The Creative Writing Program at UNC
The undergraduate Creative Writing Program at UNC-Chapel Hill is-and has long been-one of the best in the country. Its first-rate faculty and students have published widely, won many prizes, and played a major role in shaping the contemporary literature of North Carolina, the South, and the nation.
The fact that other schools in the state university system (UNC-Greensboro, N.C. State University, and UNC-Wilmington) offer graduate writing programs has challenged Carolina to concentrate on excellence for undergraduates. There are over 250 creative writing programs in the United States, mostly for students at the masters' level, but very few offer as much breadth, variety, and professionalism at the college level as UNC-Chapel Hill has for decades.
In the words of Doris
Betts, recently-retired Distinguished Professor of English and mainstay
of the Creative Writing Program for decades, "When the Harvard faculty
was considering hiring Nabokov to teach literature, one professor objected
that such an appointment would be like hiring the elephants to teach zoology.
Fortunately, Carolina's English Department has embraced its writers and
we, like elephants, never forget. The staff of dedicated novelists, poets,
and non-fiction writers has had a congenial professional history here,
in an atmosphere that has encouraged many young writers and rewarded many
readers. During my 35 years on campus, the program has grown larger and
more varied, but without losing its selectivity and without weakening
its focus on genuine talent."
The lively future of Creative Writing at Carolina is assured, but we continue to rely on support from beyond the Department of English and UNC-Chapel Hill. If you would like to make a contribution to the Creative Writing Program -- for general or particular purposes -- or would like more information, including the annual Newsletter of the Creative Writing Program, please contact:
Bland
Simpson
Director- Creative Writing Program
Department of English
Greenlaw Hall, CB #3520
UNC
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3520
Phone: (919)
962-5481
Fax: (919) 962-3520