• Creative Writing

    If you love to read, think, analyze and discuss ideas, and/or write and publish your own work you're a natural Creative Writing major.

  • The Creative Writing Track of the English major is for people who want to write literature, as well as to read and study it. You’ll experiment to see how far you can push language, and to bring new meaning into the world. You’ll write things that have never yet been written, things that you never knew you could write.

    In our program, you’ll write to be read. You’ll get an instant audience in our writing workshops as you work on fiction, non-fiction, poetry, drama, and things less categorizable; and you’ll develop your craft by listening to, reading and talking about the works of your colleagues. You’ll work closely with your professors, all published writers and passionate teachers. In short, you will participate in a community of writers who share your creative spirit.

    Our graduates have gone on to publish novels, volumes of poetry, and plays. Because creative writing involves developing the skill of bringing ideas into language; you can also apply these skills, as our graduates have, in many professional settings, such as law, education, and business.

    To fulfill your major, along with our writing workshops, you’ll choose from our many English department courses in literary history, criticism and theory . Our program articulates fully with both Queens and York Colleges, so you will be able to transfer as juniors to either school, among the many other options for transfer. We’ll work with you along the way to help you identify the path that works for you.

    The Creative Writing program offers you many opportunities to get your work out to a broader public. We publish a literary magazine, The Lit, host a public Creative Writing “Readathon” and provide other venues for sharing your work. The Journalism program, which works closely with Creative Writing, publishes a newspaper, The Bridge. We also hold readings and talks featuring renowned writers, including those from our own faculty.

    Best of all, you’ll finish your degree with a body of writing, that will serve as a basis for you to continue on in whatever way you desire.

    Please do contact us with your questions, or to learn more!

    Director of English Major: Creative Writing Track
    Prof. Noam Scheindlin
    E-mail: nscheindlin@lagcc.cuny.edu

  • Creative Writing Faculty Publications and Accomplishments

    allia abdullah-matta–her do-si-do double chapbook, washed clean & blues politico was published by harlequin creatures (hcx) 2021. She has written critical essays on poets Jessica care Moore (The Fight & The Fiddle Furious Flower Poetry Center, 2020) and Dominique Christina (The Operating System & Liminal Lab, 2021) .

    Prof. Carrie Conners' new book of poems, Species of Least Concern, has just been published by Main Street Rag; another book, Laugh Lines: Humor, Genre and Political Critique in Late Twentieth Century American Poetry will be published in May by the University Press of Mississippi.

    A Pageant for Every Addiction is the name of Prof. Tom Fink’s new book, a collaboration with Maya D. Mason, published by Marsh Hawk Press.

    Prof. Kristen Gallagher’s short story, “This May Go Back Centuries” recently appeared in The Baffler. Prof. Gallagher has recently received a grant from the New York State Council on the Arts for her collaborative project with the filmmaker Tara Merenda Nelson.

    You can find many of Prof. Bethany Holmstrom's recent pieces on her website.

    Prof. Sonia Rodriguez has had lots of her short fiction published in various places recently, and you can find them all here.

    Three poems by Prof. Alice Rosenblitt-Lacy, will appear in the next issue of Frontiers: A Journal of Women’s Studies.

    Prof. Chris Schmidt has recently published two essays: “Fugitive Reds” in the Massachusetts Review, and “A Natural History of Cruising” in Fence. He has also published these poems and other texts: “Alice Was Bored” and “Quick Drag Shanty,” Marsh Hawk Review, Fall 2021; “Geographies IV-VII,” in the Denver Quarterly, Fall 2020; and “Concrete Dry,” Marsh Hawk Review, Fall 2019.

    Prof. Laura Tanenbaum has had several recent works published: three poems, one in Trampoline; one in Cleaver Magazine, and one in Aji; and an essay in Entropy.



  • In support of the LaGuardia’s mission to educate and graduate its students to become critical thinkers and socially responsible citizens, the College has undertaken a team approach toward advising, designed to support you in your major from orientation through graduation.

    Your Advising Team is made up of faculty, professional and peer advisors. They will guide you at every step during your college career. They are ready to help you:

    • Explore your major
    • Select introductory and advanced courses
    • Connect you with campus support services
    • Prepare an educational and career plan

    Visit the Advising page to learn more about when to get advised and how to prepare for an advising appointment, and check out the Advising Calendar for information sessions, events and more.


    Advisor Button

    Current Students
    Log in to My LaGuardia to review your Degree Audit to find out what classes to take. Have questions about using Degree Audit? Visit LaGuardia's Degree Audit page for tutorials and how-to guides.

    Prospective Students
    Review the curriculum.

    Please note: Students will be held to the program and degree requirements of the year that they enter the College, unless the student changes their major in a different academic year. In that case, the student will be held to the current year requirements as listed in the catalog. Learn more.

    Degree Map
    Use the Degree Map and DegreeWorks to assist in academic planning and creating your own graduation plan in ePortfolio. See a full list of Flexible Core courses on the Pathways page.

    For information about this program’s retention and graduation rate visit the Office of Institutional Research and Assessment website page.

    The following course sequence is recommended for new students.
    Current students should check their Degree Audit.

    First Year, Fall I 

    Course Number Course Name Fulfills Credits

    New Student Seminar
    Program Core

    ENA/ENC/ENG101
    English Composition I
    Required Core
    3
    ELL101
    Introduction to Language
    Flexible Core: Scientific World
    3
    HUA101
    Introduction to Art
    Program Core
    3
    SSY101
    General Psychology
    Program Core
    3
    Session Credits:
    12
    Total Credits:
    12


    First Year, Fall II

    Course Number Course Name Fulfills Credits
    ENG102
    Writing Through Literature Required Core
    3
    HUP101
    Introduction to Philosophy
    Flexible Core: Individual & Society
    3
    Session Credits:
    6
    Total Credits:
    18


    First Year, Spring I 

    Course Number Course Name Fulfills Credits
    ENN198
    Introduction to Creative Writing
    Program Core
    3
    Genre Elective
    Program Core
    3
    SSN187
    Urban Sociology
    Flexible Core: US Experience in its Diversity
    3
    HUA200
    Art of the 20th Century
    Flexible Core: Creative Expression
    3
    Session Credits:
    12
    Total Credits: 30


    Second Year, Fall I 

    Course Number Course Name Fulfills Credits

    Creative Writing Elective
    Program Core
    3

    Literature Survey Elective (first course)
    Program Core
    3
    HUN192 Art of Film Flexible Core: World Cultures
    3
    SSY230 Abnormal Psychology
    Flexible Core: Scientific World
    3
    Session Credits
    12
    Total Credits
    42


    Second Year, Fall II 

    Course Number Course Name Fulfills Credits
    MAT107
    Mathematics and the Modern World
    Required Core
    3

    Unrestricted Elective
    Program Core
    3
    Session Credits:
    6
    Total Credits:
    48


    Second Year, Spring I 

    Course Number Course Name Fulfills Credits

    English Elective
    Program Core
    3
    Literature Survey Elective (second course)
    Program Core
    3
    SCP140 Topics in Astronomy Required Core
    3
    ENG295
    World Literatures Written in English Program Core
    3
    SessionCredits
    12
    TotalCredits
    60


    For information about this program’s retention and graduation rate visit the Office of Institutional Research and Assessment website page.


    The Creative Writing Track leads to an Associate of Arts (AA) degree and is designed to allow graduating students to transfer easily to the Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) program at York College. Past majors have also transferred to a number of other institutions both inside and outside CUNY, including Hunter College, Baruch College, Queens College, City College, and New York University.


    Explore career possibilities on Career Connect.

    You love to read, and you love to think about what you read—not just what it means, but how it feels and how it’s made. You find yourself picking out passages from your favorite books and reading them out loud just for the joy of the language. Your friends and younger siblings ask you to tell them stories. You like poetry, and sometimes you write it. Unfamiliar words excite you. When you read something, you think about how you would have made it differently. You are the kind of person who has favorite characters in the novels you read—but also favorite sentences. You obsess over your blog, your Tumblr, your fanfics—finding the right words, thinking about how the themes and plots fit together, worrying about what order it makes sense to post them in. You keep a journal. When people speak, you notice the words they use. When you read something really exciting, it makes you want to write. Sometimes you stare at word so long, you’re not sure it’s a real word anymore. You write for pleasure. Your room is littered with books. You have noticed that most of these sentences are in the second person. There are things you really, really want to read, but no one has written them yet.


    Not all of these statements will be true of any aspiring writer. But if any of them are true for you, then you should consider choosing the Writing and Literature: Creative Writing Track as your major. The Creative Writing Track is a specialization within Writing and Literature: you’ll get the same firm grounding in literary criticism and analysis that LaGuardia’s English Department provides for its regular majors, but you’ll follow a curriculum designed to help you think through the problems of literature from the perspective of someone who wants to make literature, with a special emphasis on the classic literary genres and on creative writing workshops. There are also extracurricular activities, like student clubs and literary publications that will help you to meet other creative writers and gain experience in writing and editing outside the classroom.