Creative Writing at Minneapolis College
MINNEAPOLIS COLLEGE CREATIVE WRITING PROGRAM
Minneapolis College’s Creative Writing program offers students access to a vibrant world of creative skills through intensive practice as writers and readers in three literary genres: poetry, fiction and creative nonfiction.
Whether you aspire to become a professional writer or to apply these creative skills to a wide range of jobs in the creative economy, the Minneapolis College Creative Writing program can help you fire up your imagination and make a deeper, more meaningful connection to your education.
CREDITS, COURSES, ADVISING
Associate of Arts with an Emphasis in Creative Writing
Award: Associate of Arts
Total Credits for Award: 60.00
Students need to complete the entire 40-credit Minnesota Transfer Curriculum (MnTC) as well as elective credits to reach 60 credits for the A.A. with an Emphasis in Creative Writing. One course may meet more than one MnTC Goal Area, however, credits can only be counted once.
* MnTC Goal Area 3: Students must complete a minimum of two courses in two different disciplines, one course must have a traditional lab and the other course must have a traditional lab-or-lab-like experience from MnTC Goal Area 3.
**To complete the A.A. with an Emphasis in Creative Writing, students must complete at least two courses from two different disciplines in MnTC Goal Areas 5 and 6. ENLT and ENCW are considered one discipline for the purposes of goal six.
All students pursuing this award should work closely with their advisor to ensure proper selection of required program courses, if applicable program electives, required Minnesota Transfer Curriculum courses, and MnTC electives. You are expected to meet with your advisor on a regular basis to ensure courses are taken in an order that will lead to efficient and successful completion of the required coursework.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS: FIRST SEMESTER
Communications Studies
Choose any course from the CMST offerings that meets MnTCGoal Area one 3.00
ENGL 1110 or ENGA 1110
College Composition 3.00
General Elective Choose any course 2.00
General Elective Choose any course 2.00
*MnTC Goal Area 4 Choose any course from MnTC Goal Area 4 3.00
General Elective Choose any course 1.00
TOTAL CREDITS: 14.00
COURSE REQUIREMENTS: SECOND SEMESTER
*MnTC Goal Area 5 Choose any course from MnTC Goal Area 5 3.00
ENGL 1111
Research and Composition for Change 3.00
English Literature (ENLT) Course
Take any English Literature (ENLT) course 3.00
English Electives: Students must take three of the English writing courses to complete the degree. (Recommended: students take at least one of these courses in semester 2, 3 and 4)
ENCW 2212
Or
ENCW 2213
Or
ENCW 2214
Or
ENCW 2215
Introduction to Creative Nonfiction Writing
Or
Introduction to Creative Writing
Or
Introduction to Writing Poetry
Or
Introduction to Writing Fiction 3.00
*MnTC Goal Areas 3 & 10
Choose any course that meets both MnTC Goal Areas 3 & 10 4.00
TOTAL CREDITS: 16.00
COURSE REQUIREMENTS: THIRD SEMESTER
*MnTC Goal Area 3 Choose any MnTC Goal Area 3 with Lab 4.00
English Electives: Students must take three of the English writing courses to complete degree. (Recommended: students take at least one of these courses in semester 2, 3 and 4)
ENCW 2213
Or
ENCW 2212
Or
ENCW 2214
Or
ENCW 2215
Introduction to Creative Writing
Or
Introduction to Creative Nonfiction Writing
Or
Introduction to Writing Poetry
Or
Introduction to Writing Fiction 3.00
ENLT Literature Elective
Take any English Literature (ENLT) course 3.00
**MnTC Goal Area 5
Choose any course from MnTC Goal Area 5 3.00
**WGSS 1101
Introduction to Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies (recommended for emphasis or choose any course that meets both MnTC Goal Areas 5 and 9) 3.00
TOTAL CREDITS: 16.00
COURSE REQUIREMENTS: FOURTH SEMESTER
*MnTC Goal Areas 6 and 8
Choose any course that meets both MnTC Goal Areas 6 and 8 3.00
*MnTC Goal Area 6 Choose any course that meets MnTC Goal Area 6 3 3.00
English Electives: Students must take three of the English writing courses to complete the degree. (Recommended: students take at least one of these courses in semester 2, 3 and 4)
ENCW 2213
Or
ENCW 2212
Or
ENCW 2214
Or
ENCW 2215
Introduction to Creative Writing
Or
Introduction to Creative Nonfiction Writing
Or
Introduction to Writing Poetry
Or
Introduction to Writing Fiction 3.00
English Literature (ENLT) Elective
Take any English Literature (ENLT) 3.00
General Education
Choose courses from any of the MnTC Goal Areas to bring credit total to 60. 2.00
TOTAL CREDITS: 14.00
PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS
Enthusiastic, highly-skilled faculty who:
- Love teaching creative writing,
- Have strong experience as teachers
- Have earned graduate degrees in creative writing
- Have published their work as full-length books and in many magazines and anthologies.
Great students who:
- Are passionate about writing and being creative
- Want to associate with other creative students
- Want to earn a legitimate academic degree that’s also exciting and personally fulfilling.
Opportunities to engage with a vibrant literary community
- On campus, with other creative writing students and faculty
- Throughout the Twin Cities, at events and workshops or through programs and internships, sponsored by awesome organizations such as -
- TruArtSpeaks
- The Loft Literary Center
- Rain Taxi Review of Books
- Minnesota Center for Book Arts
- Coffee House Press
- Graywolf Press
- Milkweed Editions
FACULTY
Paula Cisewski's fourth poetry collection, Quitter, won the Diode Editions Book Prize. She is also the author of The Threatened Everything, Ghost Fargo (Nightboat Poetry Prize winner, selected by Franz Wright), Upon Arrival, and several chapbooks, including the lyric prose Misplaced Sinister. Her poems have been featured on Verse Daily and included in the anthologies Privacy Policy: The Anthology of Surveillance Poetics, 78: A Tarot Anthology, Rocked by the Waters: Poems of Motherhood, Rewilding: Poems for the Environment, and New Poetry from the Midwest. Cisewski has been awarded fellowships and residencies from organizations that include the Jerome Foundation, the Minnesota State Arts Board, the Oberholtzer Foundation, Banfill-Locke Center for the Arts, and House of Helsinglight. She lives in Minneapolis, where she teaches writing privately and academically, makes things, and collaborates with fellow artists and activists.
Valérie Déus is a poet, film programmer and radio show host. Her work has been featured in Minnesota Women’s Press, The Brooklyn Rail, Midway, the St. Paul Almanac, The BeZine and most recently in A Garden of Black Joy anthology and Under Purple Skies: A Minneapolis Anthology. When she's not writing, she is the host of Project 35, a local low-fi radio show featuring music from all over the diaspora and poetry on KRSM radio. She curates FilmNorth’s Cinema Lounge and is the Shorts Programmer for the Provincetown International Film Festival.
Shannon Gibney is a writer, educator, activist, and the author of See No Color (Carolrhoda Lab, 2015), and Dream Country (Dutton, 2018) young adult novels that won Minnesota Book Awards in 2016 and 2019. Gibney is faculty in English at Minneapolis College, where she teaches writing. A Bush Artist and McKnight Writing Fellow, her new novel, Botched, explores themes of transracial adoption through speculative memoir (Dutton, 2023). Gibney’s other upcoming publications include the picture books Sam and the Incredible African and American Food Fight (University of Minnesota Press, 2023), and Where We Come From (Lerner, 2022; coauthored), and a YA anthology of stories by adoptees about adoptees, co-edited with Nicole Chung (HarperTeen, 2023).
Steve Healey is the author of three books of poetry, all published by Coffee House Press—Earthling, 10 Mississippi, and most recently, Safe Houses I Have Known, which was a finalist for both The Believer Book Award and The Minnesota Book Award. His poems have appeared in magazines such as American Poetry Review, Fence, and The Nation, along with various anthologies, including The New Census: An Anthology of Contemporary American Poetry. He teaches English & creative writing at Minneapolis College.
KateLynn Hibbard’s books are Sleeping Upside Down, Sweet Weight, and Simples, winner of the 2018 Howling Bird Press Poetry Prize. Editor of When We Become Weavers: Queer Female Poets on the Midwest Experience, she teaches writing and women's history at Minneapolis College and lives with many pets and her spouse Jan in Saint Paul.
Minnesota State Write Like Us
Minnesota State Write Like Us is an equity-based creative writing program at five Twin Cities metro-area community colleges: Anoka-Ramsey Community College, Century College, Minneapolis Community and Technical College, Normandale Community College, and North Hennepin Community College. Write Like Us centers and celebrates the work of BIPOC writers and writing students, fostering literary mentorship and leadership as it builds a platform for shared stories, voices, and lived experiences.