Creative Writing Minor

Creative Writing at ETSU

We're pleased to offer students rigorous and diverse coursework in fiction and poetry, as well as a variety of electives in drama, creative nonfiction and screenwriting. Over the years we've been proud to host many great writers on campus, including Joy Harjo, Charles Wright, Tayari Jones, Ron Rash, Fred Chappell, James Dickey, Cris Mazza, Li-Young Lee, Robert Bausch and many others. Each spring ETSU sponsors a creative writing festival, ETSU Celebrates Creative Writing, which features workshops and readings from writers around the country.  

We have several scholarship opportunities available.

• Out-of-state creative writing students should check out our Creative Arts Scholarship.
• ETSU offers Fine & Performing Arts Scholarships for creative writers through the Honors College.

The Department of Literature and Language sponsors:

• ETSU Creative Writing Society 
•  The Mockingbird, our student-run literary journal
•  Aethlon: The Journal of Sport Literature, an international journal featuring writing on the intersection of sport and literature.

The minor is open to students majoring in any discipline.  We will update this space regularly with news on events and opportunities in creative writing here at ETSU and across the region.

Feel free to contact the Director of the Creative Writing Minor, Dr. Mark Baumgartner, if you have any questions. 

News and Events:

September 18: 3 Emerging Writers featuring Karen Babine, Caleb Johnson, and Valerie Smith: a partnership with the Creative Writing Society, in the East TN Room (Culp 272), 1:40 PM Roundtable Discussion and 3:15 PM 

October 2: Speaking Queerly, an LGBTQ+ poetry night, featuring the Mockingbird and sponsored with the Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies: 7 PM in the East TN Room (Culp 272) 

October 28: "Toward the Call of the Owl" song cycle featuring the poetry of Jesse Graves and ensemble of musicians, a collaboration with Dept of Music and Mary B. Martin School of the Arts: 7 PM in Powell Recital Hall

Find more about writing events at ETSU here at the The Bert C. Bach Written Word Initiative website.

On November 14th, 2013, poets from across East Tennessee gathered at the Carroll Reece Museum, ETSU, to celebrate the release of The Southern Poetry Anthology Volume VI: Tennessee.