apprenticeship in creative writing

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Last updated on Aug 13, 2021

20 Creative Writing Jobs for Graduates (+ Entry-Level Positions)

About the author.

Reedsy's editorial team is a diverse group of industry experts devoted to helping authors write and publish beautiful books.

About Linnea Gradin

The editor-in-chief of the Reedsy Freelancer blog, Linnea is a writer and marketer with a degree from the University of Cambridge. Her focus is to provide aspiring editors and book designers with the resources to further their careers.

Being passionate about creative writing hasn’t always been associated with a stable career path, but that’s not to say that there aren’t any opportunities out there to bring well-written stories into your job. In fact, we’re here to talk about 20 different creative writing jobs — 20 professions that let the storyteller in you shine! We’ll discuss the industries, entry level jobs, and potential income for each job below. 

When it comes to creative writing, the first thing that pops up in our mind is books! While writing is the obvious option (and we’ll cover that later on in the post), most writers choose to work in one of the following positions in the publishing industry to gain financial stability first. 

❗ Note: The “per book” rates below are made with 50,000-60,000 word manuscripts in mind. 

1. Ghostwriter 

👨🏽‍💼 Entry level positions: freelance writer, ghostwriter, editorial assistant 

💰 Potential beginner’s earning: $2,000-$9,000 per book or $0.10-$0.15 per word

If you’re all about creative writing but you’d prefer an upfront payment for your words, then ghostwriting is the job for you! Here’s how it works: an author hires you to help them write their story. It could (and usually is) a memoir or an autobiography which the author doesn't have the time or skills to write themselves. Fiction authors also sometimes use ghostwriters to help them write sequels and satisfy popular demands. 

Ghostwriters are freelancers, so you can start by getting some freelance writing gigs. As a beginner, you might start with short-form projects like articles, white papers, website content. Here are some resources, complete with tips from experienced professionals, that might be helpful:

• How to Start Freelance Writing ( Read here )
• How to Become a Ghostwriter ( Read here )
• How Much Do Ghostwriters Make? ( Read here )

👩🏻‍💼 Entry level positions: editorial assistant

💰 Potential beginner’s earning: $25,000-$30,000 per year or $800-$1,000 per book

Writing is actually not all there is to creative writing jobs — if you really love stories and are always finding ways to make a story better, then editing is a suitable profession for you. There are many types of editors: some, like development editors, work more on the plot and theme of the book, and others, like copy editors,  specialize on its language and style . 

Editorial assistant jobs are the common first steps to this career path. Entry-level positions are quite competitive in publishing, so you’ll likely need a relevant degree (English Literature, MFA, etc.) to get the job. 

Freelancing, as always, is an option, but it can be quite difficult to get clients if you start without any editing experience. Oftentimes, editors start working in-house and later transition to freelance . 

Below are some more resources for you if you want to pursue this career path:

• How to Become an Editor: A Guide for Beginners ( Read here )
• Copyediting Certificates: Do You Need One and Where to Get It? ( Read here )
• Editor Salary: Can Your Skills Pay the Bills? ( Read here )
• Working in Publishing: An Insider's Guide ( Read here )

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3. Proofreader

👨🏼‍💼 Entry level positions: freelance proofreader

💰 Potential beginner’s earning: $20-$30 per hour or $550-$650 per book 

Proofreading comes after editing — the proofreader reads the manuscript one final time, after all the revisions are made, to see if any spelling and grammatical errors are missed out. They’re incredibly crucial to the production of a spotless book, so there’s never a shortage of proofreading work opportunities . 

This task is often done on a freelance basis, either by full-time freelancers or by editors who want to take on side jobs. You can specialize in proofreading alone, though most professionals will combine editing and proofreading crafts for better income. As a beginner, opportunities for short-form projects will often be more accessible — stay open-minded about taking them up, but also do some proofreading training to prepare for more exciting gigs. 

We’ve also got some resources for this topic for you to check out:

• How to Become a Proofreader: The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide ( Read here )
• How to Choose Your Proofreading Rates ( Read here )

There’s more to journalism than just breaking news on CNN, which means there’s plenty of space for the creative writer in you to flourish in this industry! Let’s take a look at a couple of options you can consider. 

4. Columnist 

👩🏽‍💼 Entry level positions: fellowships, junior writer/columnist, freelance writer

💰 Potential beginner’s earning: $25,000-$35,000 per year or $100-$300 per piece 

If you like creative nonfiction , you probably have already considered becoming a columnist. In fact, you can even be a books columnist! Job options range from book-specific sites like Electric Literature or Literary Hub, to prestigious newspapers like The Guardian or The New Yorker. But that’s not necessarily the only thing you can write about! You can become a columnist in just about any topic, from social issues to entertainment, as long as you’re interested in the niche. 

Look out for fellowships and junior writing jobs in newspapers and magazines and get ready to apply! A degree in relevant subjects like Journalism or English Literature is a great advantage, though your ability to follow up on leads, conduct thorough research, and keep up with the latest trends in a certain niche will be carefully assessed. You can also be a contributing writer first to forge a relationship with the editors before going after a full-time position. 

👨🏻‍💼 Entry level positions: junior writer, freelance writer

There’s a fine line between a critic and a columnist: critics are usually more academically inclined, and they often work more on the arts than columnists. Columnists cover social issues, sports, entertainment in their more general sense, while critics while home in on a particular piece of art, literature, theatre, or movie to offer expert assessment of it. 

Similar to the columnists, you can begin with junior writing positions and freelance gigs, in which you build up a writing portfolio of relevant work . Ideally, critics will be more savvy to the technicalities of whatever subject you critique — be it filmography or literature. In other words, formal training like a bachelor’s degree is a good launch pad. 

6. News journalist 

👩🏼‍💼 Entry level positions: staff writer/journalist

💰 Potential beginner’s earning: $30,000-$35,000 per year 

Writing news articles is different from the writing column pieces: a journalist must maintain an impartial voice and be succinct. Moreover, you’re always looking out for the latest story, whether on social media or on the street (which is where your love for creative writing can come in). 

The most common way to get into news journalism is to get a salaried position. You can also apply to internships as well, and there are compensated ones to look out for. What you will need is a degree and some journalist training so that you can use shorthand, know what makes a good story, and know what sources to chase, among other things. 

7. Investigative journalist 

👨🏽‍💼 Entry level positions: staff writer/journalist

And what if you’re a fan of true crime ? You might find yourself drawn to investigative journalism! You can chase the tail of anything under the sun, from kidnappings to factory production, from local to international events, so long as there’s an uncovered story there. The topic will often be assigned to you by an editor, and you’ll be given some time to collect information and write the article. It’s a slower pace than daily news, but it’s thrilling nonetheless. 

Similar to the news path, you’ll likely start off with an internship or a junior writing position. With this job opportunity, you can build a portfolio that demonstrates your ability to peel back the layers of the onion to reveal new insights to a matter. Again, a degree and training in journalism are essential. 

Copywriting

Copywriting is writing to sell a product or service, and it could be anything from newsletter emails to slogans to even commercial scripts! There’s definitely a creative element to it, as you’re always looking for a unique and memorable way to capture the attention of consumers. And since it's so rooted in consumption culture, copywriting is definitely a writing career that's in demand!

Below are several types of copywriting jobs you can go into. 

8. Technical copywriter

👩🏻‍💼 Entry level positions: technical writer, freelance writer

💰 Potential beginner’s earning: $32,000-$38,000 per year 

A technical writer works on instructional materials for manuals, white papers, and other informative pieces of writing. A technical copywriter combines that level of specialty with marketing tactics, thereby focusing on promoting products and services that are a bit more, well, technical. Think electronic companies, software developers, repair and maintenance services. 

Ideally, you’d have some education or experience in technical sectors (i.e. IT, engineering, finance). That way, you won’t take too much time to familiarize yourself with the jargon, and employers are more likely to hire you. You can also begin with technical writing, if you don’t mind working on material that’s a bit less creative. 

9. Advertising copywriter

👨🏼‍💼 Entry level positions: junior copywriter, communications copywriter

For a more creative writing job, you can go for advertising. This often involves a lot of brainstorming with the creative team of your agency to come up with advertisement campaigns that will leave a mark. When working on this you can write all kinds of content, from slogans to image copies to web content. 

Having a bachelor’s degree in marketing or an essay-based discipline is usually beneficial if you’re looking for this kind of job. You can work for a big brand, which will constantly be needing new content, or you can work for a marketing agency, tailoring your work to every client. 

10. PR copywriter

👩🏽‍💼 Entry level positions: junior copywriter

Public relations (PR) is, simply put, the art of building a good reputation, whether that’s for an individual or a brand. You’ll work on press releases, report and presentation writing, material for internal and external communications to present your client’s motivation and direction. 

For this kind of job, the precision of your language and your ability to stay up to date with the competitors will be important. A degree in communications or business administration are a plus point. And as is often the case in most writing jobs, the ability to find the human story behind everything will be your best tool. 

Content Marketing

Nowadays, traditional marketing on TV, billboards, and posters are only a part of the industry, the other is all about online content. And with so many things zooming about on the Internet, every company will be looking for the most creative person to help them stand out. Which means you get plenty of opportunities to be imaginative, working on website content, blog posts, social media posts, and even videos.

11. Social media manager 

👨🏻‍💼 Entry level positions: assistant/junior/freelance social media specialist

💰 Potential beginner’s earning: $20-$30 per hour or $30,000-$35,000 per year 

With our evermore online world, social media-related jobs definitely is a writing career that's in demand. So many things can happen on social media — you might very well go viral overnight! The challenge is getting there. As a social media manager, you get to be the voice of the company, interacting with customers in a friendly, casual way, while also learning their habits and preferences so that you and others on your team can better engage with them. 

This is a relatively hands-on job, so experience running a public social media account is the best thing you can have on your CV. A degree in communications can be beneficial, though many job postings don’t require anything specific.

12. Blogger

👩🏼‍💼 Entry level positions: blogger, freelance writer

💰 Potential beginner’s earning: $0.10-$0.15 per word

Blogging is probably something you’re familiar with as a writer — but do you know it can earn you a good penny? By focusing on a specific subject (it can be books , technology, fashion, the freelance life, etc.), you can attract companies who are looking to strengthen their brand awareness and will sponsor you. It’ll take time to build an attractive platform, but it’s definitely possible. 

Beyond that, you can write for others as well. There are plenty of websites that promote creative writing jobs all over, so you can sift through them for the suitable ones. No degree requirements for this job, just your skill with a (proverbial) quill! 

13. Content creator 

👨🏽‍💼 Entry level positions: content marketer

💰 Potential beginner’s earning: $27,000-$34,000 per year 

If you’re happy to do a bit of everything, then apply to become a content creator. You’ll also get to collaborate with a team to come up with an overall strategy in this position.

You can work for all kinds of companies in this career. A bachelor’s degree in Marketing, English, Communications are highly relevant, though adjacent, essay-based subjects tend to do the job, too. Brushing up on search engine optimization (SEO) is also wise. 

Pop culture, the latest rumors and gossip, interesting observations served on a pretty platter — if any of that sounds interesting to you, you can jump into the media industry. Here are some job options if you want to take this route. 

14. Screenwriter

👩🏻‍💼 Entry level positions: assistant/associate writer

💰 Potential beginner’s earning: $20-$30 per hour or $9,000-$15,000 per project 

Everyone of us has probably at one point or another thought about entering the film and TV industry, and that career goal is definitely achievable, if you know where to look. A lot of people start with assistant positions to learn the ropes and get an opportunity to work on bigger productions. If you prefer to write from the get-go, you can go for lower-budget projects. 

To get one of the assistant positions and put yourself out there, touch up on craft skills like plotting, story structures , character-building to be prepared. No qualifications are specified in most cases. 

15. Broadcast journalist 

👨🏼‍💼 Entry level positions: staff writer

We’ve covered written news — now comes broadcast news. From televised reports to radio sessions, you can be the writer behind the words that reporters or presenters read out. It’s a fast-paced job that deals with the latest real-life stories, which can be incredibly rewarding, even if it’s not explicitly creative. 

Many broadcast journalists work project by project (unless it’s periodical news), almost like a freelancer. You’ll still need to have all the skills necessary to put together a good news story, so some journalist training will be beneficial. 

16. Podcaster 

👩🏻‍💼 Entry level positions: assistant/associate writer or producer 

💰 Potential beginner’s earning: $18-$25 per hour, or $26,000-$32,000 per year 

Along the same lines as a broadcast journalist is the job of a podcaster. This is a bit more topical than journalism, and you can really home into certain fields and explore it in depth. Another special thing about podcasters is they usually host the shows, too! So if you’re confident about your voice, and about interviewing others, there’s no reason not to try this out. 

As with screenwriting, the route to get into this sector can be a little bit challenging, since it’s often a case of catching an opportunity from the right people at the right time. Which is why assistant jobs are a strong start. 

And finally, we arrive at the section that hopeful writers often dream about more than anything else. Getting your book out in the world is not easy, it requires not just time and effort but also finances, if only to keep you afloat while completing the manuscript. That said, it’s possible to do it on the side with another full-time job, as is the case for most published writers. 

The cool thing about this career is that you are your own boss — i.e. there are no entry level positions. You are an author the day you call yourself one. 

17. Short story writer

Short stories are charming in their own right, and with the booming literary magazine sphere , there’s no shortage of space to get your words out there into the world. Publishing an anthology with a publisher is also an option but it’s harder — you often need to have an established career first. 

In any case, most magazines aim to have enough funds to pay their contributors. Small ones can pay $15-$20 per story, bigger ones $100-$200. You can also enter writing contests to win higher prizes .

18. Novelist 

Being a novelist comes with the difficulty of having the time and finances to write a full draft before you can propose it to publishers, or even publish it yourself. It’s a long commitment, and it doesn’t guarantee a payoff. If it does get printed, a book deal can get you an advance in the $5,000-$15,000 range. If you self-publish, what you get depends on how well you market your books — emphasis on the plural noun!

That said, it’s not impossible. We’ve got a whole post on how to become a novelist here if you want some pointers from famous writers like Anne Lamott and Zadie Smith! Read it here .

19. Nonfiction author 

Who says creative writing jobs have to be all about fiction? Creative nonfiction is a growing field that’s always welcoming new stories. From memoirs and biographies to true crime, from self-help to essay collections, you can focus on many different topics with this option. 

The nice thing about it all is that unlike fiction writers, you can pitch your book to publishers before you complete a whole manuscript for nonfiction titles, meaning you can be guaranteed some kind of results before you start writing. The advance amount is similar to that for novels.

And last but not least, you can become a poet! Poets tell stories with rhythm and rich imagery, and not just on paper but also with their voice. Performing poetry is one of the special advantages that comes with this form of writing. Not only does it let you and the audience experience in a new way, it’s also a great opportunity to grow as an artist. 

On top of that, you can also dabble in other industries (advertising, music producers…) as a lyricist. As it’s a gig-based employment, you probably want to diversify your work portfolio to make sure there’s always something you can work on. The rates are usually similar to that of a ghostwriter.

And voila, that’s the end to our master list of creative writing jobs! Hopefully, there’s something to help you passion live on among this many options.

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• Advisers / Agents

Apprentice of Fine Arts in Creative Writing (AFA)

Ribston Hall School, Gloucester, GL1 5LE 

The AFA programme is designed to equip students with the relevant knowledge and skills for progression to the study of Creative Writing at undergraduate level.

• Bristol Grammar School

Creative writing.

The AFA is graded A*, A, B, C, D, E. Attainment insufficient to lead to the award of a certificate is reported as Unclassified (U), with final oversight by the Writers’ Examination Board.

No re-sits of units are permitted

In exceptional circumstances, component results for the Coursework Portfolio can be carried forward from one examination series to another.

The AFA programme is closely based on the AS/A2 course in Creative Writing designed by AQA, and is aligned in size to GCE Level qualifications in similar subjects, which is 360 guided learning hours over the two-year duration of the course. However, these figures are for guidance only, and the GLH available may vary according to local curricular practice among participating centres and the learners’ prior experience of writing. In Creative Writing the amount of independent reading and writing undertaken by learners may well make a significant difference to levels of achievement. It may also enable the programme to run successfully even in centres where there are fewer than 360 guided learning hours available. 

First examinations of the AFA took place in April and May 2019.

Results are published annually to the WEB website in the latter part of August.

The AFA became available for first teaching from September 2017, and is current in 11 centres.

Grade descriptions and total entries will be published by The Writers’ Examination Board on their website at  https://writersexaminationboard.com/updates/

The AFA in Creative Writing has been constructed to facilitate progression in writing from the English curriculums provided at KS4 and towards undergraduate level Creative Writing programmes at university. It emphasises exploration, discipline, specialisation, creativity and craft. The progression to the requirements of undergraduate level programmes in Creative Writing and English is natural, with the Writers’ Examination Board being in regular liaison with Higher Education centres specialising in Creative Writing, and national bodies concerned with English teaching, such as NATE and NAWE. 

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Writing Apprenticeship

• By: Jessica Faust | Date: Mar 31 2010

Something a commenter wrote on the blog got me to thinking. In a discussion about learning the business of publishing, one reader made the comment, “In many industries, there are apprenticeships where you get paid to learn. That doesn’t happen with writing. You write it – it might take years – and then you try and sell it. Not the other way around.”

And that got me thinking. Why not? Why can’t publishing and writing be an industry of apprenticeships. After all, I have interns who I teach how to write reader’s reports, evaluate manuscripts, and review contracts, and of course they help me by doing things like filing and keeping up on proposal reading. Why couldn’t writers hire interns or apprentices for the very same purposes?

As we’ve all discussed on this blog, there’s a lot more to being published than just writing a book, and I think an apprentice could be very useful in this process for writers. An apprentice could help file, research information for the book, research information for publicity and marketing, handle things like mailings, etc., and yes, an apprentice could also help act as a second reader for the writer and by doing so learn why certain things work or don’t work in a book. Yes, absolutely, you are not going to learn how to write a book by following someone else around, just as you aren’t going to learn how to be an agent by simply watching another agent work. But you will learn a whole heck of a lot about what it takes to be a published author, and isn’t that what an apprenticeship is about?

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31 responses to “Writing Apprenticeship”

Writers can have mentors, absolutely. I've been mentored by a few people and informally mentored others.

But I'm not sure about apprenticing. "Okay, so now we've written the query letter. And now we wait three months."

Informal mentoring of beginning writers takes place all the time in writing groups and online writing forums. I'm not sure about having someone else do the research and such for me, though, because in order to write it, it has to all be in your own head, and many times it's the extra tidbits you find during research which seem unimportant which add depth and flavor to whatever you're writing. They might not be important enough for an assistant to put on an index card, but the writer herself would leverage that into a human touch that makes a character become real.

Someone to handle marketing and publicity, though — that would rock. 🙂

There are a few authors out there with massive websites full of help and who take time to mentor via online workshops, personal emails, and such.

I've been blessed by both these ladies-

http://www.hollylisle.com

http://www.jacquelinelichtenberg.com

https://hollylisle.com/

editingcircle.blogspot.com

what a neat idea! But I've got to agree with @anonymous…there's simply too much time where the apprentice wouldn't be doing anything.

then again, i think that mentoring should be made more easily accessible somehow. Some authors are professors for example, which is kind of one form of mentoring, but it'd be pretty neat to be in semi-regular correspondence with a writer you admire.

the writer herself would leverage that into a human touch that makes a character become real. data entry india

I think this is a terrific idea! I love how you think outside the box, Jessica.

There would be some potential for exploitation, so people would have to be careful.

But as for what the writer would do in the downtime – they'd write, of course!

Actually, I've frequently wondered why publishers just don't simply employ their authors. Writing full-time would significantly increase a writer's productivity and allow the publisher to edit earlier in the process – saving time.

But, anyway, in terms of apprenticeship, I'd love a mentor. Where can I sign up?

Dibs on J.K. Rowling. 🙂

Unofficial mentorship is very common in romance. That's one thing that RWA gets right with its writers' education, and some of its chapters have set up published/unpublished mentorships.

I've unofficially mentored dozens of writers as a writer and even more as a writing teacher, and I'm the go to person for friends who are very successful in the business but not so informed about the working of publishing.

One thing that sf/fantasy does that I'd like to see romance do is the pairing of an established writer with a talented unpublished author in a novel. It's been the start of some great careers.

John Irving thought it was interesting idea: https://www.amazon.com/Widow-One-Year-Novel/dp/0345469011/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1270046727&sr=1-1

I studied a BA in Creative Writing which included a large amount of 'apprenticeship' style work for writers… we would spend time learning about writing techniques and how other writers used them, experiment with them during workshops and then we’d have to implement them in our own writing for coursework.

We learned to evaluate the works of others, learned to evaluate our own writing. There were no stuffy boring lectures and slow seminars; instead in small groups (15 in each workshop) we studied prose writing, scripting, journalism and advertising copy. More importantly our lecturers weren't the stand at the front of the room and talk types – they sat and joined in too – leading by example, as with all good mentors (I've never learned much from anyone who hasn't had enthusiasm for their subject, or a willingness to join in.)

There was never a moment when I wasn't learning something, either from the lecturers, or from the visiting writers. We’d regularly discuss other matters too – changes in publishing, the arrival of the e-book, how not to approach an editor/agent/publisher. We were also sent out on placements with newspapers, small presses, and companies created to support and develop writing.

We were warned that the BA wouldn’t make us overnight award winners, but that it could help. I find that it does. I’m certainly a better writer now, than I was before the degree. I admit though, it’s not the path for everyone to take, after all it takes three years and costs a small fortune in fees, and it doesn’t promise instant success… but it worked for me.

Jennifer Crusie hasn't actually mentored me, but has been extremely generous with information, and answering questions. She even offered to read my first chapter of a novel several years ago. That critique was awesome. Whenever I have a question she's the first person I ask, and I trust her answers.

Also, some RWA chapters have mentoring programs where an unpublished author works with a published author. An old friend of mine was lucky enough to have Debbie Macomber mentor her in the early nineties. She's forever grateful.

I love this idea… If/when I get to the position where I can do this as an author for an aspiring writer, I'd love to give it a try!

I also had thoughts about making a sort of "dorm" for aspiring writers — something between a residency and an MFA program, I guess. Obvious these thoughts are still in the incubation stage, lol.

RWA was my apprenticeship, but now that I'm published, and as much as I know an apprentice could help me with all the business of promotion and that sort of thing, I'm too much a control freak to turn any of it loose. I do, however, mentor lots of beginning writers, just as I was mentored by those who'd gone before me and finally found success. I think of it as paying it forward, though it's obviously not a formal process. It's just one writer passing on what they've learned to the next in line.

I think the publishing machines, like what is going on with James Patterson is an apprenticeship program–I mean sure, you have to prove you can write first to get in, but it is a training ground for writers early in their career. XYZ with James Patterson ensures it SELLS, the system makes sure it has all the elements it needs… the writer grows so soon she can fly alone…

I'm in fact mid process auditioning to write a cozy mystery series, and likewise–that is an intensive collaboration with editors who KNOW what the genre takes. (I suspect similar systems work for many of the big selling genres).

Now these aren't novice apprenticeships… but then again JOB apprenticeships only happen after finishing college so all the tools are in there, too.

You don't think such a system might make for writers who were all rather samey ?

In my more cynical moments I think this is what publishers are after in these hard times – a novel just like the last best-seller, only slightly different – but I can't think it would be good for literature as a whole.

And if this happened widely, before you know it, it would be as necessary to publication as getting an agent. A third hurdle to leap.

I think mentors are invaluable and have had the benefit of several. It's one thing about being affiliated with the academia, no matter what your major (mine was Sociology). Thank God for liberal arts where professors outside of one's major can "discover" you.

Because it has no monetary benefit to the people who hire them.

Like I always say: Don't base your career on doing something that other people are willing to do for free.

I have an MFA, and, bar none, the best things I got out of the experience were the relationships with faculty members (IE, working writers) and the writing friendships I forged with my peers.

That being said, while the faculty connection is nice , I've probably learned more from my peers (both in the MFA and outside of it) than I have from personal relationships with "master" writers. Writing is such a varied task that there's no telling when someone's advice is going to be helpful to you. And someone can be a wonderful writer but absolutely terrible teacher/mentor, or their writing might come out of methods that are totally different and incompatible from yours.

And of course, the act of writing is essentially a solitary one.

You don't think such a system might make for writers who were all rather samey?

This is actually a common criticism leveled at MFA programs, and from someone who's been there, I find it an entirely valid one. Having been through the experience, I actually prefer things more informal–for the apprentice writer, as it were, it allows him or her to cobble together advice from a variety of resources to figure out what best fits his or her writing style.

I have already had one meeting with a published author who offered to do a read through of my ms.

A goal of mine has always been to pay it forward, that is once I get established as a published author try to find a new and aspiring author to mentor along the way. Why not?

I'm published and I hire a college student a few times a year to help me with various projects. (she'll make a mailing list for me of local bookstores or update, call and get the names of any YA librarians at various chapters etc) In return we often go out for coffee and she asks about the business side of publishing and I give her what advice I can. I've also read some of her work. She finds the experience really interesting and it beats temping and I find it helpful to have someone do some of the legwork especially around book release time.

Mentoring is a great concept, but paid apprenticeship is probably unnecessary. There are too many emerging writers who would do it for free just to absorb the experience and learn from it.

I think that's an awesome idea Jessica. Great post.

The difference between apprenticing in any other practice and in writing is that with any other practice, it is generally expected that the apprentice will then be paid to do the work learned in the apprenticeship. Apprentices to mechanics become mechanics. Apprentices to cobblers become cobblers. Apprentices to literary agents could, I suppose, become literary agents. These people are learning a skill that they can then directly apply to have a career.

While writing well does require a large degree of skill, there are too many other factors that determine whether any writer has a successful career. You can teach technical skills, and the proper routes to pursue to be published, but you can't teach talent or luck, which are often a big part of success. I love the idea of mentorships, but I think that's all anyone can realistically offer to any writer seeking publication. "Apprenticeship" is too formal a term for the arrangement, I believe.

Like many others, I'm involved in a mentorship arrangement with a published author through RWAustralia. I've learnt more in the past 12 months than I had in a lot of years before that. Once I'm publisherd and established, I fully expect I'll pass on the favour, taking on a new writer and helping them along the way. But I do like your idea, Jessica, but more in terms of an actual paid position. Of course, there wouldn't be many authors who could actually afford to keep themselves, let alone pay someone else. But if I happen to 'win the lottery' and stumble onto a best seller and make oodles of money like JK Rowling or Stephanie Meyer, then I think I'd definitely pay someone to work as my apprentice while they learned about the craft.

What a thought-provoking discussion–I'd love some established writer to mentor me. Wouldn't it be great if there was a national program that hooked up published people with newbies? Dream come true. 🙂

Great post!

-Connie @ Constance-Reader.com

Just write. It's okay. Just write.

Will magic happen as a result? Probably not. My book has ranked on Amazon between 1,000 and 20,000 in Fiction for 4 months. My Kindle sales are good. My reviews are good. I can't get an agent to read a partial. Thank god agents don't buy books.

That would be wonderful, but it seems there are many people who choose to do what you write about for free. In many ways this is a beautiful thing, but …

Suppose you hire a paid intern, and the agents you are competing with get free help – from people who are as good as the one you are paying, or perhaps just almost so.

These agents have a financial advantage over you. When times get tough, they will have an edge paying the rent. I like to think your spirit and generosity will give you an edge in turn – but I've heard an unpaid internship is expected if you have no experience in the industry.

Or am I wrong? Have you seen it done?

The more desirable the job, the less likely the interns/apprentices are to be paid. And the better the internship, the less they SHOULD be paid – they're trading their labor for experience and knowledge. It's like going to school and not having to pay cash tuition.

I run a very specialized theatre company – it costs thousands of dollars and you have to move to specific geographic areas to learn what we do. So interns are trading their labor – file this, fix that, research this, help with that – for training and experience that would otherwise cost them a lot of money. It took me 10 years of my professional life to get to the point where I had anything worth sharing, and I enjoy trading a head start for labor.

There is a widespread writing internship available to just about everyone – it's called getting an MFA, and it costs a lot of time and money. Even tuition-remission is generally based on teaching the crap classes no senior faculty want.

So that's why internships don't pay. Just like in a lot of other desirable fields.

I wonder how many writers even have the time to commit to something like that. I've done a little online mentoring, but found it bit into my writing time so bad that I had to quit.

Also, the potential for exploitation is, unfortunately, significant. I may have been reading Writer Beware for too long, but I can think of multiple ways offhand for the sharks to move in here.

Not that it couldn't work, but I'd be wary.

I know some professional writers who use interns to help with research. This seems to work best for nonfiction writers, though, especially those with a book contract already.

This sort of apprenticeship/internship is a cool idea.

To the very first Anonymous on 3/31: yes, the research eventually needs to get "in the head" of the writer herself, but preliminary research and material gathering being done by apprentices is THE system used by lawyers. They're called associates and they're better paid than I am but essentially they research all day and all night and write reports (aka legal briefs) for their bosses who have the names and the reputations, and then their bosses take the whole thing to court.

@ Eileen Cook — what a wonderful initiative to take with a young writer!

The thing about this apprenticeship notion is that it would have to come after the education or concomitantly; interns are still expected to have a college education and some specialization and so would apprentice writers. BAs, MFAs and workshops would all still be necessary because an apprenticeship is (by definition) about the business/selling end of craft.

We probably haven't adopted this model yet because so few writers can make their own living on the business of writing. And if you can't live on it then you can't pay an apprentice. … although if there are any successful writers out there who want to pay me to be their PA while I write and try to publish, I'd be game for that job.

I did not go to a fancy college. I worked in a library for 5 years as a page and read everything that I could get my hands on. I am 34 now and have always wanted to get into writing. An apprenticeship would be like a dream come true to someone like me so that I could feel comfortable with my future and have a solid foundation instead of hoping that I am doing it right and praying that I don't do too many things wrong.

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• Graduate Division
• College of Liberal and Professional Studies

Bassini Apprenticeships

We're excited to announce two apprenticeships for 2025. apply for a spring 2025 apprenticeship by thursday, october 10, 2024, at 11:59pm. see full details below..

A major goal of the College of Arts & Sciences is to promote advanced research, mentorship and apprenticeship experiences especially during students’ junior and senior years. CPCW’s writing apprenticeships project was created in 2003 to meet this goal.

Each year during the spring semester, the Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing hosts the Bassini Writing Apprenticeships. Members of the faculty affiliated with Penn’s writing programs sponsor one apprenticeship each. The apprenticeships are one full semester in duration. Students chosen to be CPCW apprentices receive one course credit (English 3899) which can be counted:

• toward the Creative Writing concentration within the English major
• as an elective within the English major for those who are not Creative Writing concentrators
• toward the Creative Writing or Journalistic Writing minor
• as an elective course toward graduation requirements for students not pursuing a major or minor in English, Creative Writing, or Journalistic Writing

Sophomores, juniors, and seniors in the College of Arts and Sciences are eligible to apply. Juniors and seniors will be given strong preference.

The apprentice and the faculty mentor will work together on a project that is at the heart of the mentor’s work as a practicing writer and/or a member of a professional writing community. The apprenticeship is not simply an independent study; nor is it a time for the student to write a creative or critical thesis. The goal of the program is to feature advanced problem-solving of the sort writers face when they take on a major project, an in-depth consideration of actual writing practices, and an introduction to one of the great variety of writing-related projects writers undertake.

Each apprentice and mentor will create their own expected outcomes and guidelines (including evaluation of any practical and written work to be assigned) for the student’s work in this unusual “course.”

Writing apprenticeships are made possible through a generous grant from Reina Marin Bassini (CW ’ 72 GED ’ 72) and Emilio Bassini (C ’ 71 W ’ 71 WG ’ 73).

Spring 2025 Apprenticeships

Jay kirk , lecturer in creative writing.

The bulk of my apprentice’s time will be engaged in helping prepare my third narrative nonfiction book:  Random Event Generator . True to its working title, this book delves into the year 2015 in the immediate aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo shootings in Paris. It follows a group of social practice artists from the Negev to the Netherlands; a Princeton AI engineer who intends to heal the planet’s consciousness; a group of Sudanese asylum seekers; and several sustained historical digressions into the life of the artist-militant Guy Debord (author of the manifesto  The Society of the Spectacle ) during the May 1968 revolution in France. It’s a project I have been sketching out since 2015, “reporting” in real time, as it were, and writing full-time since the publication of my last book,  Avoid the Day: A New Nonfiction in Two Movements  (Harper Perennial, 2020). Because I am also a contributing writer for the  New York Times Magazine , I will be in the early research phase for a story I have planned about a climate activist; and because I will soon be delivering a story I owe  Harper’s Magazine , in addition to helping with the more creative work of book research, my apprentice will also assist in the most rigorous fact-checking procedure ever invented by a national magazine. General tasks will include audio transcription, proofreading, the hunting down of obscure articles (and so getting to know the full miracle of Van Pelt really really well!), and possibly the conducting of an interview or two. I sent my last Bassini apprentice to Washington, DC, to conduct an interview with a prominent musicologist, the results of which ended up verbatim in my last book!

Fayyaz Vellani , Lecturer in Critical Writing; Director, College House Undergraduate Research Program; Faculty Co-Director, Penn First Plus; Fellow, Hill College House

As I work on my second novel, I am in search of an apprentice to help conduct research on Zanzibar, including geographical and/or historical allusions that can potentially be woven into the story.  My apprentice will be assigned research tasks relating to monuments, historical events, and natural features of Zanzibar that can bolster the research I have already conducted in person. An ideal candidate would be interested in fiction that has a strong grounding in geography, as my writing explores the many interrelations between place and identity. Some familiarity with East Africa would be ideal but is not a requirement.

How to apply

If you wish to apply for a Bassini Writing Apprenticeship, please submit the following information via email to [email protected] :

• your name, Penn ID number, and year of graduation;
• which of the apprenticeships you seek;
• reasons you want to work with this writer; and
• a brief description of what in your background and experience supports your candidacy for the apprenticeship.

First preference will be given to seniors and juniors. 

Apply for a spring 2025 apprenticeship by Thursday, October 10, 2024, at 11:59pm.

The bassini writing apprenticeship in the news.

"Apprenticeship program gives students real-world writing experience"

"The Apprentices"

Writing and reflections by past apprentices

"From a Classroom in Texas to #VoteThatJawn" by 2023 apprentice Samira Mehta (Lorene Cary, #VoteThatJawn)

"Plot Hole" by 2023 apprentice Haley Nguyen (J† Johnson, Cul-de-sac of Blood )

"Becoming a Member of the 'Sick Parents Society'" by 2018 apprentice Sabrina Qiao (Jamie-Lee Josselyn, 'Dead Parents Society')

“ Meet Liz: How an Addy Doll Helped Me Find Myself, ”  by 2016 apprentice Elizabeth Richardson (Lorene Cary, SafeKidsStories.com)

2024 Apprenticeships

Michelle taransky , lecturer in critical writing (erica messics).

As I work on my first novel, I am in search of an apprentice to help me think about (and research around) what it means to co-write a novel in 2023 with a large language model. During 2022, I worked with Google to test their GPT powered large language model, wordcraft. I wrote a short story, “The Art of the Group Chat,” that I am expanding into a novel. The novel follows the group chats of three moms who have been best friends since the ’90s as they navigate middle age, a world increasingly reliant on technology, COVID-19, and their daughters’ best friendships. My apprentice will be assigned various research tasks on historical and contemporary novels about art school, will find fictional characters who are "mean girls," and will be asked to summarize and synthesize their findings. Because the novel is being written using ChatGPT-like prompts, the apprentice and I will also investigate the history of and emerging trends in generative and AI literature as well as try out some of these models. I invite the apprentice to write their own critical, creative or hybrid project alongside our research, conversations and findings. The ideal apprentice has an interest in fiction, poets' novels, feminist art, experimental literary forms, and thinking about what it means to write / to cowrite with AI.

Lorene Cary , Senior Lecturer in English (Isabel Engel, Charissa Howard, and Rae Norman)

The  #VoteThatJawn  Bassini Fellow will write and curate and organize with Lorene Cary and the Committee of 70 to increase youth vote in Philadelphia. Your work will continue to set the standard for amplifying youth voice and civic connection. Local and organic. Think of election year as a chance to interrupt Angry and Inaccurate with Witty Excellence. And think of 18 years old as the seam between high-school and college youth. Young people are passionate; you will help them connect passion to governance: “If you’d promote that jawn, then vote that jawn!”

The Bassini apprentice will help plan spring and fall term events to get youth vote trending on social in our area. Our last pre-election event reached 250K individuals. Let’s beat the record! Other assignments to choose from: help establish a #VoteThatJawn  podcast; create writing workshops; explore fun, new social media campaigns; create Jawn youth-leader alumni group; and write and/or edit for mainstream media to raise public awareness of young voters’ sophistication and concerns.

2024 Reports

Michelle Taransky : I am grateful for the support of the Bassini Apprenticeship for the invaluable conversations and plans I made with my apprentice Erica Messics as I work through the beginning stages of my first novel. Meeting weekly over the ChatGPT 4.0 window next to the window in my office, Erica and I set out to design a chatbot named Al.  In my novel, Marsha, a writing professor at a failing arts school, hires an undergraduate research assistant to help her design a chatbot named Al.  Though Erica and I both came into the Bassini with experience prompting GenAI and interacting with existing chatbots, neither of us had created a chatbot. While figuring out how to create a chatbot that sounded like a human sending real text messages to an overly eager admirer, Erica and I had tangled, impactful discussions about art, voice and identity that will echo in the classrooms and office hours of the novel.  While experiencing various failures and successes in chatbot creation as we wrote rules, uploaded files, and rewrote the rules, we had occasion to consider the roles of automation and intention as we further developed the character of the chatbot as well as his creator, Marsha.  When the Al chatbot described a gallery installation he is working on that will use mirrors to “reflect the invisible, making viewers question what's really there and what’s merely a projection of themselves” we felt encouraged to keep going. Erica proved a fierce collaborator at every stage of these beginning stages, offering smart reframes and refinements around characters and motivation, as well as coming up with ways of moving forward with the chatbot design when we met dead ends or frustration with how overwrought and un-like text messaging the chatbot replies were at first.  Erica’s experience as a screenwriter with enthusiasm for writing authentic characters with compelling dialogue pushed me to better imagine Marsha and Al than I could have imagined. No surprise that Erica won best screenplay in Cinema & Media Studies department .

Lorene Cary : Because democracy, advocacy, and voting are team sports, the #VoteThatJawn Bassini Apprenticeship brought together three talented and passionate students — Isabel Engel, Charissa Howard, and Rae Norman — to work on:

• Curating Summer 2024 posts . Having decided to focus on the 60th anniversary of Freedom Summer and the dangerous, indeed, deadly campaign to register Black voters in the South, one apprentice wrote a series of articles to post throughout the summer about the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, and singer Harry Belafonte’s gift to leaders of the 1964 Voting Rights campaign: a trip to Guinea in West Africa, newly free from colonialism and bursting with Black independence.
• Interviews. In order to lay out the legacy of the 1964 Freedom Summer , with its voter suppression and violence and struggle, Bassinis decided to find Freedom Schools still active here in Philadelphia. An important national model is run by the Black Educators Network, with its goal of “rebuilding the Black teacher pipeline.” One apprentice has managed to get an interview with Sharif El Mekki , former Philadelphia Principal and advisor to President Obama and his Education Department.
• Planning. This cohort has brainstormed and helped plan #VoteThatJawn’s Fall 2024 event, an October 16th Youth Vote Press Conference, sponsored by #VoteThatJawn , Committee of 70 , and PA Youth Vote . One Bassini has researched student leaders and editors from area high schools and colleges who will hear from and question Philadelphia Commissioners and journalists about youth voice and vote and media coverage. The aim is to provide student editors and influencers with tools to encourage voting and civic engagement in their communities. The event will unite students, media professionals, and local politicians through one shared idea: our city, state and country need the #youthvote.
• Humor pieces. Each apprentice worked on something fun to communicate youth energy and wit.
• All apprentices wrote pieces for WXPN’s “Live from Writers House” program , featuring VoteThatJawn.

One apprentice will return as an undergraduate TA in the Fall 2024 Term to continue to organize the Press Conference with students in English 3306 . Another will work part-time with the project this summer. All three have acted as responsible, self-starting young colleagues who have helped move the project forward.

2023 Apprenticeships

J †johnson , lecturer in creative writing (haley nguyen).

I’m looking for someone with an interest in the ways a writer’s personal interests and poetics come into public view and engage literary community. How do we bring our passions to the commons? This internship will be focused on a range of collaborative tasks related to editorial and project management, writing and researching, and problem-solving. Depending on your expertise, your interests, and the kinds of experiences and challenges you want to get out of a Bassini apprenticeship, spring projects could include: editorial assistance with  Cul-de-sac of Blood , a new literary journal devoted to horror poetics (launching in late 2022); editing, indexing, and preparing a new poetics manuscript called  Janky Materiality , the followup to  Trouble Songs ; or collecting and editing field recordings and video for a multimedia project related to an ongoing series of poetry manuscripts ( The Book / Or / The Woods , and two unpublished manuscripts in process,  the portal  and  The Passage / The Thing ).

Kathy DeMarco Van Cleve , Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing and Cinema and Media Studies (Francesca Davis and Isabella Schlact)

When I teach screenwriting, I often talk about the need to “funnel” our creative ideas from the many to the one. I think I have finally narrowed down my projects to one screenplay, one adult novel, and one young adult series—which is still too many ideas to tackle all at once. I am looking for an apprentice who will be exuberant, creative and organized, and who will be willing to talk through creative ideas so that my own focus can mirror theirs and we can both emerge at the end of the apprenticeship with work (if not works) of which we’re proud. Flexibility is paramount, as is interest in researching (in no particular order) climate change, the modern college admissions process, political shenanigans, the concept of meritocracy, various screenplays and movies in the “magic wish is granted” genre, and 2022 feminism. (See what I mean about the need to funnel creative ideas?) Humor is a plus, as is a love of nature and reading. On their end, my apprentice can expect to become acquainted with professionals in both the entertainment and publishing industries, and to work on their own fictional enterprises with, if desired, my oversight.

2023 Reports

J †Johnson: During her Bassini fellowship, Haley was a contributing editor and writer at the literary horror journal Cul-de-sac of Blood , along with myself and Gina Myers. She brought a unique perspective with a focus on manga, also a subject of her thesis at UPenn, and we were impressed by her community-mindedness and care in developing editor-writer relationships. For CDSOB, she assigned, edited and wrote pieces in the Friday Feature section, and published an original story called "Plot Hole." Subsequent to her apprenticeship, she will continue to contribute as a staff editor and writer, starting with her story "Sheep." She has good touch as an editor, a real talent for the microfiction parable, and a smart and playful approach to thinking about serial, visual storytelling. It's been a delight to work with Haley, and all the ghouls at CDSOB are thrilled to continue our horror culture publishing project together.

2022 Apprenticeships

Anthony decurtis , distinguished lecturer, creative writing program (teresa xie).

I am a working journalist based in New York who is blessed and cursed with juggling a variety of projects and assignments, often on short notice and mostly to do with popular music. Here the harrowing truths of such work will be revealed—the corners cleverly cut; the disasters deftly avoided; the mounting deadlines nudged imperceptibly into the realm of the possible. The apprentice's task will be to heroically assist in those processes while revealing nothing about how closely the abyss loomed at all times. For students who have worked at the Daily Pennsylvanian or 34th Street this will, of course, be familiar terrain, though such experience is not at all required. The work itself will typically involve research, and possibly some transcription and fact-checking. Excellent research skills, reliability, and a passion for accuracy are therefore essential virtues. Top-notch computer abilities would be a plus as well. Because I live in New York and likely won't be around campus much in the spring, the ability to travel to New York from time to time would be valuable, though, again, it's not a deal breaker. I will routinely be available by phone, email, Zoom, whatever, and, needless to say, conversations about the ever-changing journalistic world would be a central part of this experience. This apprenticeship would probably be most useful to students who are considering journalism as a career, or who foresee writing in popular settings along with whatever else they might be doing later. The apprentice will be welcome to participate in my work as deeply as time, distance, and common sense will allow. In addition, I would absolutely be happy to provide whatever editorial and professional guidance the apprentice would desire.

Piyali Bhattacharya , Artist in Residence, Creative Writing Program (Fatma Omar)

In the spring of 2022, I'll be working on a few different projects at once: essays, short fiction, and wrap-up edits for the publication of a novel. But all these projects will have a common theme. I write about immigrant communities, particularly in restaurant/food culture, and in hospital/healthcare spaces. Consistently, I'm interested in the specific and nuanced ways in which immigrant communities view each other, as opposed to how America views “immigrants” as a whole. So, I'd love for a student to be able to help me compile several reading lists, specifically with regard to the American immigrant gaze on the other in addition to the self, and help collate a list of statistics regarding the demographics of specific immigrant communities across the United States. Additionally, as the AWP Writers' Conference will take place in Philadelphia in March of 2022, and as I will be co-organizing an event with the Asian American Writers' Workshop and Kaya Press for Asian American Literature, a student might find it interesting to help out with the event, and to see how all the abstract conversations we have about “immigration literature” take form in real life. Finally, if the student feels motivated, perhaps we can organize a reading of writers who write about immigrant experiences towards the end of the semester. Of course, this student will also produce a portfolio of their own work by the end of the term, inspired by the reading lists and other opportunities that will have come up over the course of the apprenticeship. Which genre the student's work will be in will be entirely up to them, and I look forward to discussing the details of their work with them.

2022 Reports

Anthony DeCurtis : In her time as a Bassini Apprentice,Teresa Xie provided considerable help to me. I'm working on two historical projects -- one on John Mellencamp, the other on the Steve Miller Band -- and Teresa did welcome research on both of those artists. The material she turned up will provide valuable contemporary context to my discussion of their music and the times in which it was created. And, as always, Teresa was cooperative and upbeat to work with. 

Teresa is smart, ambitious and extremely capable, and working with her both in my Arts and Popular Culture seminar and as a Bassini fellow has been a great pleasure. I know that she will go on to great success!

Piyali Bhattacharya : I was lucky enough to work with Fatma Omar, a pre-med major who pursued this apprenticeship to make sure she didn't lose touch with the arts, particularly writing and poetry. I was starting to look at how minority writers in the U.S. were being acknowledged in the industry by way of reviews, awards, etc., gathering information that could benefit both myself and my students. Fatma and I worked together on a massive research project that charted acknowledgements over the last decade. It was a fascinating instrument to build, because just as Fatma's desire to be both a healthcare professional and a writer meet up against the challenges the world places in front of her as a Black, Muslim woman, our female/nonbinary and minority students' desires to publish in traditional venues also face similar obstructions. While measuring with reviews and awards is an imperfect science, the result of this particular experiment for both Fatma and me was very moving. Confronting face-to-face the elephant in the room was very powerful.

While Fatma was doing this work, fortuitously, the AWP writers' conference happened to take place in Philadelphia. The Bassini program, along with CPCW, made it possible for Fatma to attend the conference.  Fatma and I were able to do a lot of work at AWP to develop our understanding of what it might mean for her to consider a career in writing. She attended panels where, for the first time, she met writers in whom she really saw herself. Also, I shared what it meant for me to convene my own panels and how the behind-the-scenes / writer-life parts of a conference like this work.

Fatma and I had been discussing her poetry throughout the semester, and she wanted her portfolio to consist of identity-driven poems, particularly imbued with meditations on femaleness, Blackness, and Islam. These poems really started gaining momentum for Fatma during the Holy Month of Ramadan, when she started writing a poem a day, sometimes more. We talked about focusing the portfolio, then, specifically on Ramadan poems, which seemed to give her even more fuel. The result was a beautiful bouquet of poems that opened the door both for Fatma to perhaps even consider a collection, and for me to gain a much deeper insight into this young woman's view of the world, for which I am very grateful.  Working with Fatma and having had the opportunity to engage with a Bassini apprentice was a gift, and I thank Fatma deeply for her time and dedication!

2021 Apprenticeships

Nova ren suma , lecturer in creative writing (leah baxter).

I am seeking an apprentice to help with two projects: the primary project is research and the gathering of interesting pieces of supernatural history, urban legend, ghost lore, and witchcraft for a new novel I’ll be working on partly set in Philadelphia. The apprentice will do independent research, keep a running log of the collected information, and write summaries of what they discover. An interest and fearlessness in diving into personal accounts about the occult, and experience and passion for research and reading historical narratives, would be most helpful. Also this semester, I will be working on designing and building an asynchronous online creative writing course on writing YA novels that I hope to launch in 2021, and the apprentice would assist in this planning, which could involve website updates in Wordpress, reimagining an author newsletter, and brainstorming publicity ideas. The ideal apprentice would be interested in both YA literature and literary fabulism and have an open curiosity involving the supernatural and strange. There will be an opportunity for the apprentice to gain feedback on their own creative writing, and if interested advice on writing a YA novel and navigating the publishing process. Nova Ren Suma is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the YA novels The Walls Around Us and A Room Away from the Wolves , both finalists for an Edgar Award, and more books. She teaches YA novel workshops all over the country. More info at http://novaren.com .

Ron Silliman , Lecturer in Creative Writing (Makena Deveraux)

This is a project about thinking through the shape of a book. In the 33 years since my first collection of critical essays, The New Sentence , was published, it has never been out of print. Poet and anthropologist Nathaniel Tarn wrote, "Ron Silliman's The New Sentence ...are the most energetic, brilliant and challenging works to come out of our craft since, let us say, Olson's Projective Verse or, back of that, the Essays of Ezra Pound.”

In recent years, I have been discussing a sequel to The New Sentence with a publisher, but I have not yet been able to pull together a manuscript. My ideal Bassini fellow will help me to go from my current very rough draft – which includes works that not yet found their proper place in the manuscript – to a manuscript that can be delivered to the publisher, who will then edit it further. Typed double-spaced, the final product will most likely be in the 400-plus page range, containing between 35 and 40 essays. This is not necessarily a line-editing project, although correcting obvious problems (and standardizing a footnote style) would be a natural part of the process. Rather this is principally a “this should go here,” “I don’t understand paragraph 4,” and “maybe this doesn’t belong” sort of project. The ideal candidate should be able to say to me, “This piece is arguing about stuff that nobody has cared about since 1995,” “I think you are wrong,” and “This sucks.” 

Because of the amount of material and length of the Spring Quarter, our goal is not to complete the project in its entirety but to get it at least half done, which would include the beginnings of an index. If the Bassini Fellow does not have a current version of Word, I will endeavor to add her or him to my account, and I will also provide a copy of The New Sentence in advance of the semester.

Kitsi Watterson , Lecturer in Creative Writing (Kelsey Padilla)

I’m looking for an apprentice to join me in the hands-on process of bringing a book into this crazy world and participating at all stages of its birth. Currently I am completing a memoir that illuminates my waking up to systemic racism in all its manifestations in the early 1970s. As a white newspaper reporter at The Philadelphia Evening Bulletin at the time, I witnessed and wrote about protests against the Vietnam War, the Black Panther Party’s demands for justice and police accountability, the Young Lords, the American Indian Movement, and the Women’s Liberation Movement, which called for equality and reproductive rights. I was so incensed by police brutality against Black and Brown people that I led a writing workshop at Holmesburg Prison and later investigated the state prison system for a series that gave voice to prisoners—men, women and children—locked inside. For my reporting, I was tailed, threatened, bullied and harassed by law enforcement.

Ideally, my apprentice will love doing research, fact-finding, fact-checking, and delving into archives as well as brainstorming with me about additional projects. Among them: a work of historical fiction set in the Isle of Man in the late 1800s, and a potential book inspired by my seminar “Finding Voice/Being Human: Personal Perspectives on Race, Class & Gender.” For the past three decades, Penn and Princeton students have found this coursework transformative and life-changing. I’d like for more students and teachers to connect across barriers designed to keep us apart.

I’ll also look to my apprentice for help with some nuts and bolts, such as letters regarding permissions, submissions, proofreading, and social media marketing. Above all, I would like to have an apprentice who enjoys 1) searching for gems in a high stack of research, 2) having fun, 3) being flexible in terms of the scope of the work, and 4) caring about matters of racial, social, and economic justice.

My last experience with a Bassini apprentice (read about it in The Pennsylvania Gazette ) was extraordinary and contributed greatly to the successful completion and publication of my 2017 book, I Hear My People Singing: Voices of African American Princeton , which Cornel West has said is one of the best books on race in the country.

2021 Reports

Nova Ren Suma : The opportunity to work with an author’s apprentice through the Bassini was a true gift that came during the formative stages of a few creative projects. My stellar apprentice, Leah Baxter, worked with me primarily as a research assistant. We met over Zoom biweekly to dig in to paranormal topics and head down strange and speculative avenues, and her skills and creativity as a researcher deepened my own work and inspired new elements and plot revelations. Leah’s astute work this semester helped us travel from the haunted sites and histories of Philadelphia to Southern Italian witchcraft to spiritualism to supernatural rituals for (possibly) raising the dead, among other topics. In addition, she assisted with planning an online writing workshop to be launched later in 2021. And to cap off the semester, she produced an imaginative bestiary project that revealed her own research fascinations. Leah impressed me with her ability to shape her research and reports to the kind of stories and characters I have a personal interest in writing. One of her talents is to ask the right kind of questions that spark ideas and strengthen the story. She helped refine the rules of magic for a fantastical world—so very valuable to a speculative novelist—and showed an aptitude for the developmental editing of fiction concepts that could be pursued in the editorial publishing field. I can already sense that Leah’s fingerprints will be found on more than one novel of mine to come. My future books will offer grateful thanks to her discoveries, including my next YA novel forthcoming from my publisher Algonquin (details to be announced soon). Ron Silliman : I had the opportunity to choose from some excellent candidates and was fortunate to find exactly the right person in Makena Deveraux. I had asked her to help me in editing a collection of essays written in the 37 years since my first collection, some four dozen pieces up to 40 pages in length each. We did not anticipate that we would complete this entire process, but we made much more progress than I had imagined possible. 

Makena is a sharp-eyed close reader, not shy in querying me about details that may not have been clear, diligent in identifying in-house poetic jargon (and making me defend any inclusions thereof), someone who seems to thrive on hard work and capable of persuading me of her point-of-view in several importance instances. She convinced me that one essay that I had thought to discard as too difficult to make clear was, in fact, the key to an entire section of the book. And she was fearless, capable of telling me which other sections and passages were cringeworthy. One result of this fellowship was that I was able to get much further along in completing my overall editing of this manuscript than I had envisioned at the beginning of the term: she routinely turned in much more than I had imagined possible, and I was forced to double the amount of time I had budgeted for checking her work because she was getting so much accomplished. The final product will reflect this input and I will be pleased to acknowledge it accordingly. I pointed out to her that the UC San Diego student who had served pretty much the same function for my earlier book The New Sentence 35 years ago is now the senior VP for content at one of the major cable networks.  My expectations for Ms. Deveraux, whom (because of Covid) I have never met in person, are at least this high.

Kitsi Watterson : This past semester my apprentice, Kelsey Padilla, and I were deeply impacted by the Pandemic. The day in late January that she back to campus from New Mexico, she contracted COVID-19.

Later on, after a strong comeback, Kelsey assisted me with fact-checking a memoir that illuminates my journey as a young newspaper reporter in the early 1970s waking up to systemic racism in its many manifestations. Kelsey did research for this book, and since The Philadelphia Evening Bulletin clips have not been digitized, we spent time delving into the archives of the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin housed at Temple University. We found several confirmations of my stories that we couldn't have found without a hands-on search.

An exciting moment of the semester for Kelsey's quick-witted contributions came after she helped me complete the Errata for a new paperback edition of my book, I Hear My People Singing: Voices of African American Princeton . As I'd read through the book again, I'd realized the most essential change required capitalization of the word “Black” as a noun and as an adjective, i.e., Black people, throughout the book. I had lost that argument in 2017 when the publishers weren't yet ready to adopt it. As I worked on an urgent letter stipulating this policy, I called Kelsey, who immediately looked up precedent-setting decisions. Within the hour, she sent quotes from the AP, The New York Times , Chicago Manual of Style , Washington Post , and Columbia Journalism Review confirming that using capital B in the word Black is now a common practice. This style communicates the history and identity that exists behind the word Black, and it reflects an acknowledgment of respect for the communities the word represents. Without hesitation, the Press agreed.

Kelsey and I also brainstormed the idea of her conducting interviews with former students of mine who have written about the deep impact my teachings on race, racism, poverty and white privilege, have had on them. Our hope is that a long-form article detailing what has worked for them as transformative and life-changing might bode well for today's current efforts to provide an intimate understanding of the complex legacies of slavery and white supremacy, and help more people connect across these and other barriers designed to keep us apart.

When initially I described a Bassini apprentice I would most enjoy working with, I said I'd like someone who enjoyed 1) searching for gems in a high stack of research, 2) having fun, 3) being flexible in terms of the scope of the work, and 4) caring about matters of racial, social, and economic justice. Kelsey fulfilled those wishes and more. I'm grateful to the Bassini Writing Apprenticeship Program and to Kelsey for our time together. 

2020 Apprenticeships

Lorene cary , senior lecturer in english (samira mehta).

Beginning January 2020, Lorene Cary will transition the  SafeKidsStories.com  website to #VoteThatJawn , an initiative begun during the 2018 midterm election to encourage Philadelphia 18-year-olds to vote. As before, #VoteThatJawn will:

• Write, collect, and share quality, multimedia online content for youth with an eye toward using the campaign as an opportunity to help youth write better and read with greater nuance about citizenship and current issues
• Script and plan events to bring together youth across divides of race, class, and high school/college; the events “perform” voting engagement by connecting face-to-face with similarly committed youth, elected officials, and you, the City Commissioner on Elections, activists, and youth advocates, writers, and artists
• Create pitch-perfect communication on many platforms to develop education, organization, and media partners to support registration and voting, especially among first-time voters
• Raise public awareness of the sophistication and concern for the franchise of young voters

Between the 2014 and 2018 primaries, 130 percent more 18-year-olds in Philadelphia registered to vote. #VoteThatJawn supported that surge in civic participation among youth by connecting organizations and schools across Philadelphia with blogs, videos, and social media content. The #VoteThatJawn Bassini Apprentice will work with Lorene Cary and strategic partners to create a new steering committee to plan and execute a return Jawn initiative to bring even more fresh voters to the polls for the 2020 election; will envision, write, solicit, and edit content; and will amplify youth voice by growing the #VoteThatJawn community. We expect to deepen youth voter engagement here in Philadelphia. And because Penn reaches across the country, so does #VoteThatJawn.

Beth Kephart , Lecturer in Creative Writing (Fox Auslander)

As chief typesetter and bookbinder, solicitor of submissions and editorial gatekeeper, package bundler and sometimes sales rep, Virginia Woolf, through the Hogarth Press she founded with her husband, published some of the most important writers of her time. She also (most importantly) published herself. I’m interested in examining the life of Virginia Woolf through the lens of the press—exploring questions relating to how the tools we writers use affect the stories we tell and how we tell them. My apprentice would help me delve deeply into the letterpress culture of Woolf’s era and our own, explore the preferred mechanics of other iconic writers, and get their fingers inky at Penn’s own letterpress shop as I work on a series of interconnected essays. An affinity for literary sleuthing, a talent for primary research (including in-person and phone interviews), an affection for Woolf, and a willingness to spend some time around old machines and ink would distinguish the perfect candidate.  Beth Kephart is the award-winning author of more than two dozen books in multiple genres, the cofounder of Juncture Workshops (which includes a publishing arm), and a widely published essayist. More at her website .

Laynie Browne , Lecturer in Creative Writing (Alec Druggan)

I am seeking an apprentice who will be working on creating readings, conversations, a podcast, and poetry walks in the Rail Park in Callow Hill, where I have curated a constellation of poetry as part of a public art project. In short, I am in the initial stages of imagining how to get word out and invite visitors to the site, and the apprentice will help see this project to fruition. The ideal candidate will be punctual and detail oriented, have excellent communication skills, and enjoy spending time in the Rail Park. Interest in poetry, public art, and performance is essential. As the poetry in the installation is in 13 languages, fluency in more than one language is a plus, though not required. Tasks will include researching tech options for podcasts, audio editing, correspondence, publicizing, archiving, and documenting events. More information about the Rail Park can be found here .

2020 Reports

Beth Kephart : Following nearly a year of reading and studying Virginia Woolf on my own, I was given, through the Bassini, the chance to collaborate with an inquisitive, creative, hard-working research apprentice named Fox Auslander. I had vague notions of a book in mind. I had far more questions than answers. I wanted, above all, to imagine Woolf in the midst of her letterpress world (Hogarth Press), and I planned, with Fox, all the ways we might learn to set type and get our fingers inky and hold Woolf’s own work in our hands. The pandemic forced us to rearrange our plans, but it did not defeat us. Instead, I changed the nature of the Woolfian project, Fox conducted some brilliant phone and internet research, I wrote pages and shared them with Fox, Fox responded with their smart, critical eye, and the more we worked, the better we could see the emergence of new possibilities, new angles. The frustration of the pandemic circumstance was eased by the exhilaration of our unexpected discoveries. It was a joy, and I am grateful.

Laynie Browne :   Initially, before the pandemic, I had planned a series of events, including a reading and a panel on translation to take place at KWH, and additionally, events at the Railpark in April. My apprentice, Alec Drugan, helped me conceive of the descriptions for the events, and with the correspondence involved. In our original plan, he was going to document these events, write about them, and also publicize events. He was going to record, photograph, and make video and audio recordings of events at the Railpark. After everything went online I wondered if it would be possible to shift the focus primarily to a podcast. I had considered a podcast, but it had not been the main focus for the project. I was uncertain about how this could work technically. Alec was instrumental in helping me to consider the various tech options. He rose to the challenge of editing six podcast episodes recorded using various different methods. As we listened and re-listened to the recordings I learned an enormous amount and was amazed at Alec’s talent for mixing and editing sound, and his patience in detangling and rearranging recordings, especially the first couple of episodes as I learned through trial and error. Listening and being in conversation with Alec and my podcast guests has has been a great balm during this time.

Lorene Cary : Samira has worked with me and two other students in our Catto Seminar to create and curate content for #VoteThatJawn. We were re-booting from scratch from the 2018 pilot. She helped create a schedule of events, and then after Spring Break, from Dallas, she worked hard to help us re-conceive everything.

Her most passionate special area has been the Climate Action Feature , which she's written and solicited for.  She's also collected lots of multi-media content that she'll she sharing for her Earth Day takeover of our social media. 

Besides, planning, writing, researching the most pressing issues of human survival, Samira also created online fun-and-games, including six delightful Animal Activist templates for release to pet stores, vets, etc., inviting pet owners to share photos of their animals that she "jawnifies" for posting.

She's been a leader and a team player; she written and re-written to make strong blogs. She's played with images to evoke emotions and with memes and GIFs to capture online imagination and idioms, such as Kombucha girl as we build a stockpile of content to release to sneak the idea of voting into regular social feeds.

Finally, Samira has been a brilliant colleague and generous friend to the #VoteThatJawn team, student and professional.

2019 Apprenticeships

Weike wang , artist-in-residence, center for programs in contemporary writing (will miller and sabrina qiao).

I am working on a second novel. This novel features a doctor protagonist and looks at the creative writing process. The apprentice will help me study doctor-writers (both past and present). The apprentice will investigate the history of the doctor-writer. What do they write about? Disease, certainly, but how? What does the contemporary doctor write? Case studies and notes, but is there a narrative there? In addition, the apprentice will help me find fictional characters who are doctors and summarize/analyze how these characters are portrayed in fiction—gender, race, sexuality, etc. Additional tasks may include research into the Asian American literary canon and the creative writing process as a whole. The ideal apprentice is organized, punctual, and self-sufficient, and has an interest in both STEM and writing.

Sam Apple , Lecturer in Creative Writing (Dillon Bergen)

I am working on a book that will be published by Norton in 2020. The book is partly a biography of Otto Warburg, an early twentieth-century German cancer researcher, and partly an exploration of the science that connects cancer and diet. (The book is an extended version of my article in The New York Times Magazine .) The apprentice will help me research both components of the book and will actively search for new historical documents that have yet to be unearthed. In some cases, this will involve a bit of detective work, such as searching for people who may have letters from Warburg. The position does not require a science background or knowledge of German, but German speakers are encouraged to apply.

Janice Lowe , Fellow in Poetics & Poetic Practice, Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing (Amy Juang)

I am developing a database, website, podcast and blog that will document the work of innovative multigenre writers who write for the stage as well as for nontraditional performance spaces which engage community. I will also document curators and presenters of hybrid arts. I would like to work with an apprentice who will assist with research. In addition to strong writing skills and an interest in hybrid arts or the performing arts, the apprentice should have some photography and website building experience. The apprentice is encouraged to attend performances in Philadelphia and to develop their own multigenre piece in response to creative work encountered.

2019 Reports

Weike Wang : Bassini apprentices Sabrina Qiao (C’18) and Will Miller (C’19) were my intrepid interns for spring 2019. The format of our meetings was biweekly. During them, Sabrina and Will presented their new findings and also received feedback about their previous work. Over the course of the semester, Sabrina and Will produced over a hundred pages each of critical analysis that were then indispensable to my research on the intersections of medicine and narrative art. Throughout the spring, Sabrina and Will each ‘shadowed’ a doctor-writer figure. Sabrina shadowed Anton Chekov, Will, John Keats. In their research, they explored how aspects of the writer’s medical training weaved into his prose or poetry. The latter half of spring was dedicated to aiding me in remodeling my advanced novel class to transition into a novella class for fall 2019. The novella is a narrative structure that is frequently overlooked yet holds significant narrative payoff if done well. Sabrina and Will read through twelve novellas in total and we discussed the pedagogical merits of each, how undergraduates may respond to each and what can be learned on the craft level. We honed the reading list down to six for the fall class. The final list includes Tumble Home , We the Animals , The Old Man and the Sea , The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie , Convenience Store Woman , and The Dead . 

Sam Apple : As I neared the end of my book on the German chemist Otto Warburg, I had one lingering (and critical) need: a talented researcher who knew a lot more German than I did. Enter Dillon Bergin, My 2019 Bassini apprentice. Over the course of the spring semester, Dillon assisted with almost every aspect of my book. He dug through statistics on diabetes in Germany in the 19th century and translated important archival documents that can now, thanks to Dillon, reach English-speaking audiences for the first time. When handwritten German letters from the early 20th century proved undecipherable, Dillon tracked down an elderly German woman who was more familiar with the penmanship and prose style of the era. In another instance, Dillon even had to rely on his skill with a pocketknife to remove pages from a worn book so that they could be scanned and preserved. Along the way, I worked with Dillon to help him get started on a year-long journalism project that he’ll undertake in Germany next year while on a Fulbright scholarship. After a great semester, Dillon and I plan to stay in touch—and to help one another out with our writing projects—for years to come.

Janice Lowe : For the spring semester 2019, I supervised Bassini Writing Apprentice Amy Juang. Amy and I agreed to meet in person twice monthly and to check in by email or video chat during alternate weeks. Amy used Squarespace to construct a website dedicated to bringing awareness to artists of color and LGBTQ artists who work in hybrid forms and are truly interdisciplinary. I provided Amy with a list of 25 artists to research. We discussed the various artists and made decisions about whom to include on the site. The site incorporates information from a spreadsheet Amy created that listed names, biographies, media, websites, photographs of artists and links to an artist’s dedicated page. Profiled artists include: Nick Cave, Patrick Rosal, Harmony Holiday, avery r. young, Cecilia Vicuna, Mendi+Keith Obadike, Julie Patton, Krista Franklin, Susie Ibarra, LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs, Tracie Morris, Douglas Kearney, Yolanda Wisher, Duriel Harris, Joey de Jesus, Ursula Rucker, Liza Jessie Peterson. Amy assisted me with designing plans for a podcast based on the website. After deciding to title the podcast Mash Plexities, I asked Amy to research trademarks, domain names and logo styles. In Wexler Studio, we composed and recorded a sound collage intro for the podcast. It was decided that the first episode would focus on artist teams. Studying interviews with composer Susie Ibarra, Amy composed interview questions that focused on collaboration. Also, we worked on a letter to potential podcast guests explaining the podcast’s focus and a schedule of interviews. Writer and sound artist Tracie Morris was the first guest interviewed for the podcast. There was a post-interview listening and editing session at Wexler studio with audio engineer Zach Carduner. Three times during the semester, Amy and I met to discuss her own multimedia work. Rather than creating a concrete or digital project, Amy created plans for a project involving the oldest and least used structures on campus and recording and amplifying ambient sound during passerby walk-throughs.

2018 Apprenticeships

Jamie-lee josselyn , associate director for recruitment for the creative writing program (maya arthur and sabrina qiao).

Jamie-Lee writes, "I am developing a literary podcast series called Dead Parents’ Society that will be recorded in the Wexler Studio of the Kelly Writers House in the Spring of 2018. The series will convene writers who have written about parental loss, particularly at a young age. Each episode will consist of a close reading/critical conversation of one piece about parental loss, moderated by me, among writers who have also written about the death of a parent, along with the author of the piece in question. The apprentice will assist me in curating content and coordinating the logistical details for each episode, and may be included in the episodes themselves. The apprentice will also help me compile research for a critical essay about the topic of writing about parental loss. While the apprentice certainly does not need to be a 'member' of the Dead Parents Society (that is: a dead parent is not required to be considered), the ideal apprentice will have an interest in writing and reading about personal experience and hardship across genres, and in creative nonfiction especially. The apprentice should have an interest in program planning and while interest/experience in digital recording and editing is not essential, it is a plus. This project will also culminate in a live, public event at the Kelly Writers House in April 2018, in conjunction with the Beltran Family Award for Innovative Teaching and Mentoring, which the apprentice’s work will also support."

Carmen Maria Machado , Abrams Artist-in-Residence (Tracy Fontil)

Carmen writes, "I’m looking for an apprentice to assist me in research for my forthcoming memoir,  House in Indiana  (forthcoming from Graywolf Press in 2019). I’m particularly looking for historical facts and fictional/nonfictional narratives about same-sex domestic violence. The apprentice will explore both published books and online and print archives, and write summaries of their findings; they will also be free to explore their own literary and critical responses to the material. The ideal apprentice should also be detail-oriented, research-savvy, thoughtful, flexible, curious, and creative; and they should be interested in queer and feminist history, experimental nonfiction forms, metaphor and genre tropes as a means of exploring experience, and researching historically suppressed material. In particular, the apprentice will help discover and uncover narratives about abuse in same-sex relationships: the dearth of those narratives reflects the erasure of queer lives from history, how gendered assumptions have made the identification of abuse far more difficult, and a reluctance to write about some of the most difficult aspects of our lives."

Yolanda Wisher , Fellow in Poetics & Poetic Practice, Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing (Aliya Chaudhry)

Yolanda writes, "I am seeking an apprentice to help me to coordinate, promote, and document several public poetry events that I am coordinating this spring, including the 2nd annual  Outbound Poetry Festival  in April 2018 and a new quarterly poetry and jazz series at the  Rosenbach Museum and Library . I’m looking for someone who is highly organized, punctual, and responsive as well as naturally curious, self-motivated, and humble, who can get around the city and enjoys hands-on work. The apprentice needs to possess professional writing skills, social media savvy, and proficiency with email, Google Docs, spreadsheets, and budgeting. A background in poetry, spoken word, singing, songwriting, music and/or performance is a plus."

2017 Apprenticeships

Julia bloch , director of creative writing (kaitlin moore).

Julia Bloch writes: "I am currently conducting research for a critical-creative project about the poetics of futurity: poems about reproduction, poems about utopias, and poems that are related to theories of queer temporality. I am looking for an apprentice who is interested in learning about the wide array of poetry that deals with futurity, from historical poetry to contemporary lyric and avant-garde poems, and who might be interested in topics such as ecofeminism, ecopoetics, biopolitics, documentary poetry, performance studies, queer and trans poetics, and different kinds of fertility (you do not need to be familiar with these topics to apply). The apprentice will conduct literary research, write up summaries of findings, explore online and print archives, and perhaps even interview poets. The apprentice will also explore their own poetic response to the material: perhaps you are interested in writing your own ecopoetic treatise, documentary poem, poetic manifesto, or some other creative piece sparked by what you come across in this work. Or perhaps you are interested in writing a critical response to the work. Or a response that is both critical and creative. The ideal apprentice will be detail-oriented, curious, creative, and someone who believes in blurring the lines between research and poetic practice."

Lise Funderburg , Lecturer in Creative Writing (Christin Molisani)

Lise writes, "I’m looking for help with my latest book project: an anthology of essays from contemporary writers including Ann Patchett, Daniel Mendelsohn, Mat Johnson, Rumaan Alam, and Sallie Tisdale. Contributors will explore a trait they’ve inherited from a parent, often to their great surprise, and how it affects the lives they lead today. The trait can be learned or inherited; it can have profound implications or almost no discernible effect; what matters is that it matters to the writer and that is serves to refract something larger, perhaps about history and inevitability, connection and regret. The apprentice will assist me with three aspects of the project: researching the foreword that I’ll be writing for the book, a precis that looks at shifting cultural trends as well as the canon of nonfiction literature on family; reading contributor manuscripts and making editorial comments to be reviewed by and discussed with me; and solidifying and expanding the marketing platform by setting up audience-building strategies and social media structures. Ideal candidates would be excellent researchers and communicators, as well as interested in building your editing skills. You are savvy about social media and WordPress. You are organized, you take initiative, and you appreciate the potential of creative nonfiction to elevate daily life into art."

Brooke O'Harra , Senior Lecturer in Theatre Arts (Seung Chung and Claris Park)

Brooke writes, "I am looking for an apprentice to assist me in the writing of a book about directing for theater and performance. While many books on directing address the craft and technique of directing, this book will focus on the social, political and relational conditions that ground the practice. The book extends out of a series of performance events I created, and am creating, called I’m Bleeding All Over the Place: Studies in directing or nine encounters between me and you. These performances explore the relationship an audience has to the live event, to the performer, and to the hidden, but ever-present, director. I would like the apprentice to work with me to parse through and analyze the rhetorical styles of contemporary books on stage directing. The apprentice will be asked conduct followup interviews with performers and audience members who participated in the performances of I’m Bleeding All Over the Place. The student should be someone with an interest in theater, performance and/or the performance of politics. The student will need to become familiar with the theories of stage directing as well as the theoretical writings of Hannah Arendt. No previous experience in theater is required, but the student should have great work habits, should be capable of organizing emotional impulses and responses into concrete ideas, and should be very generous and open when working with people."

2016 Apprenticeships

Herman beavers , professor of english and africana studies (hannah judd).

Herman writes, " The World Beyond 124 Bluestone Road : For my apprenticeship, I require a student who is able and willing to do archival research on life in 19th-century Ohio, especially the area of the state in and around Cincinnati, Ohio, which provides the setting for Toni Morrison’s Beloved . I am working on a series of poems on two of the characters who literally disappear from the novel on the first page. Sethe’s two boys, Howard and Buglar, run away from the house on 124 Bluestone Road after it is clear that the house is occupied by what they believe to be their murdered baby sister, who is wreaking havoc in the lives of the family. My apprentice will be tasked with perusing newspapers for stories, advertisements, and editorials that have to do with the lives of black people in Southern Ohio starting in the 1870s and running up through the early 20th century. Of particular interest is the history of Wilberforce University, where many black ministers went to be trained. The apprentice will then write up reports on what they find, taking care to describe the ways journalists and public figures use language. What constitutes slang in 1870 Ohio? What are the concerns of its residents? How are blacks figured into the body politic? And what is the world that Howard and Buglar find after they leave home?"

Lorene Cary , Senior Lecturer in English (Kaitlin Moore and Elizabeth Richardson)

Lorene writes, "I need an assistant to help with the first year of SafeKidsStories , including soliciting, writing, researching, and editing for the website SafeKidsStories.com , launched in October 2015; coordinating workshops and events where students, teachers, and parent groups write their own stories for publication; helping to organize Educators’ Council get-togethers; and working with the SafeKidsStories managing group to research a possible Massive Open Online Course. It’s mature work requiring strong writing and editing skills and also poise with people of diverse backgrounds, ages, skills. Plus social media chops and multimedia skills or interest. And initiative and resourcefulness. We’ll have fun, too. Really."

Syd Zolf , Artist in Residence, Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing; Affiliated Faculty, Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies/Center for Research in Feminist, Queer, and Transgender Studies; Affiliated Faculty, Fine Arts (Maya Arthur and Divya Ramesh)

Syd writes, "I’m working on a project developing creative writing workshops (across all genres: poetry, fiction, memoir, drama) in community settings in Philadelphia. The apprentice will work with me to begin to develop a comprehensive set of sites and methods for the workshops. They will research what arts programs already exist in the city, where the need lies, and possible partners, funding sources and workshop sites. The apprentice will also research various methods of teaching creative writing and help me develop targeted curricula for each of the communities we will be engaging with. Examples of communities could include adult literacy learners, queer/trans youth, seniors, and women living in shelters. An ideal candidate would be an excellent researcher and communicator with a passion for civic engagement and how writing can make a difference in the world. You don’t have to be fluent in all creative writing genres, but it is important that you are nonjudgmental about people who may be different from you – and that you are open to challenging yourself to explore new parts of your community and yourself."

2015 Apprenticeships

Dick polman , maury povich writer in residence, (jacob gardenswartz).

Dick writes, "For my Spring semester apprenticeship, applicants must have a strong interest in political journalism. The apprentice will learn how to stay on top of the fast-breaking political news, how to spot timely story ideas, how to recognize political trends, and how to most effectively research valuable material online. The apprentice will help me work on my daily political blog, National Interest, and will have the opportunity to write guest commentary pieces on the class website that's featured in my spring-semester Political Commentary course. I will edit those guest pieces; the editing process will provide more learning opportunities."

Karen Rile , Lecturer in Creative Writing (Annika Neklason)

Karen writes, "I am looking for an editorial apprentice for Cleaver Magazine , an independent literary magazine that shares poetry, fiction, flash (prose that is 500 words or less), nonfiction, and visual art. Cleaver is a quarterly magazine, so your apprenticeship will focus on the March and June 2015 issues. Please take time to familiarize yourself with the magazine before applying.

As an apprentice you will have your hand in every facet of the editorial, production, and publicity work. Editorial duties include reading and voting on submissions; soliciting work from targeted poets and writers; working with writers on manuscript revisions; and copyediting/proofreading of work for the quarterly issue. Production duties will vary according to your software skills. Publicity duties include writing pieces for our Editors' Blog and helping out with social media. You will also write a book review (or more, if you like) of a new release from a small press. In addition, I have a couple of independent projects in mind that you might want to choose from.

The best candidate will be well-organized and dependable with excellent writing, editing and communication skills and a strong interest in literary magazine publishing. If you're a skilled poet or fiction writer, that's a plus, but it's not necessary to be accomplished in all genres. I am more interested in your taste and your editorial skills than your poetry-writing skills. Experience in editing and publishing is an excellent qualification, but is not required. Likewise, experience with web design, particularly Wordpress, would be nice, but is not necessary."

Avery Rome , Adjunct Lecturer in Creative Writing (Leah Davidson)

Avery writes, "In addition to my teaching, I am a freelance editor whose projects come from different areas, fiction and non-fiction. My work depends on a deft reading of the writer as well as his or her text. For the spring it looks as if I will be editing at least two books, one a biography of a powerful politician and the other a medical malpractice saga. Each of these will require not just the streamlining of narrative, but also building a strong collaboration with the author, deriving a strategy to bring forth the best in the manuscript, and backstopping on research, tone and presentation. I also regularly team up with a playwright in New York and help a local food cupboard with media outreach. Other assignments are likely to appear. A valuable apprentice would be nimble and curious, a self-starter who loves playing with language and has an interest in interacting with creative, sometimes anxious authors. He or she will participate in every aspect of what I do and come to know the back-stage process of how literary creations come together."

2014 apprenticeships

Kathy demarco van cleve , senior lecturer in creative writing and cinema and media studies (jackie duhl).

Kathy Writes, "I’m guessing that the closest comparison for working as an apprentice with me is a film executive 'assistant' – minus the phone-throwing and dog-walking requests, of course. I say this because my interests are varied and reflected in my creative efforts – currently three screenplays in various stages of development, and a middle grade, quasi-fantastical book series loosely centered on climate change, the Jersey shore and pizza (just because I love it). There would be no 'typical' day – some times I would ask for research about climate change; other times I may need help with my website, or a troublesome section of a new script, or plain old basic organization for a person stretched a little far. Collaboration is the beating heart behind all my work, which would translate to a lot of … I think the official term is 'spitballing.' I travel to NY frequently to meet with my agent and my editor at Dial Books for Young Readers (a division of Penguin), and it would be terrific to have my apprentice along for the ride. (This would also hold true for any meetings with film executives during the spring.) I suspect that this apprenticeship would be useful to students interested in the entertainment and/or publishing realms, especially since during the spring semester I teach a course where professionals from both industries make the trek to Philadelphia for my class and my apprentice could have a front row seat to these events.

Must haves for this apprenticeship? A sense of humor and a love of reading fiction. Would-be-good-to-haves? Great time management skills (to impart to me) and a particular affinity for Pixar movies, especially Finding Nemo ."

Gwyneth Shaw , Lecturer in Creative Writing (Jesse Yackey)

Gwyneth writes, "Super-small versions of familiar ingredients are turning up in a broad array of consumer products, from silver as an anti-stink secret weapon to titanium dioxide as a way to make 'natural' sunscreens clear. These 'nanomaterials' are a booming industry, touted as a possible way to revolutionize some medical treatments or boost the flavor of a low-fat food. A growing body of scientific research -- some from the government’s own scientists -- shows troubling evidence that nanoparticles can penetrate skin, lodge in organs, and get into water, soil, and plant life. But U.S. government regulators are largely sitting on their hands.

For more than three years, I’ve been writing about these materials, their increasing prevalence, and the scrambling of researchers to keep up with what’s already on the market to make sure these products aren’t hurting people, animals, or the environment. Now, I’m turning my focus to a book examining what’s known, what’s not, and what the government is -- and isn’t -- doing about it.

I’m looking for an apprentice with an interest in investigative journalism and the chops to conduct research and interviews, as well as help me keep up with the fast-moving sphere where industry lobbyists and government policymakers interact. Expertise in science or government is not required, but a strong sense of curiosity is."

Peter Tarr , Lecturer in Creative Writing (Alex Brown)

Peter writes, "I would like an apprentice to help me bring a multi-year writing project across the finish line. In 2009, I benefited from the editorial insights of an outstanding Penn undergrad, Aaron Walker, who discovered ways to streamline an ungainly historical narrative line. Now I need help with research, as I’ll explain after telling you that the story concerns the cultural odyssey of 14 young Americans lured to the far side of the planet in the first years of the twentieth century. Their improbable mission: to change the language of a foreign people. Those people, to use the revealing language of the American government of the time, were the 'occupants' of the Philippine Islands. The U.S. recently had 'acquired' the islands and their people from moribund Spain, which had ruled for over 300 years. The Filipinos then fought their new colonizers, the Americans – who dispatched, in addition to soldiers, several thousand school teachers, to 'civilize' them. That meant teaching the youngest generation of Filipinos to speak English. The army viewed this educational effort as a branch of counterinsurgency. I would like an apprentice to help me: 1) close the narrative loop on 7 of my young American subjects who are at the focus of this historical narrative. I have taken their stories up through about 1913. I need to know what happened to several of them in later years. This will require excellent research skills and persistence; 2) open the narrative to a possible chapter-length extension, which will involve comparing the Philippines experience of American teachers with experiences of 1960s – 1980s Peace Corps volunteers who taught English in various countries (including the Philippines!). The apprentice would help me determine the availability of letters home from specific Peace Corps volunteers, and could help me retrieve them; 3) thicken the narrative richness of the existing text by helping me to discover whether an archival treasure trove in Carlisle, PA contains any letters from U.S. soldiers who served briefly in the Philippines and Cuba, ca. 1898, as English language teachers. The apprentice will meet with me WEDNESDAYS at KWH between 12:30 and 1:45 pm."

2013 apprenticeships

Anthony decurtis , distinguished lecturer, creative writing program (jess bergman).

Anthony writes, "I am a working journalist based in New York, who is blessed and cursed with juggling a variety of projects and assignments, often on short notice and mostly to do with popular music. Here the harrowing truths of such work will be revealed -- the corners cleverly cut; the disasters deftly avoided; the mounting deadlines nudged imperceptibly into the realm of the possible. The apprentice's task will be to heroically assist in those processes while revealing nothing about how closely the abyss loomed at all times. For students who have worked at the Daily Pennsylvanian or 34th Street this will, of course, be familiar terrain, though such experience is not at all required. The work itself will typically involve research, and possibly some transcription and fact-checking. Excellent research skills, reliability, and a passion for accuracy are therefore essential virtues. Top-notch computer abilities would be a plus as well. Because I live in New York and likely won't be around campus much in the spring, the ability to travel to New York from time to time would be valuable, though, again, it's not a deal breaker. I will routinely be available by phone, email, Skype, whatever, and, needless to say, conversations about the ever-changing journalistic world would be a central part of this experience. This apprenticeship would probably be most useful to students who are considering journalism as a career, or who foresee writing in popular settings along with whatever else they might be doing later. The apprentice will be welcome to participate in my work as deeply as time, distance, and common sense will allow."

Beth Kephart , Lecturer in Creative Writing (Alice Ma)

Beth writes, "Not long ago I read about an ultimately debilitating disease that is rare, extraordinarily heartbreaking, and, in its earliest manifestations, eerily beautiful. For a new young adult novel to be written for Philomel, a division of Penguin, I will be researching this condition and easing it toward a story based in a European city (the particulars of which will also require ingenious research). I’m looking for a partner in this—a student who loves to unravel mysteries, who isn’t afraid of science or foreign places, and who would like to see, first-hand, how what is known is transformed into something imagined. Some of the leading authorities on this condition are based in Philadelphia. Research will therefore include time spent in the library with dust-encrusted books, Google explorations, medical searches, and in-person interviews. The book now being planned will be my eighteenth, and my third for Philomel."

Sabrina Rubin Erdely, Writing Instructor (Arielle Pardes)

Sabrina writes, "I’m a Contributing Editor for Rolling Stone , where I write long-form narrative feature articles with an investigative bent. The topics run the gamut, but always tend towards the dramatic, with complex characters or issues at their cores. Recent examples include articles about the FBI’s entrapment of five Occupy activists; a femme fatale con artist/marijuana smuggler; and a Midwestern gay teen suicide cluster, which revealed the local school district’s intolerance. Many of my articles have won writing awards or been anthologized in books, and several are in development as Hollywood films. One trait my articles share is that they’re drenched in facts. As such, this apprenticeship will be a research-oriented one. I’m looking for someone with good research skills (or willing/able to learn them), including the art of tracking down all manner of documents; sifting through paperwork in search of the salient facts; locating people for interviews; and telephoning strangers. My apprentice should be curious, enterprising, a stickler for accuracy and someone who believes—as I do—that the answers are out there, waiting to be found. Regular visits to my Center City home office will be required. Altogether, you’ll have a behind-the-scenes look at the absorbing, sometimes maddening, always surprising process of creating a feature article for a national magazine."

Taije Silverman , Senior Lecturer in English (Salomon Moreno-Rosa)

Taije writes, "This apprenticeship is an opportunity to co-teach a writing workshop at Project H.O.M.E., a homelessness outreach program that helps house, educate, and employ thousands of homeless people in Philadelphia every year. Once a week we will meet at the Honickman Learning Center in Northeast Philadelphia to run a creative writing workshop for those who live either independently or in a group residence for formerly homeless adults. Classes will be split between discussions of published work (by figures like Rita Dove, Naomi Shihab Nye, Richard Wilbur, and countless others) and in-class writing assignments inspired by students’ personal experience. We’ll experiment with forms (haiku, litany, dramatic monologue) and voice. The class will culminate in a final public reading from work produced during the semester.

The apprentice would help develop the curriculum, choosing reading material and creating writing assignments according to the interests and skills of the students. We’ll meet outside of class each week to discuss its progress and to plan future lessons. I’ll also ask that you keep a notebook every week, writing either creative or analytic reflections on the lessons and on your sense of the course. This apprenticeship will offer unique and practical experience in both education and social services; ultimately you will be given the tools to teach such a course independently, and you’ll come away with a strong understanding of the role that arts can play in community."

2012 apprenticeships

Jay kirk , lecturer in creative writing (zoe kirsch).

Jay writes,"I think I can say with certainty that I am now embarked on the strangest writing project so far in my career: a project that took me, in 2011 alone, from Transylvania to the Arctic Circle—and then back again to the music department archives at the University of Pennsylvania.

The bulk of my apprentice’s time will be engaged in helping to prepare this narrative nonfiction book project, titled Bartok’s Monster . It involves the theft of a manuscript, a lot of detective work, some vampire stories, at least one Roma funeral, and concerns itself, intellectually, with themes of originality, preservation, derivation, variation, and the anxiety of influence in art. A section of this narrative will be published, in the spring, by Harper’s Magazine . So, in addition to helping with the larger and more rigorous work of book research, the apprentice will also get a chance to become familiar with the workings of a national magazine. Tasks will likely include tape transcription, fact-checking, proofreading, the hunting down of obscure articles, and possibly the conducting of an interview or two. Since my first book, Kingdom Under Glass , named one of the Best Nonfiction Books of 2010 by the Washington Post , will also be newly out in paperback, the apprentice will also get to witness the final stages of publication and publicity. I won’t yet go into the reasons I traveled to the Arctic, save to say, in the words of Victor Frankenstein’s monster, that 'the desert mountains and dreary glaciers are my refuge.'"

Sam Apple , Lecturer in Creative Writing (Leslie Krivo-Kaufman)

Shelf Life Press, a division of the The Faster Times , is creating new media editions of literary classics for e-book readers and tablets. Our editions will include images, original videos, and text links for readers interested in learning more about the work in question and the historical period from which it emerged. Together with a team of editors and academics, the apprentice will assist in every aspect of book production, from background research to video production.

Shelf Life Press and The Faster Times were both founded by Sam Apple, a creative writing instructor at Penn. Apple, the author of Schlepping Through the Alps and American Parent , will directly oversee all apprentice projects.

Rick Nichols , Lecturer in Creative Writing (Victoria Fienga)

Rick writes, "The chocolate in those elegant gift boxes and, more universally, the candy rack at Wawa had to start out somewhere. If you see the words 'local chocolate,' don't believe it: The bean it comes from only grows in a slender band around the equator, a little south of it and a little north. It is called cacao. And for most of human history, it has played roles both sacred and profane, offering refuge to songbirds, and unleashing destruction on vast forests; providing a living for Costa Rican small-holders, wielding the whip on enslaved boys in Africa; candy, one minute; cage, the next.

More than a decade ago, I flew over the Andes in Peru to see if cacao-growing -- as advertised by U. S. officials -- might wean farmers in the high jungle from their embrace of coca, the raw material for crack and cocaine. And I traipsed through a 'germplasm' plantation in Trinidad, to see the work of a long-dead British botanist credited with rescuing chocolate when it appeared headed -- in certain tropical precincts -- for near-extinction. It is that man's story -- and how it plays into the larger story of chocolate's own conflicted biography -- that I've long itched to tell. Tales of treks in the Amazon and Papua New Guinea, and that precious Fort Knox of cacao that endures to this day on an overlooked island off the coast of Venezuela.

Most Penn apprenticeships have attached to works in progress: Not this one. There is a question that first needs answering: Has the botanist in question left enough of a paper trail (letters, scientific papers, diaries) to allow us to bring him back to life? Where might there be contemporaneous accounts (newspapers, archives, colleague's reflections) to give his context richness? Is chocolate even today a bellwether; fresh climate studies suggest that by 2050 entire regions of Ghana and the Ivory Coast -- the countries where 60 percent of the world's chocolate is grown -- may be rendered too hot and rain-challenged to sustain the cacao crop?

I'm looking for a junior partner in this quest. An apprentice should be agile with research tools, and not just on-line. Are there old journals there? Critical maps? Artifacts? Hand-written field notes? Original manuscripts? Agricultural documents? In the stacks? In repositories, here or abroad? An apprentice should be savvy, persistent and creative in sniffing out original material: Got an idea for where the treasure is buried, I'm all ears. In the end, ideally, the work should yield a compelling book proposal. So, it is not a work in progress so much as a work about to commence. You've got to start somewhere."

2011 apprenticeships

Paul hendrickson , senior lecturer in english (jessica yu).

Paul writes: "I envision a writing apprentice helping greatly with the galley-reading and fact-checking and numerous other chores involved in the process of 'making a book.' The book to be made-- which is to say produced, published--is entitled Hemingway's Boat . I have been working on it for something like seven years, writing it for five. There was a time when I thought I'd never complete it. It is now done, or all but done. Knopf, my long-time publisher, known for its extremely high and Mercedes-Benz-like design and production values, plans to bring out this 160,000-word nonfiction work early next fall--so roughly a year from now. The apprentice will have a unique bird's-eye perspective of watching a process unfold at ground-level. Some of the chores to be done as the book makes its way to press will be quite tedious; others will be pretty exciting, that is, if you love books, and everything connected with books. For a Penn student out there dreaming someday of his or her OWN book-length work of fiction or nonfiction coming to such fruition, this might be an unparalleled opportunity. In essence, you'll get to see how some of it happens while you're still very young. In essence, you'll be able to get glimpses of the baby being born. I am honored to say that two previous KWH writing apprentices--Jessica Lussenhop in 2005 and Allison Stadd in 2008--hugely helped on the project, in both spirit and substance. So this third apprentice in the long making of Hemingway's Boat will be standing on some large shoulders. Should it be any other way?"

Stephen Fried , Lecturer in Creative Writing (Katie Sanders)

Stephen writes: "I am the author of five nonfiction books, a writer for a variety of national magazines and an adjunct professor at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism (where I teach longform narrative nonfiction reporting and writing). So I am looking for a student who is interested in the truly multidisciplinary worlds of reporting, writing and publishing in media that are rapidly changing, focusing on balancing time-honored skills with those newly invented and appreciated. (I also do most of my own promotion.)

The apprenticeship will involve working on proposals for my next two books, one historical narrative set on the east coast, another a more contemporary crime narrative; the paperback publication of my latest book, Appetite for America ; an exciting new publishing company venture; and magazine work for several national titles, including investigative and narrative work in health care, science, sports, popular culture, etc. You’ll also get intimately involved in the process of trolling for new ideas.

I’m also very interested in having my apprentice help me upgrade and diversify my various online presences and my new media strategies. So a major part of the apprenticeship will be exploring the expanding role of social media, blogs and old-fashioned websites in both new journalistic projects and older ones that still make an impact. So, I’m looking for someone with good computer and social networking skills, who wants to learn what they don’t already know."

2010 apprenticeships

Kenny goldsmith , lecturer in creative writing (thomson guster).

Kenny writes: "For the past five years, I have been working on a rewriting of Walter Benjamin's The Arcades Project , whose tentative title is Capital . Benjamin's book is a 900-page epic work of note-taking on everything that was written about Paris in the nineteenth century; mine uses Benjamin's identical methodology, applying it to New York in the twentieth century."

For this internship, you will be required to intimately acquaint yourself with The Arcades Project , its scope, its methodology, its histories and the critical apparatus surrounding the English publication of the book just a few years ago; you will also be expected to acquaint yourself with Benjamin's other key works. Once you have fully oriented yourself to Benjamin, you will assist me in my research, collection, transcription and editing of materials from a variety of sources including the library, old newspaper articles and the internet.

Kitsi Watterson , Lecturer in Creative Writing (Katie Sanders)

Kathryn Watterson loves stories-she loves to read them, write them, tell them, and elicit them from you. As her apprentice, you will be working with a writer who has won the Christopher Award, had three books listed as New York Times Most Notable Books, and is a celebrated newspaper reporter, editor, free-lance writer, essayist, short-story writer, novelist, and author of creative nonfiction books. Currently, she is completing a novel set in the 1950s; putting finishing touches on The North's Most Southern Town: An Oral History of African American Princeton, 1900-2000 ; and writing/revising short stories and essays. She writes lyrics, sings and drums with PLP TheUnity, a performance arts ensemble. Her apprentice will research events that occurred in the 1970s for a novel-in-progress that explores the human condition, racism, interracial relationships, and the prison system.

This project and others may include some interviews and transcriptions. She also wishes for help with the nuts and bolts of the writing business, including letters regarding permissions and submissions; proofreading; editing; fact-finding, and fact checking (sometimes on the spur of the moment for a political commentary). The ideal apprentice will enjoy having fun and searching for gems in the assigned research, be well organized, thorough, flexible in terms of the scope of the work, and interested in matters of social justice.

Michael Hennessey, Editor, Jacket2  and PennSound (Jeffrey Boruszak)

PennSound's first apprentice will work closely with Managing Editor Michael S. Hennessey, building a strong foundation in the technical skills necessary to keep the site running (site-specific methodologies, audio editing, file transfer protocols, webpage building), before assuming more administrative duties, such as workflow management, fact-checking and research, correspondence with poets and archivists, site promotion through Twitter and Facebook, and writing copy for the site. Final goals will include independent oversight of several small projects and writing several short features for the PennSound Daily column. For the ideal candidate, this apprenticeship will be an excellent opportunity to develop useful communications skills while indulging a fervent interest in contemporary poetry and poetics.

2009 apprenticeships

Elizabeth van doren , lecturer in creative writing (heather schwedel).

Elizabeth Van Doren is Editor-in-Chief of a small, illustrated book publisher in New York. She juggles a full-time job as well as teaching creative writing at Penn. She needs the help of an apprentice in working on several huge book projects that are overwhelming in their schedule, exciting in their scope, and require various skills from research to editing the manuscript, writing captions, seeking permissions, photo research, creating an art log, proofing pages, etc. The apprentice will have the opportunity to become part of a publishing team, learn how books are acquired, edited, illustrated and made, and to contribute to the making of one or several books to be published in 2009 by performing a variety of tasks from research to organizing material to writing. For anyone who thinks they might be interested in pursuing a career in publishing, this is a rare opportunity to work with an experienced editor in a fast-paced professional environment. Since the company is in New York, it would be ideal if the apprentice could come to New York occasionally to work in the office.

Dick Polman , Maury Povich Writer in Residence (Emily Schultheis)

Dick Polman, national political correspondent for the Philadelphia Inquirer , describes the apprenticeship he is hosting as follows: "I have a demanding journalistic routine, writing a political blog - called The American Debate - that is read by as many as 35,000 people a day, and I write other political commentary as well. All these duties require a lot of research, and a constant updating of fresh ideas. The work requires great discipline, but the rhythms are also very unpredictable, because of the need to react quickly to the news. I'm not sure what the writing mix will be like during the spring semester, but there will always be much to do. I'd require a good-humored, political-junkie apprentice who works fast and efficiently, who has a talent for news research, and who can contribute fresh story ideas. The work circumstances would vary - sometimes we would be communicating via email, sometimes face to face in my Penn office, sometimes informally in Penn coffee shops. In short, a semester-long dialogue. Any help in making my writing better would be greatly appreciated. And the helper will undoubtedly gain much practical journalistic experience."

Peter Tarr , Lecturer in Creative Writing (Aaron Walker)

Peter Tarr is completing a book project ( A Certain Blindness ) that focuses on the U.S. government's first official effort to change the culture of foreign peoples beyond American shores. He refers to the astonishing attempt by U.S. officials and several thousand ordinary American public school teachers to establish English-language public school systems in the Philippines, Puerto Rico and Cuba. These places came under direct U.S. rule following the "Spanish-American War" of 1898. Logistically improbable and culturally aggressive, the educational project of the American conquerors was explicitly designed to de-hispanize (i.e., Anglicize) peoples long ruled by Spanish monarchs and influenced culturally by the Roman Catholic Church. Peter's strategy has been to tell the story for the first time from the perspective of the American teachers -- many of whom were young people just out of college, and some of whom wrote hundreds of letters home. He welcomes the assistance of an apprentice interested in helping him make substantial edits in a historical narrative he has constructed after a six-year period of archival research. Useful contributions will depend on the apprentice's interest in narrative strategy and skills as a close reader and editor. In addition to helping Peter streamline the story-line -- which follows seven young men and women who taught in the Philippines between 1901 and 1910 -- the apprentice also has the opportunity to make a significant contribution to a portion of the final narrative yet to be written: a section comparing the American educational and cultural enterprise of 1900 with that of the Peace Corps, founded in 1961 by John F. Kennedy. The apprentice has an opportunity to collect primary data -- letters from the "field" written by Peace Corps volunteers -- at archives in Washington D.C. An additional opportunity at primary-source gathering and assessment, as well as narrative reconstruction, exists if the apprentice is able to travel to Carlisle, PA. There, letters may (or may not) reside, containing descriptions by American soldiers in Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines of their experiences dispensing English-language instruction to "natives," an activity conceptualized by American generals ca. 1900 as a form of counterinsurgency.

2008 apprenticeships

Robert strauss , lecturer in creative writing (sherene joseph).

Robert writes: "My journalistic life is a hectic one, and mostly solitary, but it is a varied one. I write a Friday entertainment piece each week out of Atlantic City for the Philadelphia Daily News and will be starting a weekly outdoors column for the Philadelphia Inquirer . I write almost weekly for the New York Times either in Metro, New Jersey, sports, travel and special sections like automobiles and retirement. I do entertainment stories for the Los Angeles Times and national stories out of Philadelphia for the Washington Post . I do business analyses for the Wharton School, write about tech for PC Magazine , and do features for a trade publication called Today's Machining World . It's a bit of this and a bit of that. One big project I will need help with is a book I have a contract for with Rutgers University Press, an oral history of the suburbs of the 1950s-1960s. It uses as its main subject Cherry Hill, New Jersey, from which I have several dozen taped interviews I will need transcribed. I would also like the apprentice to do some more interviews, which should be fun and educational as well. I work out of my house in Haddonfield and am two blocks from the train to Philadelphia so a car, while helpful, isn't a necessity. A willingness to learn a little of everything and a good sense of humor - I use a lot of bad puns - is."

Robert Strauss' apprentice will be Sherene Joseph. Sherene is a junior majoring in English and Psychology with minors in South Asia Studies, Gender Studies and Sociology. At Penn, she has been involved with several cultural and minority organizations, including the South Asia Society (SAS), the Asian Pacific Student Coalition (APSC) and the United Minorities Council (UMC). She loved her "non-creative fiction writing" workshop with Robert Strauss and is looking forward to working with him.

Mark Rosenthal , Lecturer in Creative Writing (Hillary Levine)

Mark writes: "I'm looking for an apprentice who can help me survive the bipolar disorder of writing screenplays for Hollywood studios. The motto: 'More Art Faster.' At any one time I might be researching a new project, while finishing a first draft, while doing a re-write on an old project -- and they might all be due 'yesterday'. Disaster always looms and the zombies are eternally at the door. I need someone who not only has sharp research skills but also the imagination to understand how to extract 'facts' that are relevant to each film. This might involve gleaning dramatic moments from historic incident, constructing sequences, or fine-tuning dialog. The intern will learn how the architecture of a script differs from novels and plays. He/ She will soon grow comfortable with the myriad day to day tasks of a working screenwriter, such as: throwing around concepts to discard dead end ideas, uncovering punch lines, finding analogous moments in earlier films, uncovering hip slang for characters, finding out the latest army weaponry, or discretely 'borrowing' from other screenplays. Since I am on campus only once a week in the spring, the ability to get up to Bucks County (either by train or car) would be a plus -- though not a deal breaker. High energy is good. Cockiness better. Most of all, the applicant should beware that Hollywood dreams are infectious and can inspire risky behavior that might preclude Penn Law or Med School to disastrous effect."

Mark Rosenthal's apprentice will be Hillary Levine, a junior majoring in Cinema Studies. She has taken several writing courses including Advanced Nonfiction Writing, Creative Nonfiction Writing and "Writing the Personal Essay/Writing Fiction." She hopes the apprenticeship will help her decide if screenwriting is a career for her.

Paul Hendrickson , Senior Lecturer in English (Allison Stadd)

Paul writes: "Since late 2003 I've been engaged in a nonfiction book, under contract to Alfred A. Knopf publishers, about Ernest Hemingway. The book is tentatively titled Hemingway's Boat . It is trying to be less a conventional work of biography than a narrative concept, a storytelling idea, that's a little tricky to explain. Basically, the project is trying to think about Hemingway through the prism and lens of something that was deeply beloved--and that still exists, on a hillside in Cuba--and that belonged to him for the last twenty-seven years of his complex life. This marks the second time I'll be pleased to work with a CPCW writing apprentice on the project: in 2004, Jessica Lussenhop, now enrolled at Columbia University graduate school of journalism, helped greatly with early stages of the research. The writing is in full swing; I'm approximately half-way through, at least in terms of a first-draft manuscript. I'm now looking for a literary-minded, self-starting creative-writing student who'll be able to work closely with me on several knotty research problems that are up ahead. It should be a good learning experience for both of us."

Paul Hendrickson's apprentice will be Allison Stadd, a Junior at Penn from Bethesda, Maryland. She has a keen interest in Hendrickson's current book-length project on Hemingway. She has already taken his writing workshop on writing from photographs. Allison plans to pursue a career in writing.

2007 apprenticeships

Kathleen demarco van cleve , senior lecturer in creative writing and cinema and media studies (malek lewis).

Fiction writer Kathleen DeMarco is under contract with Harcourt to write her first children's novel, Drizzle , targeted towards readers between eight and twelve years-old, (although, in a perfect world, it would be accessible to readers of all ages). Drizzle tells the story of an eleven year-old girl's discovery that she has inherited a genetic ability to make it rain...or drizzle, as the case may be. (She is also, not-coincidentally, determining whether she should follow the path of her aunt, who represents all things sophisticated and creative, or her mother, who is much less dazzling, and much more interested in showing respect to people and cleaning the house.) Although this book does not need to be scientifically precise, it must be familiar with, among other things, genetics and meteorology. Her apprentice should be familiar with - if not passionate about - children's literature, and willing to research weather patterns and the science of genetics. All aspects of writing a novel under contract will be observed, including editing the novel-in-progress with Ms. DeMarco, open-ended conversations about the narrative, discussion of the publisher's notes of the first draft, and working under a deadline. An ancillary responsibility will be the creation of a website for this novel with Ms. DeMarco, and all that such a site would entail (including teaching Ms. DeMarco how to maintain the site).

Herman Beavers , Professor of English and Africana Studies (Jason Saunders)

Herman Beavers will be working to develop a book project he is currently co-editing with poet, Honoree Jeffers from the University of Oklahoma entitled, Changing Chords: Performing African American Poetics in the 21st Century , which will consist of essays by both established and emerging African American poets dealing with the state of black poetry in the African Diaspora. He is also working with poet Elizabeth Alexander to plan a major conference on African American poetry and poetics to be held in Philadelphia (with a number of events hopefully taking place at Penn) in 2007-08. The apprentice will assist Professors Beavers and Jeffers to compile a bibliography of essays written in the last decade dealing with American poetry and poetics, as well as helping with the logistics for planning the conference, which may include developing a website for the conference, corresponding with potential participants, and working to develop sites off-campus for readings and receptions. The apprentice will be privy to as many discussions on both projects as possible in the hope that s/he will provide substantial input. Because these projects involve long-range planning, a sophomore or a junior is preferred so that they might be able to see both projects along, either into the late stages or to completion.

Anthony DeCurtis , Distinguished Lecturer, Creative Writing Program (Matt Rosenbaum)

"I am a working journalist based in New York," writes Anthony DeCurtis of this apprenticeship, "who is blessed and cursed with juggling a variety of projects and assignments, often on short notice and mostly to do with popular music. Here the harrowing truths of such work will be revealed - the corners cleverly cut; the disasters deftly avoided, the mounting deadlines nudged imperceptibly into the realm of the possible. The apprentice's task will be to heroically assist in those processes while revealing nothing about how closely the abyss loomed at all times. For students who have worked at the Daily Pennsylvanian or 34th Street , this will, of course, be familiar terrain, though such experience is not at all required. The work itself will typically involve research, and possibly some transcription and fact-checking. Excellent research skills, reliability and a passion for accuracy are therefore essential virtues. Top-notch computer abilities would be a plus as well. Because I live in New York and likely won't be around campus much in the spring, the ability to travel to New York from time to time would be important. I will routinely be available by phone and email, however, and, needless to say, conversations about the ever-changing journalistic world would be a central part of this experience. This apprenticeship would probably be most valuable to students who are considering journalism as a career, or who foresee writing in popular settings along with whatever else they might be doing later. The apprentice will be welcome to participate in my work as deeply as time, distance and common sense will allow. After this, I promise, nothing will surprise you."

2006 apprenticeships

Kenny goldsmith , lecturer in creative writing (matt abess).

Kenneth Goldsmith is under contract to co-edit an anthology of Conceptual Writing, the most recent cutting-edge development in experimental writing circles. The book will be an overview of Conceptual Writing, from its inception during early modernism to the present day. It will be an extension of The UbuWeb Anthology of Conceptual Writing  and the apprentice's work will be engaged on the screen as well as on the page. The apprentice's tasks will include editing, correspondence with historic figures, textual and audio conversions, garnering permissions, and extensive research into the past, present and future conditions that have made this one of the most important trends in writing today.

Beth Kephart , Lecturer in Creative Writing (Moira Moody)

Award-winning literary nonfiction author Beth Kephart is currently focused on a book-length narrative that draws its inspiration from the natural and social history of Philadelphia. Her apprentice will gain exposure to the annals of Philadelphia history, participate in the cataloging of key events, and engage, with Kephart, in conversations about the always-alchemical process of transforming historic fact into poetic possibility. Her apprentice will also gain exposure to Kephart's award-winning communications firm, a writing and design company serving some of the area's largest organizations in the creation of commemorative books, annual reports, and special publications. Read about the outcome of this apprenticeship in Beth's blog !

Lorene Cary , Senior Lecturer in English (Partrick Morales-Doyle)

Lorene Cary's apprentice will work with her on the product side of writing, first, by working on publicity details of the January publication of Free!: Great Escapes from Slavery on the Underground Railroad , a nonfiction middle-school book likely to be used in Philadelphia schools. Because the book is being published jointly by two independent presses, Ms. Cary has more to do than usual with marketing, and will need an apprentice who is fast, smart and literary to work with her on appearances, web site linking and updating, complimentary distribution, postcard announcements, databases and the like. The apprentice will work with Ms. Cary on the final editing, proofing and checking research for Blackface , an adult novel that she has just finished writing. Blackface takes place between 1936 and 1954. It tells the story of three generations of the Needham family whose patriarch is lynched in South Carolina. This post-creation work will give an apprentice a look at the writer's writing life in process. Although definitely not the fun part, publicity, editing, research and proofing are all necessary to do well to protect a writer's work and career.

2005 apprenticeships

Paul hendrickson , senior lecturer in english (jessica lussenhop).

Paul Hendrickson has been working for about a year on what will be his next nonfiction book project, tentatively titled Hemingway's Boat , and under contract to Alfred A. Knopf. Like his previous nonfiction books, it is a conceptual project, using Ernest Hemingway's life and work to consider some thorny cultural and literary and political issues as America struggles into the twenty-first century. The work is still in the research stage; much has been done; much remains to do before the writing can begin--starting, Hendrickson hopes, in the spring of 2005. A student apprentice would help the author with some specific research areas, including plans for travel to Cuba. An apprentice would also lend his/her insight to the narrative structure now jaggedly in place--and yet always in need of new youthful eyes and ideas.

J. C. Hallman (Julie Fishman)

J.C. Hallman is nearing the end of The God Variations , a book to be published by Random House. The God Variations is a survey of new religious movements in the United States, told in the spirit of William James's book Varieties of Religious Experience , but in the narrative journalism style of Bruce Chatwin or Barbara Ehrenreich. The book explores movements such as Wicca, the Monks of New Skete, Atheism, the Christian Wrestling Federation, and a pair of UFO cults. An apprentice will read the manuscript to help shape some of its core thematic threads and arguments, as well as assist in some of the detail work that arises in a manuscript close to completion.

Thomas Devaney , Senior Writing Fellow in Critical Writing (Ilena Parker)

Tom Devaney is editing The Use of the Useless: Selected Prose , to be published by Fish Drum Press. The book is a collection of Devaney's work, a survey of the landscape of contemporary poetry. It will contain his essays, talks, reviews, and interviews, originally published in a variety of publications including The Boston Review , The Poetry Project Newsletter , and Poets & Writers Magazine . The Use of the Useless charts both established and newly-discovered American writers: Allen Ginsberg, John Ashbery, Fanny Howe, Lyn Hejinian, Robert Creeley, Peter Gizzi, Eileen Myles, Sparrow, and others. It is a collection governed by a passion for and a curiosity about writers and writing, and it enters into the long-standing conversation and bond among critical writing, poetry, and art. An apprentice will be involved in all aspects of the creation of this book, helping compile, edit and make decisions about individual sections and chapters of the manuscript and provide editorial feed-back on the selections themselves. Tom Devaney hopes to find an undergraduate apprentice who is excited and deeply curious about writers and the process of writing.

2004 apprenticeships

Max apple , lecturer in creative writing (ariel djanikian).

Max Apple will work with an apprentice on the art of fiction writing. His stories and essays are widely anthologized and have appeared in the Atlantic , Harpers , Esquire , and many literary magazines and in Best American Stories and Best Spiritual Writing . The chosen apprentice will work closely with him on his or her own fiction project and will receive advice about placing the work in magazines and journals.

Gregory Djanikian , Professor Emeritus of Creative Writing (Emily Hsu)

The poet Gregory Djanikian is currently writing a book of poems about genocide--an emotionally complex, deeply personal kind of writing (as well as historical). His apprentice will work closely with him on this project and, in a sense, will be a focused study on, as he puts it, "how does one write about what is unspeakable without diminishing its enormity"? 

Greg Djanikian adds: "My project for the last two years has been writing poems about the Armenian genocide of 1915 and the diaspora that ensued, sending Armenians emigrating to all parts of the world. That genocide, during which a million to a million-and-a-half Armenians died, is regarded as the first genocide of the 20th Century, and in some ways, it paved the way for succeeding genocides and ethnic cleansings. Writing about such a cataclysm is difficult for many reasons. It raises, for instance, questions of aesthetics--how does one write about what is unspeakable without diminishing its enormity? It brings into play feelings that one has to resolve, suppress or manage without repeating the savagery of the event itself. It forces us to ask for whom the poems are being written, for the victims of the genocide, intending to pay them honor and sacralize their lives, or for the poet or readers who, for peace of mind, may want to contain the unholy brutality of such events in something as shapely and fastidious as a work of art. Finally, it tries to discover how, by focusing on particular events, it might embrace a whole range of human feeling that is not reserved to a particular time or community."

Charles Bernstein , Donald T. Regan Professor Emeritus of English and Comparative Literature (Erin Sweeney)

This apprenticeship will involve the making (and conceptualizing) of a stupendously comprehensive digital poetry archive. It is called "PennSound," and will feature freely shared MP3 files of poets reading their own poems. Prospective apprentices should look at the PennSound web page.

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The Three – Full-Time Apprenticeship

Christian creative writing training that actually works..

Named after David’s most elite squad of Mighty Men, The Three is a comprehensive apprenticeship program for writers who are serious about stepping into a career as a professional writer. We accept up to twelve apprentices per year into this program.

This isn’t about high-minded arts theory or intellectual discourse. We empower you with the essential skills to become an author that Americans want to read, see, and hear.

Full-Time, On-site Apprenticeship Program

Now accepting applications for fall 2024.

There’s more to becoming a professional writer than just learning to write well. A lot more. We can help.

At The Company, you will learn how to write. You will learn the business of writing. And you will connect deeply with the Holy Spirit.

Our full-time apprenticeship program will train you to write professionally, publish, and get paid to do it.

This program is open to adults of all ages and backgrounds. If you’re all-in for Jesus and aspire to be a novelist and influencer, you’re in the right place.

Our next full-time class will begin on September 4, 2024. We are now accepting applications for this class.

This is a full-time, on-site apprenticeship program. Apprentices join us in Cambridge, Ohio, for the duration of the 2-year program.

We will fill seats in this program as applications are received, so we encourage you to apply as soon as possible. We’ll update this page when the class is full.

We recommend carefully reviewing all of the information on this page and the provided links before applying. As soon as you’re ready, the button below will take you to our secure online application.

Apprenticeship Method

With our unique apprenticeship model, our lead instructor, Brad Pauquette, works with each author individually to understand your unique goals and help you to step into your calling. The instruction is completed in a small group setting, and each writer develops a personal one-on-one relationship with Brad as a trusted mentor.

The first year of the program lays down a foundation of writing skills, professional assets, and spiritual development. There’s lots of instruction in a small group setting. Through hands-on instruction, apprentices build skills and experiment with their work. In the first year, you will write many short stories, a novella, and a full-length novel.

You’ll also build a professional website, launch an effective professional social media presence, develop a mailing list, and legally set up your writing business for success. You’ll learn not only fiction writing, but also how to write for business and marketing, as well as how to create multimedia content.

In the first year, apprentices are encouraged to explore lots of different genres and writing styles to find their voice. We also work together to seek the Holy Spirit to identify how He’s calling you to use your gift for the Kingdom.

The second year is all about implementation. We’re now building on the foundation of the first year to put your individualized plan into action. Many apprentices begin earning money with their work in the second year.

In the second year, you are producing work for the market, aggressively building your marketing platform, and applying the lessons of the first year to build healthy, sustainable professional and spiritual routines.

Do I need to commit to both years?

One of the biggest assets of our program is the flexibility. Most apprentices do commit to the two year program and that’s usually the best fit. However, please contact us to discuss your unique situation. Ultimately, we’re here to help you reach your goals as an author and to help you step into the calling the Lord is inviting you into. We’re happy to discuss your work and life situation to address the best way we can incorporate you into our apprenticeship program.

Apprentice Testimonials

Noah Matthews, age 18, from Grayling, Michigan

“Where do I start? My time at The Company so far has been beyond amazing—I’m having to work harder, trust God more, and step out in ways I wouldn’t have wanted to months ago. Get ready to have your buttons pushed, your boxes opened, your fears gently brought to light, your mindsets shifted, and your joy-tank filled.”

Noah is a first-year apprentice. He will graduate in August 2025.

Alli Prince, age 24, from Las Vegas, Nevada

“Before coming to this program, I was extremely shy and lacked the confidence to become a full-time author. I knew what God wanted me to do, but I had absolutely no idea how to accomplish my goals. In the short time I’ve been in the program, I’ve watched my writing skills, my confidence, and my faith improve dramatically! I can’t recommend The Company enough!”

Alli is a second-year apprentice scheduled to graduate in August 2024. Listen to a podcast interview with Alli in which she shares her first-year experience.

Thirzah Griffioen, age 18, from Bryans Road, Maryland

“ What I really love about The Company is that I can already see my writing improve– quite a bit. I’ve learned a lot of different techniques that have completely changed the way I used to write, and I’m so impressed with the results. “

Thirzah graduated in August 2023. Listen to a podcast reflecting on her two-years at The Company here.

What’s it really like as an apprentice at The Company?

Explore The Three – Full-time apprenticeship at The Company

Steps to Apply:

Steps 1: Learn More

Explore this website to learn more. The links above will connect you to the most important topics of interest for prospective apprentices. But you may also explore this website more generally to learn all about The Company. 

Step 2: Read the “ Prepare to Apply Page “

This page will tell you exactly what to expect from the application process, so that you can prepare your answers and materials ahead of time.

(Optional) Step 3: Schedule a time to chat or visit

We’d love to get to know you and to answer your questions. Click here to schedule a time to chat (via email, Zoom, or phone), or to schedule an in-person campus visit.

Step 4: Apply

Click here or the “Apply Now” button below to visit our secure applicational portal. Simply create an account, fill out the form, and upload your materials.

Additional Resources

2023-24 Academic Calendar

2024-25 Academic Calendar

Apprentice Financial Resources

Full-Time Curriculum Overview

Frequently Asked Questions

Find the answers to some of our most commonly asked questions here–> Frequently Asked Questions.

Looking for a part-time opportunity that you can do from home?

Our part-time, online program is called Arche Year . Over the course of a year, you’ll write a complete novel manuscript and build a professional author’s marketing platform. Learn more here.

We’d love to hear from you!

Please send us an email at [email protected]  or use the contact form to the right to get in touch with us.

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Writer apprenticeships

Authors, writers and translators > Writer

Creative and media

Writers produce creative work, including novels, children's books, scripts, poetry and travel and technical writing.

You can get into this job through

• a university course
• volunteering
• applying directly
• specialist training or self-teaching

You'll need a high level of writing skill and talent. To develop these skills, you could get a qualification like a foundation degree, higher national diploma or degree in a subject like: 

• creative writing 
• English language or literature 
• creative and professional writing
• journalism 
• 1 or 2 A-Levels, or equivalent, for a foundation degree or higher national diploma 
• 2 to 3 A-Levels, or equivalent, for a degree 
• a degree in any subject for a postgraduate course 

You can do several things to develop your writing skills and learn more about the world of publishing. These include:

• joining a local writers' group 
• entering writing competitions 
• blogging online

Direct Application

Other routes.

You'll need: 

• creative ideas that will sell 
• good research skills 
• the ability to express ideas in a style suited to your intended audience 

Skills and knowledge

• knowledge of English language 
• excellent written communication skills 
• persistence and determination
• excellent verbal communication skills 
• the ability to use your initiative
• the ability to come up with new ways of doing things 
• ambition and a desire to succeed 
• knowledge of media production and communication 
• to be able to carry out basic tasks on a computer or hand-held device

Day-to-day tasks

Your day-to-day activities may include: 

• choosing a subject based on personal interest, or at the request of an agent or publisher 
• coming up with ideas, plots or content headings 
• researching information using the internet, libraries, site visits and personal interviews 
• developing your story, article, blog, review or instruction manual 
• submitting your draft to a publisher or editor 
• revising your work after getting feedback 
• uploading your work to websites or social media, or looking for publishing opportunities
• attending book signings, readings and discussions of your work 
• running writing workshops

Working environment

You could self-publish, in traditional print format, online or through e-books. You might be able to promote your work by entering literary competitions, become a book critic or teach creative writing in colleges.

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Video editor

Video editors bring together images and sound for use in film, TV and online productions.

Technical textiles designer

Technical textiles designers research, create and test textiles for use in healthcare, manufacturing and construction materials.

Upholsterer

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You might be interested in these opportunities .

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We are looking for 16 to 24 year olds to support our Midlands Development Programme by joining our Youth Advisory Panel. Help us to shape our museum into an engaging and relevant space for young people by inputting into our Midlands Development Programme, from the planning stages, to delivery and beyond.

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English—Creative Writing Major B.A.

• Apprenticeship and internship opportunities
• Workshops with renowned authors
• Preparation for M.A. or M.F.A. programs in Creative Writing or Law School
• Preparation for careers in publishing, digital publishing, business, marketing, newspaper and magazines, government, and more
• Sphere , a literary journal run by and for undergraduates

Faculty contact: Dr. Paul Jones

Admission Information

Degree requirements.

Major code: BA5232

The Creative Writing program offers students a range of beginning, intermediate, and advanced workshops in poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. Undergraduate Creative Writing majors will take three writing workshops of their choice, in addition to a Form & Theory course. Creative Writing majors, working closely with a distinguished core faculty of professional writers, can enrich their background in literature provided by the English major curriculum with a rigorous apprenticeship to their craft.

In addition, the program regularly invites writers to campus for residency, workshops, and readings. Each year, five eminent authors are invited to participate in the three-day Spring Literary Festival. These visits provide a unique complement to the student's workshop experience.

Many undergraduates publish their writing in Sphere (the undergraduate literary magazine), while others gain valuable editing experience. Undergraduate writers regularly organize formal and informal readings of their own work.

Undergraduate Creative Writing students have gone on to further study in M.F.A. and/or Ph.D. programs in Creative Writing. Many have gone on to publish their work.

Program Overview

In the English – Creative Writing major, students engage with genres of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry from the inside out, by generating and revising their own work as well as exploring closely how published work uses the techniques of craft.

All creative writing students participate in workshops led by nationally recognized writers which focus on understanding and constructing different literary forms; to achieve these goals, workshops emphasize the study of texts by established writers as well as students’ experimentation with their own creative process. The major is also flexible enough to match your own interests and goals: students can fulfill up to 12 of the required hours in the major with courses focusing on literature, rhetoric, or literary theory, or by combining these with apprenticeship or internship experiences.

To ensure a solid foundation in the skills and knowledge that employers and graduate schools expect from any English graduate, the English – Creative Writing major includes the English Core in analysis, research, and literary history. 

Careers and Graduate School

After a curriculum that emphasizes critical thinking and analytical reading as well as multiple genres of writing, English – Creative Writing students enjoy the same wide variety of opportunity upon graduation that other English majors have.

Many of our graduates go on to graduate programs, not only M.A. or M.F.A. programs in Creative Writing but also programs in information science, education or law. Others work in publishing, web content development, grant-writing and community organizing, advertising, or other creative industries. Having invested in developing their own creativity as well as in the well-rounded education that this degree requires, English – Creative Writing students can face the unexpected challenges of the 21 st -century job market with confidence.

Potential employers for those who hold a degree in Creative Writing include, but are certainly not limited to, newspaper and magazine organizations, the entertainment industry, government agencies, institutions of higher education, public and private K-12 schools, publishing companies, marketing agencies, non-profit organizations, businesses, etc.

Browse through dozens of internship opportunities and full-time job postings for Ohio University students and alumni on Handshake , OHIO's key resource for researching jobs, employers, workshops, and professional development events.

Freshman/First-Year Admission: Enrollment in an English major entails no requirements beyond University admission requirements.

Change of Program Policy: For students currently enrolled at Ohio University, transferring into an English major requires a 2.0 GPA. Students choosing to transfer into the English – Creative Writing major should contact the director of undergraduate studies in the English department for assistance. Students who wish to add an English major in addition to another major program should seek assistance from the director of undergraduate studies; students with a second major outside the College of Arts and Sciences will be responsible for meeting the degree requirements of both the English – Creative Writing major and the College of Arts and Sciences.

External Transfer Admission: For students currently enrolled at institutions other than Ohio University, transferring into an English major entails no requirements beyond University admission requirements. Students should contact the director of undergraduate studies in the English Department for assistance.

• Major code BA5232

University-wide Graduation Requirements

To complete this program, students must meet all University-wide graduation requirements.

Liberal Arts and Sciences Distribution Requirement

View the College-Level Requirements for the College of Arts & Sciences.

English Hours Requirement

For a B.A. degree with a major in English - Creative Writing , a student must complete a total of 42 semester credit hours in ENG coursework.

Intercultural Foundations

Complete the following course:

• ENG 1100 - Crossing Cultures with Text Credit Hours: 3

Literary Reading

Complete one of the following courses:

• ENG 2010 - Introduction to Prose Fiction and Nonfiction Credit Hours: 3
• ENG 2020 - Introduction to Poetry and Drama Credit Hours: 3

British or American Literature I

• ENG 2510 - British Literature I Credit Hours: 3
• ENG 2530 - American Literature I Credit Hours: 3

British or American Literature II

• ENG 2520 - British Literature II Credit Hours: 3
• ENG 2540 - American Literature II Credit Hours: 3

Intercultural Breadth

Complete one course from the following:

• ENG 3240 - Jewish American Literature Credit Hours: 3
• ENG 3250 - Women’s Literature Credit Hours: 3
• ENG 3260 - Queer Literature Credit Hours: 3
• ENG 3270 - Queer Rhetorics and Writing Credit Hours: 3
• ENG 3370 - Black Literature to 1930 Credit Hours: 3
• ENG 3380 - Ethnic American Literature Credit Hours: 3
• ENG 3390 - Black Literature from 1930 to the Present Credit Hours: 3
• ENG 3450 - Intercultural Adaptations Credit Hours: 3
• ENG 3550 - Global Literature Credit Hours: 3
• ENG 3850 - Writing About Culture and Society Credit Hours: 3
• ENG 4660 - International Authors Credit Hours: 3

Writing and Research

• ENG 3070J - Writing and Research in English Studies Credit Hours: 3

Senior Seminar

• ENG 4600 - Topics in English Studies Credit Hours: 3
• ENG 4640 - British Authors Credit Hours: 3
• ENG 4650 - American Authors Credit Hours: 3

Creative Writing Workshops

Complete three of the following workshops with at least one intermediate or advanced workshop:

• ENG 3610 - Creative Writing: Fiction Credit Hours: 3
• ENG 3620 - Creative Writing: Poetry Credit Hours: 3
• ENG 3630 - Creative Writing: Nonfiction Credit Hours: 3

Intermediate:

• ENG 3950 - Creative Writing Workshop: Nonfiction Credit Hours: 3
• ENG 3960 - Creative Writing Workshop: Short Story Credit Hours: 3
• ENG 3970 - Intermediate Creative Writing Workshop: Poetry Credit Hours: 3
• ENG 4860 - Advanced Workshop in Fiction Credit Hours: 3
• ENG 4870 - Advanced Workshop in Poetry Credit Hours: 3
• ENG 4880 - Advanced Workshop in Nonfiction Credit Hours: 3

Creative Writing Form and Theory

• ENG 4810 - Form and Theory of Literary Genres: Fiction Credit Hours: 3
• ENG 4820 - Form and Theory of Literary Genres: Poetry Credit Hours: 3
• ENG 4830 - Form and Theory of Literary Genres: Nonfiction Credit Hours: 3

Major Electives

Complete three additional ENG courses for at least nine hours excluding ENG 2800, ENG 3***J, ENG 4510, ENG 4520, ENG 4911, and ENG 4912. Six hours may be at the 2000-level or higher; three hours must be at the 3000-level or higher.

Earning A Master’s In Creative Writing: What To Know

Updated: Nov 1, 2023, 1:51pm

Do you want to create written work that ignites a reader’s imagination and even changes their worldview? With a master’s in creative writing, you can develop strong storytelling and character development skills, equipping you to achieve your writing goals.

If you’re ready to strengthen your writing chops and you enjoy writing original works to inspire others, tell interesting stories and share valuable information, earning a master’s in creative writing may be the next step on your career journey.

The skills learned in a creative writing master’s program qualify you to write your own literary works, teach others creative writing principles or pursue various other careers.

This article explores master’s degrees in creative writing, including common courses and concentrations, admission requirements and careers that use creative writing skills. Read on to learn more about earning a master’s degree in creative writing.

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What Is a Master’s in Creative Writing?

A master’s in creative writing is an advanced degree that helps you develop the skills to write your own novel, poetry, screenplay or nonfiction book. This degree can also prepare you for a career in business, publishing, education, marketing or communications.

In a creative writing master’s degree program, you can expect to analyze literature, explore historical contexts of literary works, master techniques for revising and editing, engage in class workshops and peer critiques, and write your own original work.

Creative writing master’s programs usually require a thesis project, which should be well-written, polished and ready to publish. Typical examples of thesis projects include poetry collections, memoirs, essay collections, short story collections and novels.

A master’s in creative writing typically requires about 36 credits and takes two years to complete. Credit requirements and timelines vary by program, so you may be able to finish your degree quicker.

Specializations for a Master’s in Creative Writing

Below are a few common concentrations for creative writing master’s programs. These vary by school, so your program’s offerings may look different.

This concentration helps you develop fiction writing skills, such as plot development, character creation and world-building. A fiction concentration is a good option if you plan to write short stories, novels or other types of fiction.

A nonfiction concentration focuses on the mechanics of writing nonfiction narratives. If you plan to write memoirs, travel pieces, magazine articles, technical documents or nonfiction books, this concentration may suit you.

Explore the imagery, tone, rhythm and structure of poetry with a poetry concentration. With this concentration, you can expect to develop your poetry writing skills and learn to curate poetry for journals and magazines.

Screenwriting

Screenwriting is an excellent concentration to explore if you enjoy creating characters and telling stories to make them come alive for television or film. This specialization covers how to write shorts, episodic serials, documentaries and feature-length film scripts.

Admission Requirements for a Master’s in Creative Writing

Below are some typical admission requirements for master’s in creative writing degree programs. These requirements vary, so check with your program to ensure you’ve met the appropriate requirements.

• Application for admission
• Bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution
• Transcripts from previous education
• Writing samples
• Letters of recommendation
• Personal statement or essay

Common Courses in a Master’s in Creative Writing

Story and concept.

This course focuses on conceptualizing, planning and developing stories on a structural level. Learners study how to generate ideas, develop interesting plots, create outlines, draft plot arcs, engage in world-building and create well-rounded characters who move their stories forward.

Graduate Studies in English Literature

Understanding literature is essential to building a career in creative writing. This course prepares you to teach, study literature or write professionally. Expect to discuss topics such as phonology, semantics, dialects, syntax and the history of the English language.

Workshop in Creative Nonfiction

You’ll study classic and contemporary creative nonfiction in this course. Workshops in creative nonfiction explore how different genres have emerged throughout history and how previous works influence new works. In some programs, this course focuses on a specific theme.

Foundations in Fiction

In this course, you’ll explore how the novel has developed throughout literary history and how the short story emerged as an art form. Coursework includes reading classic and contemporary works, writing response essays and crafting critical analyses.

MA in Creative Writing vs. MFA in Creative Writing: What’s the Difference?

While the degrees are similar, a master of arts in creative writing is different from a master of fine arts in creative writing. An MA in creative writing teaches creative writing competencies, building analytical skills through studying literature, literary theory and related topics. This lets you explore storytelling along with a more profound knowledge of literature and literary theory.

If you want your education to take a more academic perspective so you can build a career in one of many fields related to writing, an MA in creative writing may be right for you.

An MFA prepares you to work as a professional writer or novelist. MFA students graduate with a completed manuscript that is ready for publishing. Coursework highlights subjects related to the business of writing, such as digital publishing, the importance of building a platform on social media , marketing, freelancing and teaching. An MA in creative writing also takes less time and requires fewer credits than an MFA.

If you want to understand the business of writing and work as a professional author or novelist, earning an MFA in creative writing might be your best option.

What Can You Do With a Master’s in Creative Writing?

Below are several careers you can pursue with a master’s in creative writing. We sourced salary data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Postsecondary Creative Writing Teacher

Median Annual Salary: $74,280 Minimum Required Education: Ph.D. or another doctoral degree; master’s degree may be accepted at some schools and community colleges Job Overview: Postsecondary teachers, also known as professors or faculty, teach students at the college level. They plan lessons, advise students, serve on committees, conduct research, publish original research, supervise graduate teaching assistants, apply for grants for their research and teach subjects in their areas of expertise.

Median Annual Salary: $73,080 Minimum Required Education: Bachelor’s degree in English or a related field Job Overview: Editors plan, revise and edit written materials for publication. They work for newspapers, magazines, book publishers, advertising agencies, media networks, and motion picture and video production companies. Editors work closely with writers to ensure their written work is accurate, grammatically correct and written in the appropriate style for the medium.

Median Annual Salary: $55,960 Minimum Required Education: Bachelor’s degree in journalism or a related field Job Overview: Journalists research and write stories about local, regional, national and global current events and other newsworthy subjects. Journalists need strong interviewing, editing, analytical and writing skills. Some journalists specialize in a subject, such as sports or politics, and some are generalists. They work for news organizations, magazines and online publications, and some work as freelancers.

Writer or Author

Median Annual Salary: $73,150 Minimum Required Education: None; bachelor’s degree in creative writing or a related field sometimes preferred Job Overview: Writers and authors write fiction or nonfiction content for magazines, plays, blogs, books, television scripts and other forms of media. Novelists, biographers, copywriters, screenwriters and playwrights all fall into this job classification. Writers may work for advertising agencies, news platforms, book publishers and other organizations; some work as freelancers.

Technical Writer

Median Annual Salary: $79,960 Minimum Required Education: Bachelor’s degree Job Overview: Technical writers craft technical documents, such as training manuals and how-to guides. They are adept at simplifying technical information so lay people can easily understand it. Technical writers may work with technical staff, graphic designers, computer support specialists and software developers to create user-friendly finished pieces.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About a Master's in Creative Writing

Is a master’s in creative writing useful.

If your goal is to launch a career as a writer, then yes, a master’s in creative writing is useful. An MA in creative writing is a versatile degree that prepares you for various jobs requiring excellent writing skills.

Is an MFA better than an MA for creative writing?

One is not better than the other; you should choose the one that best equips you for the career you want. An MFA prepares you to build a career as a professional writer or novelist. An MA prepares you for various jobs demanding high-level writing skills.

What kind of jobs can you get with a creative writing degree?

A creative writing degree prepares you for many types of writing jobs. It helps you build your skills and gain expertise to work as an editor, writer, author, technical writer or journalist. This degree is also essential if you plan to teach writing classes at the college level.

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Sheryl Grey is a freelance writer who specializes in creating content related to education, aging and senior living, and real estate. She is also a copywriter who helps businesses grow through expert website copywriting, branding and content creation. Sheryl holds a Bachelor of Arts in Mass Communications from Indiana University South Bend, and she received her teacher certification training through Bethel University’s Transition to Teaching program.

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English literature and creative writing

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Studying English literature and creative writing engrosses you in literary masterpieces and builds essential skills that are sought after in the professional world. It encourages critical thinking, analytical skills, and effective communication, creating storytellers and perceptive interpreters of cultural differences.

The comprehensive understanding of language, narrative structures, and different genres equips graduates for a variety of career paths. Whether looking at roles in publishing, journalism, content creation, marketing, or education, graduates will have the ability to craft compelling narratives and adapt to different communication styles.

Beyond traditional careers, the creative and analytical skills gained prepare you for roles in digital media, advertising, and even entrepreneurship, where the power of persuasive storytelling is essential. 

• Be a social commentator, addressing issues such as social justice, inequality, and human rights.
• Bring fresh perspectives to the world by inspiring innovative solutions and encouraging others to think creatively.
• Share stories and build connections that contribute to the overall wellbeing of society.
• Literature in theory
• Modern world literatures
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• Shakespeare
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Options to study in this field include:

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Subjects it's useful to have studied first

Second year english literature and creative writing student, university of lincoln.

• Ability to critically analyse and interpret literary texts
• Close reading skills
• Development of characters, plot structures and dialogue
• Analyse arguments and evaluate evidence
• Critical thinking
• Written communication
• Storytelling

Career options

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Authors, writers and translators  

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• Don’t be afraid to shout about your love for literature by sharing specific books, authors, or literary movements that have inspired and influenced you.
• Highlight any experiences you have in creative writing. Mention workshops, writing groups, or personal projects that showcase your dedication to improving your craft. Share insights into your writing process and the genres or styles you’re drawn to.
• Share the breadth of your reading habits by mentioning a diverse range of genres, cultures, and time periods.
• Prove your strong communication skills, both written and verbal. This is crucial for success in both academic writing and creative expression.
• Have you explored your creativity outside of writing? Maybe you’ve acted in a play or experimented with visual arts.

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English Literature and Creative Writing

University of Gloucestershire

BA (Hons) · 3 Years · Full-time · Cheltenham · 22/09/2025

Tariff points: 96/112

Aberystwyth University

BA (Hons) · 3 Years · Full-time · Aberystwyth · 22/09/2025

Tariff points: 96/120

Bangor University

BA (Hons) · 3 Years · Full-time · Bangor, Gwynedd · 22/09/2025

Tariff points: 104/128

University of Brighton

BA (Hons) · 3 Years · Full-time · Brighton · 09/2025

Tariff points: 104/120

Lancaster University

BA (Hons) · 3 Years · Full-time · Lancaster · 01/10/2025

Tariff points: N/A

Northumbria University, Newcastle

BA (Hons) · 4 Years · Full-time with time abroad · Newcastle upon Tyne · 09/2025

Tariff points: 112/112

University of Surrey

BA (Hons) · 4 Years · Sandwich · Guildford · 15/09/2025

University of Birmingham

BA (Hons) · 3 Years · Full-time · Birmingham · 29/09/2025

Cardiff Metropolitan University

MA · 1 Year · Full-time · Cardiff · 22/09/2025

University of Kent

BA (Hons) · 3 Years · Full-time · Canterbury · 27/09/2025

Liverpool John Moores University

BA (Hons) · 3 Years · Full-time · Liverpool · 09/2025

Staffordshire University

BA (Hons) · 3 Years · Full-time · Stoke-on-Trent · 22/09/2025

Tariff points: 112/120

University of Hertfordshire

BA (Hons) · 3 Years · Full-time · Hatfield · 09/2025

University of Warwick

BA (Hons) · 3 Years · Full-time · Coventry · 29/09/2025

English Literature and Creative Writing (Q86)

Open University

BA (Hons) · 3-6 Years · Distance learning · Milton Keynes · 10/2025

English Literature

Canterbury Christ Church University

BA (Hons) · 3 Years · Full-time · Canterbury · 09/2025

University of Buckingham

BA (Hons) · 2 Years · Full-time · Buckingham · 22/09/2025

Tariff points: 102/128

University of Glasgow

MA (Hons) · 4 Years · Full-time · Glasgow · 15/09/2025

Bishop Grosseteste University

BA (Hons) · 3 Years · Full-time · Lincoln · 22/09/2025

Tariff points: 96/96

University of Reading

BA (Hons) · 3 Years · Full-time · Reading · 10/2025

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Department of English

M.f.a. creative writing.

English Department

Physical Address: 200 Brink Hall

Mailing Address: English Department University of Idaho 875 Perimeter Drive MS 1102 Moscow, Idaho 83844-1102

Phone: 208-885-6156

Email: [email protected]

Web: English

Thank you for your interest in the Creative Writing MFA Program at University of Idaho: the premier fully funded, three-year MFA program in the Northwest. Situated in the panhandle of Northern Idaho in the foothills of Moscow Mountain, we offer the time and support to train in the traditions, techniques, and practice of nonfiction, poetry, and fiction. Each student graduates as the author of a manuscript of publishable quality after undertaking a rigorous process of thesis preparation and a public defense. Spring in Moscow has come to mean cherry blossoms, snowmelt in Paradise Creek, and the head-turning accomplishments of our thesis-year students. Ours is a faculty of active, working writers who relish teaching and mentorship. We invite you in the following pages to learn about us, our curriculum, our community, and the town of Moscow. If the prospect of giving yourself three years with us to develop as a writer, teacher, and editor is appealing, we look forward to reading your application.

Pure Poetry

A Decade Working in a Smelter Is Topic of Alumnus Zach Eddy’s Poems

Ancestral Recognition

The region surrounding the University of Idaho is the ancestral land of both the Coeur d’Alene and Nez Perce peoples, and its campus in Moscow sits on unceded lands guaranteed to the Nez Perce people in the 1855 Treaty with the Nez Perce. As a land grant university, the University of Idaho also benefits from endowment lands that are the ancestral homes to many of the West’s Native peoples. The Department of English and Creative Writing Program acknowledge this history and share in the communal effort to ensure that the complexities and atrocities of the past remain in our discourse and are never lost to time. We invite you to think of the traditional “land acknowledgment” statement through our MFA alum CMarie Fuhrman’s words .

Degree Requirements

Three years to write.

Regardless of where you are in your artistic career, there is nothing more precious than time. A three-year program gives you time to generate, refine, and edit a body of original work. Typically, students have a light third year, which allows for dedicated time to complete and revise the Creative Thesis. (48 manuscript pages for those working in poetry, 100 pages for those working in prose.)

Our degree requirements are designed to reflect the real-world interests of a writer. Students are encouraged to focus their studies in ways that best reflect their artistic obsessions as well as their lines of intellectual and critical inquiry. In effect, students may be as genre-focused or as multi-genre as they please. Students must remain in-residence during their degrees. Typically, one class earns you 3 credits. The MFA requires a total of 54 earned credits in the following categories.

12 Credits : Graduate-level Workshop courses in Fiction, Poetry, and/or Nonfiction. 9 Credits: Techniques and Traditions courses in Fiction, Poetry, and/or Nonfiction 3 Credits : Internships: Fugue, Confluence Lab, and/or Pedagogy 9 Credits: Literature courses 12 Credits: Elective courses 10 Credits: Thesis

Flexible Degree Path

Students are admitted to our program in one of three genres, Poetry, Fiction, or Nonfiction. By design, our degree path offers ample opportunity to take Workshop, Techniques, Traditions, and Literature courses in any genre. Our faculty work and publish in multiple genres and value the slipperiness of categorization. We encourage students to write in as broad or focused a manner as they see fit. We are not at all interested in making writers “stay in their lanes,” and we encourage students to shape their degree paths in accordance with their passions. 

What You Study

During your degree, you will take Workshop, Techniques, Traditions, and Literature courses.

Our workshop classes are small by design (typically twelve students or fewer) and taught by core and visiting MFA faculty. No two workshop experiences look alike, but what they share are faculty members committed to the artistic and intellectual passions of their workshop participants.

Techniques studios are developed and taught by core and visiting MFA faculty. These popular courses are dedicated to the granular aspects of writing, from deep study of the poetic image to the cultivation of independent inquiry in nonfiction to the raptures of research in fiction. Such courses are heavy on generative writing and experimentation, offering students a dedicated space to hone their craft in a way that is complementary to their primary work.

Traditions seminars are developed and taught by core and visiting MFA faculty. These generative writing courses bring student writing into conversation with a specific trajectory or “tradition” of literature, from life writing to outlaw literature to the history of the short story, from prosody to postwar surrealism to genre-fluidity and beyond. These seminars offer students a dynamic space to position their work within the vast and varied trajectories of literature.

Literature courses are taught by core Literature and MFA faculty. Our department boasts field-leading scholars, interdisciplinary writers and thinkers, and theory-driven practitioners who value the intersection of scholarly study, research, humanism, and creative writing.

Award-Winning Faculty

We teach our classes first and foremost as practitioners of the art. Full stop. Though our styles and interests lie at divergent points on the literary landscape, our common pursuit is to foster the artistic and intellectual growth of our students, regardless of how or why they write. We value individual talent and challenge all students to write deep into their unique passions, identities, histories, aesthetics, and intellects. We view writing not as a marketplace endeavor but as an act of human subjectivity. We’ve authored or edited several books across the genres.

Learn more about Our People .

Thesis Defense

The MFA experience culminates with each student writing and defending a creative thesis. For prose writers, theses are 100 pages of creative work; for poets, 48 pages. Though theses often take the form of an excerpt from a book-in-progress, students have flexibility when it comes to determining the shape, form, and content of their creative projects. In their final year, each student works on envisioning and revising their thesis with three committee members, a Major Professor (core MFA faculty) and two additional Readers (core UI faculty). All students offer a public thesis defense. These events are attended by MFA students, faculty, community members, and other invitees. During a thesis defense, a candidate reads from their work for thirty minutes, answers artistic and critical questions from their Major Professor and two Readers for forty-five minutes, and then answer audience questions for thirty minutes. Though formally structured and rigorous, the thesis defense is ultimately a celebration of each student’s individual talent.

The Symposium Reading Series is a longstanding student-run initiative that offers every second-year MFA candidate an opportunity to read their works-in-progress in front of peers, colleagues, and community members. This reading and Q & A event prepares students for the third-year public thesis defense. These off-campus events are fun and casual, exemplifying our community centered culture and what matters most: the work we’re all here to do.

Teaching Assistantships

All students admitted to the MFA program are fully funded through Teaching Assistantships. All Assistantships come with a full tuition waiver and a stipend, which for the current academic year is roughly $15,000. Over the course of three years, MFA students teach a mix of composition courses, sections of Introduction to Creative Writing (ENGL 290), and additional writing courses, as departmental needs arise. Students may also apply to work in the Writing Center as positions become available. When you join the MFA program at Idaho, you receive teacher training prior to the beginning of your first semester. We value the role MFA students serve within the department and consider each graduate student as a working artist and colleague. Current teaching loads for Teaching Assistants are two courses per semester. Some members of the Fugue editorial staff receive course reductions to offset the demands of editorial work. We also award a variety of competitive and need-based scholarships to help offset general living costs. In addition, we offer three outstanding graduate student fellowships: The Hemingway Fellowship, Centrum Fellowship, and Writing in the Wild Fellowship. Finally, our Graduate and Professional Student Association offers extra-departmental funding in the form of research and travel grants to qualifying students throughout the academic year.

Distinguished Visiting Writers Series

Each year, we bring a Distinguished Visiting Writer to campus. DVWs interface with our writing community through public readings, on-stage craft conversations hosted by core MFA faculty, and small seminars geared toward MFA candidates. Recent DVWs include Maggie Nelson, Roger Reeves, Luis Alberto Urrea, Brian Evenson, Kate Zambreno, Dorianne Laux, Teju Cole, Tyehimba Jess, Claire Vaye Watkins, Naomi Shihab Nye, David Shields, Rebecca Solnit, Gabrielle Calvocoressi, Susan Orlean, Natasha Tretheway, Jo Ann Beard, William Logan, Aisha Sabatini Sloan, Gabino Iglesias, and Marcus Jackson, among several others.

Fugue Journal

Established in 1990 at the University of Idaho, Fugue publishes poetry, fiction, essays, hybrid work, and visual art from established and emerging writers and artists. Fugue is managed and edited entirely by University of Idaho graduate students, with help from graduate and undergraduate readers. We take pride in the work we print, the writers we publish, and the presentation of both print and digital content. We hold an annual contest in both prose and poetry, judged by two nationally recognized writers. Past judges include Pam Houston, Dorianne Laux, Rodney Jones, Mark Doty, Rick Moody, Ellen Bryant Voigt, Jo Ann Beard, Rebecca McClanahan, Patricia Hampl, Traci Brimhall, Edan Lepucki, Tony Hoagland, Chen Chen, Aisha Sabatini Sloan, sam sax, and Leni Zumas. The journal boasts a remarkable list of past contributors, including Steve Almond, Charles Baxter, Stephen Dobyns, Denise Duhamel, Stephen Dunn, B.H. Fairchild, Nick Flynn, Terrance Hayes, Campbell McGrath, W.S. Merwin, Sharon Olds, Jim Shepard, RT Smith, Virgil Suarez, Melanie Rae Thon, Natasha Trethewey, Philip Levine, Anthony Varallo, Robert Wrigley, and Dean Young, among many others.

Academy of American Poets University Prize

The Creative Writing Program is proud to partner with the Academy of American Poets to offer an annual Academy of American Poets University Prize to a student at the University of Idaho. The prize results in a small honorarium through the Academy as well as publication of the winning poem on the Academy website. The Prize was established in 2009 with a generous grant from Karen Trujillo and Don Burnett. Many of our nation’s most esteemed and celebrated poets won their first recognition through an Academy of American Poets Prize, including Diane Ackerman, Toi Derricotte, Mark Doty, Tess Gallagher, Louise Glück, Jorie Graham, Kimiko Hahn, Joy Harjo, Robert Hass, Li-Young Lee, Gregory Orr, Sylvia Plath, Mark Strand, and Charles Wright.

Fellowships

Centrum fellowships.

Those selected as Centrum Fellows attend the summer Port Townsend Writers’ Conference free of charge. Housed in Fort Worden (which is also home to Copper Canyon Press), Centrum is a nonprofit dedicated to fostering several artistic programs throughout the year. With a focus on rigorous attention to craft, the Writers’ Conference offers five full days of morning intensives, afternoon workshops, and craft lectures to eighty participants from across the nation. The cost of the conference, which includes tuition, lodging, and meals, is covered by the scholarship. These annual scholarship are open to all MFA candidates in all genres.

Hemingway Fellowships

This fellowship offers an MFA Fiction student full course releases in their final year. The selection of the Hemingway Fellow is based solely on the quality of an applicant’s writing. Each year, applicants have their work judged blind by a noted author who remains anonymous until the selection process has been completed. Through the process of blind selection, the Hemingway Fellowship Fund fulfills its mission of giving the Fellow the time they need to complete a substantial draft of a manuscript.

Writing in the Wild

This annual fellowship gives two MFA students the opportunity to work in Idaho’s iconic wilderness areas. The fellowship fully supports one week at either the McCall Outdoor Science School (MOSS), which borders Payette Lake and Ponderosa State Park, or the Taylor Wilderness Research Station, which lies in the heart of the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness Area. Both campuses offer year-round housing. These writing retreats allow students to concentrate solely on their writing. Because both locations often house researchers, writers will also have the opportunity to interface with foresters, geologists, biologists, and interdisciplinary scholars.

Program History

Idaho admitted its first class of seven MFA students in 1994 with a faculty of four: Mary Clearman Blew, Tina Foriyes, Ron McFarland (founder of Fugue), and Lance Olsen. From the beginning, the program was conceived as a three-year sequence of workshops and techniques classes. Along with offering concentrations in writing fiction and poetry, Idaho was one of the first in the nation to offer a full concentration in creative nonfiction. Also from its inception, Idaho not only allowed but encouraged its students to enroll in workshops outside their primary genres. Idaho has become one of the nation’s most respected three-year MFA programs, attracting both field-leading faculty and students. In addition to the founders of this program, notable distinguished faculty have included Kim Barnes, Robert Wrigley, Daniel Orozco, Joy Passanante, Tobias Wray, Brian Blanchfield, and Scott Slovic, whose collective vision, rigor, grit, and care have paved the way for future generations committed to the art of writing.

The Palouse

Situated in the foothills of Moscow Mountain amid the rolling terrain of the Palouse (the ancient silt beds unique to the region), our location in the vibrant community of Moscow, Idaho, boasts a lively and artistic local culture. Complete with independent bookstores, coffee shops, art galleries, restaurants and breweries, (not to mention a historic art house cinema, organic foods co-op, and renowned seasonal farmer’s market), Moscow is a friendly and affordable place to live. Outside of town, we’re lucky to have many opportunities for hiking, skiing, rafting, biking, camping, and general exploring—from nearby Idler’s Rest and Kamiak Butte to renowned destinations like Glacier National Park, the Snake River, the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness Area, and Nelson, BC. As for more urban getaways, Spokane, Washington, is only a ninety-minute drive, and our regional airline, Alaska, makes daily flights to and from Seattle that run just under an hour.

For upcoming events and program news, please visit our calendar .

For more information about the MFA program, please contact us at:  [email protected]

Department of English University of Idaho 875 Perimeter Drive MS 1102 Moscow, ID 83844-1102 208-885-6156