exposure to wider variety of perspectives, all students are required to take one workshop and one literature class outside their genre.  Additional Creative Writing elective courses are offered each year and have recently included Literature of the Northwest, Surrealism in Poetry, Beyond Realism in Fiction, Imagination and Wilderness, and Studies in the Novella.  Typically, students complete the M.F.A. degree in two years, working one-on-one with a faulty member to produce a thesis of publishable quality in their second year. 

While fostering the artistic growth of writers is the primary focus of the community of faculty and students at Inland Northwest Center for Writers, our program also takes great pride in offering three types of internship opportunities meant to give students skills and preparation for the literary job market. The Center produces the national literary journal, Willow Springs, which publishes work by both established and emerging writers. We also run the Writers-In-The-Community Project through which student interns are placed as teachers of Creative Writing in area schools, prisons, nursing homes, community centers, half-way houses, and other institutions. A third internship arena involves working in book editing with Eastern Washington University Press, publisher of fiction, literary nonfiction, poetry, academic and general interest titles and sponsor of the annual GetLit! literary festival. 

While there are a number of different models for and a proliferation of Creative Writing programs, our community-of-writers approach, writer-taught literature series, variety of internship opportunities, and passionate teachers of national reputation make the Inland Northwest Center for Writers one of the very best places for an aspiring writer to grow.