Humanistic Studies Minor

Creative Writing Specialization

Creative writing has long been a core component of MICA’s undergraduate curriculum. Each year we offer several workshop-style seminars in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, screenwriting, and graphic narrative.

MICA students who elect to minor in creative writing will complete our first-year humanities requirement (Ways of Writing), at least three writing workshops, and two additional electives in either creative writing or literature. Minors also work closely with a faculty advisor on a senior-year thesis project. Past thesis projects have included poetry collections, short stories and novel excerpts, personal essays, comics, and screenplays.

Our faculty includes:

Mikita Brottman
Amy Eisner
Ralph Hubbell
Paul Jaskunas
Sara Lautman
Paul Long
Joseph Martin
Jamie Nash
Rod Smith

Numerous graduates of our college have gone on to publish books, some of which they began writing in classes at MICA. Recent alumni include Ingrid Burrington, Kenyatta A. C. Hinkle, Camille Gomera Tavarez, and ND Stevenson.

We often host writers to give readings and visit with our students. Recent visitors have included Edward Carey, Sheila Heti, Stuart Kestenbaum, Gary Shteyngart, and David Simon.

Our students also have an opportunity to gain practical editorial and publication design experience by joining the staff of Full Bleed, a journal devoted to the visual and literary arts. Produced by participants in Publishing Culture, the journal comes out in print and online once a year in the spring.

Graduating MICA seniors are eligible to submit work for the Annual Ginsberg Prize. Named after the poet Allen Ginsberg, this 500-dollar prize honors a single student’s literary accomplishments.

Students with questions about the creative writing minor, course offerings, Full Bleed, or the Ginsberg Prize, are encouraged to contact Paul Jaskunas at pjaskunas@mica.edu.

Featured Course

Reading/Writing Graphic Narratives

This advanced course is designed for students who are interested in contemporary literature that uses both words and pictures. Students discuss assigned works to create and workshop their own process-driven comics. Readings include five full-length comics. These works are chosen specifically to depart from graphic novels, while representing a range of formats present in the last 30 years of comics publishing. Cultural criticism and comics theory as it applies to the texts are explored. Email Sara Lautman at slautman@mica.edu.