Class Schedule and Course Descriptions

Spring 2025 Course Descriptions

Creative Writing Spring 2025 Class Schedule and Descriptions

This course is an introduction to the creative writing process, in which you’ll do exercises in writing poetry, fiction, and dramatic scripts. There will also be selected readings of exemplary stories, poems, and plays. Open to all students. CROSS GENRE COURSE.

Prerequisite:  English 114, or equivalent. Priority enrollment given to Eng: Creative Writing, Eng: Ed w/ Creative Writing concentration and Cinema majors. Instruction and extensive practice in writing poetry, fiction, and plays, with selected readings of exemplary stories, poems, and plays. This course is the prerequisite to Short Story Writing, Poetry Writing, and Playwriting.  Instructors’ names will be published in June. CROSS GENRE COURSE.

Prerequisite:  Prerequisite:  English 114, or equivalent. Enrollment limited to creative writing majors; non-majors admitted with consent of instructor. Every creative writer needs to be a creative reader. Knowing how to write means knowing how to read. As beginning writers, we learn our craft by reading the works of established writers, drawing inspiration from their examples. In this class, we will read stories, poems, and plays by a diversity of writers such as Samuel Beckett, Octavia Butler, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Sally Wen Mao and others. We will also explore a diversity of genres, including science fiction, fantasy, horror and contemporary realism. Students will discover that creative reading is often the first and most important step to creative writing. 

Prerequisites for C W 506: C W 101 or C W 301 with a grade of C or better. Enrollment limited to C W majors; non-majors admitted with consent of instructor. Covers agents, corporate and small publishing houses, E-publishing, markets, publicity, etc. Students write letters to agents/editors, press releases for book tours, and several short papers. (This is a paired course offering. Students who complete the course at one level may not repeat the course at the other level.)

Prerequisites: Upper-division standing; C W 101 or 301.  Speculative fiction is a genre that gives priority to “cognitive estrangement,” using narrative prose to push beyond ordinary reality into a zone where the familiar becomes strange, and the strange familiar. This course will survey various modes of modern speculative fiction, including science fiction, dystopian and Gothic literature, surrealism, and magical realism. Students will utilize readings in these modes as points of departure for their own creative writing.

Prerequisites: C W 301; ENG 114; ENG 214; B.A. majors in ENG, Creative Writing and ENG, Edu. (Creative Writing). Explore craft elements of fiction: plot, dialogue, character, point of view, place, etc. Focus is on published writing and exercises. Some student work is discussed. Satisfies the General Education GWAR/C WEP requirement. An exploration of how writers translate their vision onto the page. (Emphasis on HOW). Emphasis is on assigned reading material, but some student work will also be discussed in small groups.

Prerequisite: Senior standing in Creative Writing.  Enrollment is limited to undergraduate majors in English: Creative Writing, Creative Writing, and English: Education (Creative Writing). Work In Progress is an advanced process course that offers senior creative writing majors the opportunity to work on their capstone project, a series of revisions and re-envisionings of creative pieces that they have initiated during their time in the Creative Writing program. The class will explore ways to sustain a creative practice, by re-envisioning their own creative works and by examining works by emerging and established writers. We will also discuss various pathways for publication and creative careers. CROSS GENRE COURSE. 

Prerequisites: C W 301; C W 511GW or C W 512 GW or CW 513GW. Enrollment limited to creative writing majors; non-majors admitted with consent of instructor. In this course, we will examine the structure of the contemporary American short story to deepen our understanding of the medium’s craft elements. Students will think both critically and creatively about the concepts we discuss in class and will then apply this knowledge to creative prompts and assignments. Not only will we consider what elements come together to tell a short story, but we will also meditate on the form’s importance within the American canon. Workload will consist of one to two short story reading assignments per week, plus bi-weekly writing exercises. At the end of the semester, students will compile their written work into a portfolio that includes a personal reflection and one new short story.

Prerequisites: C W 101 or C W 301; C W 302; C W 512GW or C W 603.Examine and experiment with the artistic processes of published writers (and a variety of other artists) who've taken a project from idea to completion. Study interviews, process notes, and "middle drafts" of these artists. Include analyses of the draft process, genre across artistic and literary forms, and creation and revision of student work.

Prerequisite:  C W 301; C W 302; C W 511GW or C W 512GW or C W 513GW; or consent of instructor. Join the staff of Transfer, the literary magazine of the Creative Writing Department, established in 1950, and one of the longest running student literary magazines in the US. The course is designed to give you a working taste of what it takes to put out a literary magazine (including critical analysis and discussion of short-listed submissions, proofreading, solicitation and distribution) and to make you think about the world of literary magazines and your own beliefs in literature. Come prepared to analyze and discuss text and investigate your own literary aesthetics. In order to bring Transfer into the 21st Century, in addition to assisting the editors publish the print magazine, class members will create, design, and edit their own literary magazine. If you’re interested in being an editor of Transfer, at the end of the semester you will be given the opportunity to apply for an editor position for the next issue. This is a process course (not a lab) and can be used to fulfill 3 units of the Creative Process requirement. CROSS GENRE COURSE.

Prerequisite: C W 101 or 301 with a grade of C or better. Enrollment is limited to undergraduate majors in English: Creative Writing and English: Education (Creative Writing). Non-majors admitted with consent of instructor. Paid and unpaid internship positions designed to give CW students practical knowledge and experience are available through local literary and arts organizations, civic and community organizations, Bay Area school districts and within the Creative Writing Community at SF State. Check out our Community Projects in Literature Internship Leads at https://creativewriting.sfsu.edu/content/communityprojects-0. Incredible academic internships are also available for C W 675/875 credit through SF State's Institute for Civic and Community Engagement (ICCE). Check out their list of paid and unpaid internships at http://icce.sfsu.edu. These working by remote and/or in person internships are robust opportunities to 'learn by doing'. If you have any questions, please contact Michael David Lukas at mdlukas@sfsu.edu . C W 675/875 may be taken twice for 6 units of credit.     

Prerequisite:  Consent of instructor and a 3.0 GPA.  Upper division students may enroll in a course of Independent Study under the supervision of a member of the Creative Writing department, with whom the course is planned, developed, and completed. This course may be taken for one, two, or three units. No priority enrollment; enrollment is by petition, and a copy of your unofficial SF State transcript. Independent Study forms are available online http://registrar.sfsu.edu/forms under Independent Study (699, 899). This form must be signed by the instructor you will be working with, and the department chair, and must be turned in with a copy of your unofficial transcript. Please request a permit number from your instructor when they approve the 699 form.

GRADUATE CLASSES:

Note:  Preference in all Creative Writing graduate courses will be given to students admitted to either the M.A. or the M.F.A. programs in Creative Writing.  Preference in M.F.A. level courses will be given to students admitted to the M.F.A. program.  Priority in M.A. and M.F.A. writing workshops and creative process courses will be given to students admitted in the genre of the course.  Other Creative Writing M.A./M.F.A. students may enroll in these courses only with the permission of the instructor.

Prerequisite: Classified graduate standing in Creative Writing. In this class we will explore some aspects of the “business” of creative writing—how writers find and create audiences for their work, find editors and publishers, and pay the rent—as well as how they create lives in which art and the creative process are central. This is a survey class, not a seminar, so while this class will not teach you how to become a best-selling writer in ten easy steps, it will provide you with a larger sense of the business side of creative writing, while encouraging you to develop your ability to distinguish between the business of creative writing and the art. Each class period will involve lecture & discussion by guest speakers (poets, writers, literary agents, book editors, literary journal publishers, reading series curators, book distribution managers, free-lance writers and editors, literary nonprofit managers, and the like). You will be given a writing and/or research assignment the week before each presentation to lead you into the speaker’s field.

809   Directed Writing for Graduate Students                       ARR

Prerequisite: Classified graduate standing in Creative Writing. Permission of the instructor is required to take this course; you will be dropped without prior consent of the instructor. The semester before you plan to enroll in Directed Writing, submit a sample of your writing in the instructor’s mailbox along with a note explaining that you want to take their Directed Writing class. Be sure you include your name, address, phone number and e-mail. If the instructor is on leave, please email your writing sample to her or him.

Prerequisite: Restricted to graduate Creative Writing students or permission of the instructor. This course will examine the ways that cultural criticism reflects the contemporary human experience, using multiple lenses to explore some of society’s most profound and fraught topics. We will look at how critics successfully bridge academic and nonacademic subjects, including film and art criticism, restaurant and book reviews, the intersection of race and culture in America, stage dramas, the shifting landscape of gender and sexuality, as well as how shifts in the cultural landscape affect television dramas. The ultimate goal of this course is to look at how writers process the changing world around them, and how their ideas can be rendered into a body of critical essays. Some critics whose work we will explore: Justin Chang, Vinson Cunningham, Zadie Smith, Andrea Long Chu, Susan Sontag, Lyndsay Green, Sophie Gilbert, Salamishah Tillet, Wesley Morris, Carlos Lozada, Manohla Dargis, Jill Lapore, Hilton Als, among others. Possible assignments include writing a range of short food/museum/book reviews that explore your relationship with the places and institutions of the San Francisco Bay Area, and how the pressures of the present moment have impacted the people and places in our city.

Prerequisite: Restricted to graduate Creative Writing students or consent of the instructor. MA and M.F.A. students from all genres are welcome (should the course be over-enrolled, priority will be given to Playwriting students). Calling all playwrights, directors, actors, stage managers, production managers and graphic artists!  Greenhouse 2025 is looking for full length and short plays to be presented in a guerilla style theatre format in various indoor and outdoor spaces on the SF State campus for our annual festival of new work. Playwrights must be highly self-motivated in the creative process. They must be willing to help cast their own plays and do whatever it takes to get their work up. The festival will be held in April. Master classes with local professionals will guide students with helpful tools in dramaturgy, publicity and marketing, fundraising and grant writing. May be repeated for a total of 9 units.

Prerequisite: Classified graduate standing in Creative Writing. Fourteen Hills is a working small press as well as a graduate course in editing and literary publishing. Each year, in the spring, we publish one issue of Fourteen Hills: the SFSU Review, a nationally recognized literary print magazine, as well as in fall the Michael Rubin Book Award (MRBA) by an SFSU student or recent graduate. Fourteen Hills is run entirely by students with support from our Faculty Advisor and the Department of Creative Writing. The course is designed to give students an opportunity to observe and participate in many aspects of running a literary magazine, from editorial decisions to distribution logistics, from public relations and event planning to conducting author interviews. Students in the class serve as staff for the journal, working closely with the editors to consider and evaluate work for publication in the upcoming issue as well as learning about the copy-editing process, visual art selection, cover design, distribution, sales and promotion. The course is taught primarily by the Editor-in-Chief, with guidance from the Faculty Advisor. Small group work will be led by the Fiction and Poetry genre editors. CROSS GENRE COURSE.

Prerequisites: Classified graduate standing in M.F.A. Creative Writing; priority enrollment given to M.F.A. creative nonfiction students; open to other M.F.A. genre and MA creative nonfiction students only on a space-available basis, to be determined at the first class meeting. Together, in this course, we’ll delve into the rich world of creative nonfiction—what it is, why it matters, how to shape and forge it. You are encouraged to experiment, push your own edges and take daring leaps toward your truest goals as a writer. We will read some published work for context, inspiration and to fill our wells; then we’ll dive into the creative, experiential crucible that is a workshop. In alignment with pedagogies that push back against modalities of “silence” that can disempower writers, we will use an “unsilenced” method to turn close attention to each student’s manuscript in an atmosphere of aesthetic rigor, personal agency and mutual support. We will center the notion that each author is ultimately the authority on their own work and draw on techniques and strategies that celebrate each person’s unique way of knowing, while also championing what’s possible when we open ourselves to feedback, experimentation, growth and meaningful exchange. You are encouraged to explore, to cross-pollinate and to venture toward new realms. May be repeated for a maximum of 18 units.

Prerequisite: Classified graduate status in the M.F.A. in Creative Writing or consent of instructor. This class will explore the genre of fiction, including novels, various forms of short stories, experimental works and hybrid works that cross or blur traditional genre borders. Students will have an opportunity to experiment with various forms of fiction as well as to turn in for workshop two original works for feedback from the class. We will have at least one Zoom visit with an established author. The goal of this workshop is to encourage students to experiment and explore. May be repeated for a total of 18 units.

Prerequisite: Classified graduate status in the M.F.A. in Creative Writing or consent of instructor. “As if your life depended on it. You must write and read as if your life depended on it…To read as if your life depended on it would mean to let into your reading your beliefs, the swirl of your dreamlife…” This excerpted quote from Adrienne Rich’s “What is Found There” speaks to the sense of urgency and complexity guiding this writing workshop. What is it to make art when the world is on fire? Students will concentrate on the creation, revision, and radical revision of their poetry. The class format will include discussion of reading assignments, writing in response to readings, viewings, and music; group discussion of student work, and in-class and at-home writing and reading assignments. Prerequisite: Classified graduate status in the M.F.A. in Creative Writing or consent of instructor. May be repeated for a total of 18 units.

Prerequisite: Restricted to graduate Creative Writing students or permission of the instructor. Maria Irene Fornes wrote: "My goal in workshops is always what will be advantageous for the growth of the individual writer, rather than for the writer to show the other people in the class what they have accomplished." In that spirit, we'll focus on fearlessly generating new work and using craft and process triggers to explore work already under construction. We'll read and watch newly written and newly produced plays and discuss intention and theatrical strategies. We'll also spotlight craft and process challenges of interest to the group. Our methods, while diverse, will be adapted to target the needs of the group's particular members.

Prerequisite: Open to both MA and MFA Creative Writing students.  Repeatable once for credit.  Students working as Pedagogical Apprentices to instructors of undergraduate Creative Writing courses are required to take this Practicum course concurrent with their work with a teacher of record.  Students meet as a group once every three weeks in tandem with asynchronous work on Canvas, posting teaching journals and case studies on a weekly basis.   This course provides pedagogical grounding for pragmatic classroom teaching work and offers students a structured forum in which to discuss their teaching under the supervision of an experienced teacher and in collaboration with other Pedagogical Apprentices.   NB: Each student must make arrangements with an instructor to serve as a Pedagogical Apprentice.

Prerequisite: Classified graduate standing in Creative Writing. This course engages Creative Writing graduate students in pragmatic and theoretical exploration of the teaching of creative writing. Our methods and activities will be diverse. We'll begin the semester in active imaginative engagement in the student experience, here and now, the Spring of 2024. We'll create and present craft exegeses and craft and process lectures of varying length. We'll explore strategies for engaging in useful, generative analysis of student works-in-progress. We'll hold practice sessions in leading class discussions, setting out to use text models with creativity, adaptability and imagination. We'll also discuss aspects of Creative Writing pedagogy as stimulated by essays and interviews. By the end of the semester, each student will have prepared a detailed syllabus for a fifteen-week creative writing course. These activities will be not only pragmatic but also diagnostic: as the semester progresses, each student will aim to unearth their particular passions and priorities as writers, educators and human beings--the prime movers in the discovery of each of our own unique teaching voices and styles.  CROSS GENRE COURSE.

Prerequisite: C W 101 or 301 with a grade of C or better. Enrollment is limited to undergraduate majors in English: Creative Writing and English: Education (Creative Writing). Non-majors admitted with consent of instructor. Paid and unpaid internship positions designed to give CW students practical knowledge and experience are available through local literary and arts organizations, civic and community organizations, Bay Area school districts and within the Creative Writing Community at SF State. Check out our Community Projects in Literature Internship Leads at https://creativewriting.sfsu.edu/content/communityprojects-0.  Incredible academic internships are also available for C W 675/875 credit through SF State's Institute for Civic and Community Engagement (ICCE). Check out their list of paid and unpaid internships at http://icce.sfsu.edu. These working by remote and/or in person internships are robust opportunities to 'learn by doing'. If you have any questions, please contact Michael David Lukas at mdlukas@sfsu.edu . C W 675/875 may be taken twice for 6 units of credit.                         

In her seminal essay “Uses of the Erotic: the Erotic as Power,” Audre Lorde wrote, “the erotic is a resource within each of us…a considered source of power and information within our lives.” Through this prism, writing the erotic can certainly include writing sex scenes, but it’s also about how human beings (and fictional characters) experience their bodies, desires, and everyday lives. Furthermore, in a world that seeks to diminish the embodied truths of marginalized people, the narration of authentic queer, trans, female, or/and BIPOC desire can be a radical act. What does this mean for the work we create? How does the erotic as a literal topic or underlying life force run through the stories that compel us? If we immerse in writings of the erotic—specifically queer and feminist work, from ancient Sumerian verse to vanguard contemporary voices—what might it open or ignite in our own literary projects? In this class, we’ll dive through a range of texts for inspiration and spark, generate fresh work in alignment with each of our writing goals, and explore the possibilities for rendering this “source of power” on the page.

Prerequisite: Classified graduate standing MFA CW or consent of instructor. How do ideas, myths, and worldviews influence the creative process? In this course, students will examine this influence in the works of contemporary poets and open their own writing process to the ideas of inspiring thinkers. The assigned readings will present famous encounters between poets and ideas—Joanne Kyger and Descartes, Paul Celan and Heidegger, Sally Wen Mao and cinematic myth—as well as poets' use of systems of thought ranging from science to religion for the purpose of poetic ideation. The readings will provide points of departure for students' own creative work. 

C W 893 Written M.A. Creative Project (3 units) 
Prerequisite:  advancement to M.A. candidacy in English: Creative Writing.  Advancement To Candidacy (ATC) and Culminating Experience Proposal forms must be on file in the Division of Graduate Studies the semester before registration. These 3 units M.A. students sign up for while working on the culminating experience/thesis/written creative project, which may be a collection of short stories, a group of poems, a novel or a play.  Enrollment is by permission number during priority registration/enrollment: you will be emailed the correct class and permission numbers to enroll in your section. You must enroll in this course or your will not receive credit for your thesis.

C W 893 Written M.F.A. Creative Work (6 units)
Prerequisite:  advancement to M.F.A. candidacy in Creative Writing; Advancement To Candidacy (ATC) and Culminating Experience Proposal forms must be on file in the Division of Graduate Studies the semester before registration. These 6 units M.F.A. students sign up for while working on the culminating experience/thesis/written creative project, which is expected to be a book length collection of short stories, or poems, or a novel or a play of publishable quality.  Enrollment is by permission number during priority registration/enrollment: you will be emailed the correct class and permission numbers to enroll in your section. You must enroll in this course or your will not receive credit for your thesis.

C W 899 Independent Study                             ARR
Prerequisite:  consent of instructor and a minimum GPA of 3.25.  A special study is planned, developed, and completed under the direction of a faculty member. This course may be taken for one, two, or three units. No priority enrollment; enrollment is by petition, and a copy of your unofficial SF State transcript. Independent Study forms are available online http://registrar.sfsu.edu/forms under Independent Study (699, 899). This form must be signed by the instructor you will be working with, and the department chair, and must be turned in with a copy of your unofficial transcript. Your instructor will give you a permit number once they have approved the 899 petition.  

Archived Class Schedules

• Fall 2024 Class Schedule
• Spring 2024 Class Schedule
• Fall 2023 Class Schedule
• Spring 2023 Class Schedule
• Fall 2022 Class Schedule
• Summer 2022 Class Schedule
• Spring 2022 Class Schedule
• Fall 2021 Class Schedule
• Spring 2021 Class Schedule
• Fall 2020 Class Schedule 
• Spring 2020 Class Schedule
• Fall 2019 Class Schedule
• Summer 2019 Class Schedule
• Spring 2019 Class Schedule
• Winter 2019 Class Schedule
• Fall 2018 Class Schedule
• Summer 2018 Class Schedule
• Spring 2018 Class Schedule
• Winter 2018 Class Schedule
• Fall 2017 Class Schedule