Living-Learning Community – Creative Writing Program

Be Part of the UA Creative Writing Living-Learning Community!

For those who love to read and write and want to be immersed in the vibrant literary life of UA’s campus from day one, the Creative Writing Living-Learning Community in Harris Hall offers a chance to work and build a common life alongside fellow writers and those interested in the liberal arts. You’ll be part of a unique first-year composition sequence taught by creative writing faculty that will integrate fiction and poetry into the study of expository writing.

The English department is home to a large, accomplished faculty of writers, one of the older undergraduate creative writing programs in the country, and houses a premier Master of Fine Arts graduate program that attracts some of our most promising young writers.

We host established and emerging visiting authors throughout the year for talks, readings, and master classes, and our new Student Writers Guild is poised to become an active part of the campus arts scene. As a member of our Living-Learning Community, you’ll have an inside track to these and other special opportunities, all while being part of a supportive, fun, group of like-minded peers who will very likely become lifelong friends.

The community features common classes, peer mentors, a rich campus literary culture, and faculty in residence.

Eligibility

The living-learning community is open to all incoming students.

Where You Will Live

The Creative Writing Living-Learning community will make it’s home in Harris Hall, a dorm just down the road from Morgan Hall, home of the UA English Department. Harris features an updated kitchen area (new for 2017) and comfortable communal spaces. Many students choose to live in traditional dorms like Harris over newer suite-style buildings because they get to know their neighbors and love the common life that is forged there, and this is why we’ve chosen Harris to be our home.

In addition, the College of Arts & Sciences Parker-Adams LLC also resides in Harris, and together we look forward to students having a uniquely rich and meaningful experience. So join a group of like-minded peers from across the country who will convene at Harris Hall to study, work, play, and learn together and make together a first-year college experience to remember.

What You Will Study

While being part of the Creative Writing Living-Learning Community will offer many unique opportunities, chief of among them for those who still need to take First-Year Writing will be a dedicated section that integrates your creative interests into the study of composition.

EN 101-077 Living Learning Community—Creative Writing

Our Business is to Create…

While English 101, the first in a two-course sequence, introduces students to college-level expository writing, critical reading, basic citation, and the rhetorical tools needed to participate successfully in the University of Alabama discourse community, this class approaches that material with an eye towards students interested in writing creatively and learning more about practicing their art. As a learning community, our business will be to create. Business? Old English bisignes (Northumbrian) “care, anxiety, occupation,” from bisig “careful, anxious, busy, occupied, diligent.” We are going to make writing our business, and we will accomplish this by reading like writers and seeing how writers create.

Students can expect 4 formal papers, 10 written responses, and a myriad of daily work exercises; however, in addition to our classroom community, this class provides exposure to a larger community of writers both at UA and those not affiliated with our campus. Students can expect to attend four sanctioned events, readings or master classes as part of their overall grade.

As a learning community, our business will be to create. Create? Latin creatus, past participle of creare “to make, bring forth, produce, beget,” related to crescere “arise, grow.”

The UA Creative Writing/Department of English Community

Questions?

For questions about the program, the living-learning community, or to schedule a meeting when you’re next on campus, contact John Estes, Director of Undergraduate Creative Writing, at jestes@ua.edu or (205) 348-0495.