The Creative Writing Program at IUPUI offers a wide range of courses and activities in a diverse urban setting. Writers can try their hand at a variety of genres, including:

• Poetry
• Fiction
• Creative nonfiction
• Screenwriting

Pursue a creative writing minor or an English major with a creative writing track.  Class levels range from introductory courses to graduate workshops. 

A member of the Associated Writing Programs, the program annually: 

• Brings nationally-known and local writers to campus to read their work
• Organizes the International Women’s Day celebration of arts and culture
• Stages monthly open-mike student readings
• Publishes the student journal genesis

Film Studies Film Studies courses examine the following aspects of film:

• Aesthetics
• History
• Theory

We study film the way that Literature courses study literature, considering: 

• how film uses a language of its own to create an experience for the spectator
• how to understand that experience in all its dimensions
• how film is influenced by culture, other arts, and the industries and personalities that produce it

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The linguistics concentration offers a program of study of language structure and use that begins with courses designed to introduce students to the following elements of the discipline of linguistics:

• the basic theoretical assumptions
• the fundamental concepts
• the methodological approaches

Study focuses on how these elements relate to the analysis of the English language.  Beyond the introductory phase of their course work, students may choose from classes that cover a broad range of linguistic research, for example, into the relationship between language and culture, society, writing, and gender.  In addition, students may choose courses that are primarily theoretical in nature, such as syntax or semantics, or they may choose courses that are more applied in nature, such as second language acquisition and teaching English as a second language.  In general, students will emerge from their studies in this concentration with the skills and knowledge that enable them to investigate a variety of language issues in a rigorous and scientific manner. 

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The literature student’s central task is to explore writing concerned with the human condition and how such writing affects the world.  To emphasize critical thinking, the curricula offer thematic and interdisciplinary courses that connect literature with:

• Medicine
• Philanthropy
• Philosophy
• Women’s Studies

Students selecting this concentration have the opportunity to emerge themselves in the study of traditional British and American masterpieces, including Shakespeare, Joyce, and Morrison.  Students may also take advantage of courses offering diverse readings such as:

• Anglophone Caribbean Texts
• Children’s Literature 
• Contemporary Black American Writing
• Science Fiction
• Slavery Narratives
• Westerns 

With permission, students may undertake a directed readings course to pursue advanced analysis.  A literature concentration also includes literary criticism, film criticism, and the investigation of how we read literary texts.

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The Writing and Literacy concentration introduces students to:

• the discipline of writing studies
• the professional possibilities for writers
• the public uses of writing
• the social issues implicated in language use

Students write and analyze many kinds of texts, including: 

• academic papers
• personal essays
• non-fiction magazine articles
• web-based documents
• technical and business reports
• poetry and fiction

Writing and Literacy majors prepare for careers in publishing, editing, freelance writing, journalism, business and technical writing, and grant writing, as well as (among other things) graduate study in English, law, and library and information sciences. 

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