Certificate Program in Creative Writing
Writing is generally a solitary activity. Allow the Certificate Program in Creative Writing to provide you with a network of new and experienced writers and skilled, supportive writing instructors. Improve your creative writing craft as you draft and present for workshop critiques. While writing and revising several pieces you will have the opportunity to develop a habit of regularly reading published and unpublished work as you focus your writing. Gain exposure to and practice in additional genres as you develop your personal writing style, and learn how to market your finished work.
Learn from the best
The instructors of this program are all practicing writers and bring a wide variety of experience to their teaching. Among them are bestselling authors, award winners and members of professional and creative writing programs.
Designed for people like you
New and experienced writers will benefit from this program. You will have opportunities to work closely with instructors and fellow students, developing valuable creative and professional communities for the future, while challenging and nurturing your own personal voices and projects in new and engaging ways.
Courses in this program can be taken individually or as part of the certificate program. To earn the certificate, participants must complete a minimum of 16.5 units—12.5 units (minimum) of required coursework and 4 units (minimum) of elective coursework.
| UNITS | F | W | SP | SU | ||
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| REQUIRED COURSES | Tools of the Writer's Craft | 2.5 | 
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| Advanced Fiction: Writer's Craft Workshop | 2.5 |
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| Reading Contemporary Fiction as a Writer | 2.5 |
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| Creative Nonfiction Workshop | 2.5 |
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| Novel Craft Workshop | 2.5 |
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| Poetry Workshop | 2.5 |
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| Screenwriting Workshop | 2.5 |
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| ELECTIVE COURSES | Dialogue and Point of View | 2 |
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| Metaphor and Scene | 2 |
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| Structure and Style | 2.5 |
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| The Tomales Bay Workshops | 3.5 |
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F=Fall W=Winter SP=Spring SU=Summer;
Schedules subject to change
Classroom format |
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Important note: To successfully complete the requirements of this certificate program, you must take Short Fiction Workshop twice. Also, choose one of the following alternate genre courses to apply toward the required coursework: Creative Nonfiction Workshop, Poetry Workshop, Screenwriting Workshop or Novel Craft Workshop.
Required Courses
Tools of the Writer's Craft
2.5 quarter units academic credit, X410.7.
When writers move past the initial inspiration the act and the art of writing gives them, they often find themselves developing an interest in craft, and craft is the emphasis of this workshop. How do we develop character and reveal plot without resorting to dull exposition? Render autobiographical incidents into useful fictional material? Reveal character motivation while maintaining plot momentum? Subtly but effectively sound thematic concerns? With the help of published examples and a discussion of how these writers are effective, weekly assignments give you opportunities to put theory into practice. These assignments are discussed in a workshop forum, which further enhances your ability to discern what goes into a piece of effective writing.
This course is not currently scheduled.
Advanced Fiction: Writer's Craft Workshop
2.5 quarter units academic credit, X410.8.
You've learned basic tools for fiction writing and are ready to tackle more advanced writing techniques. Hone and finesse your writing skills by exploring point of view and sense of place, crafting a scene, using narration techniques and creating compelling dialogue. Discuss effective ways to infuse manuscripts with your personal style. Enhance your weekly writing assignments through guided exercises and workshop discussions of student and published work. Learn to critically read the writing of others and how to respond with thoughtful feedback. Suggestions and encouragement are emphasized to help you build confidence and push your writing to the next level.
Note: Short Fiction Workshop is the new title for the revised course Advanced Fiction: Writer's Craft Workshop.
Prerequisites:
Tools of the Writer's Craft, or equivalent. Basic writing skills, some writing experience and a good command of the English language.
Sections of this course open for enrollment:
- Short Fiction Workshop starts January 19, 2010
Reading Contemporary Fiction as a Writer
2.5 quarter units academic credit, X410.5.
The best writers are the best readers. They
read everything. Pulitzer prize-winning novelist Richard Ford said: “It’s a
short step from admiring to emulating; reading good writing can move us to try
to duplicate it. And close study can help teach us how to duplicate it.”
Read and think critically as you analyze, dissect and deconstruct fiction
produced by a variety of contemporary writers. Discover how reading stimulates
thought, generates ideas, invites discussion and inspires your own writing.
Sections of this course open for enrollment:
- Reading Contemporary Fiction as a Writer starts February 3, 2010
Creative Nonfiction Workshop
2.5 quarter units academic credit, X410.20.
One of the most popular and marketable writing genres is literary nonfiction, also often called creative nonfiction. Explore what it is and how it differs from conventional journalism and from pure fiction. Study examples from the work of accomplished authors like Annie Dillard, John McPhee and Peter Matthiessen to gain insight into this genre. Learn the basic tools of literary nonfiction through in-class exercises and outside writing assignments as well as discussions on dialogue, setting, character and narrative thread. You'll also receive recommendations on how to conduct interviews and gather primary data. The course will cover how to combine the journalist's eye for detail and need for accuracy with the novelist's sense of storytelling and love of language, and guide you in using literary skills in your nonfiction writing.
This course is not currently scheduled.
Novel Craft Workshop
2.5 quarter units academic credit, X410.25.
Novel writing may be an exciting proposition, but-as any published novelist will tell you-it takes a lot of discipline and hard work. Use the workshop format of this course to gain the discipline and skills needed to develop your craft as a novel writer. Hone your skills through an exploration of point of view, sense of place, techniques of dramatization and narration, character and dialogue. Discover how your personal application of these techniques and your personal style are reflected in your manuscripts. Examine the structural considerations of a novel, focusing on large and small narrative arcs and exploring the relationship of scene to chapter and chapter to story. Reading published examples and learning how to critically analyze the work of others supplements the weekly writing assignments and workshop sessions. Bring your manuscript-or your idea for a novel-and expand your writing skills in an encouraging and solutions-oriented environment.
Sections of this course open for enrollment:
- Novel Craft Workshop starts January 28, 2010
Poetry Workshop
2.5 quarter units academic credit, X410.21.
Even T. S. Eliot and e. e. cummings didn't get it right the first time. Crafting poetry that's compelling, effective and resonant takes hard work and the ability to critically evaluate your drafts along the way. In this hands-on workshop, you'll examine the elements that distinguish poetry from prose. You and your classmates will workshop student poetry in each session and make revisions based on critiques. By studying published examples, you'll improve your use of image, metaphor and symbolism, your execution of mechanics such as line breaks, pacing, rhythm and sound as well as work on making meaning and using poetic forms. Use this workshop to propel your poetry toward greater discovery and, ultimately, publication.
This course is not currently scheduled.
Screenwriting Workshop
2.5 quarter units academic credit, X410.16.
Receive an introduction to the basics of narrative film and television film writing. Learn standard formatting, story structure and scene development. Study examples of various genres and perform guided exercises and assignments to develop familiarity with these forms including long and three-act. Read scenes from successful scripts, watch the filmed versions of these written scenes and engage in discussion about them. Workshop your original scenes, as well as learn to structure and outline longer form works. No previous screenwriting experience necessary.
This course is not currently scheduled.
Elective Courses
Dialogue and Point of View
2 quarter units academic credit, X410.24.
Strong dialogue and point of view are vital elements in successful creative writing. Learn how to make characters "talk" in your writing. Discover how to avoid the pitfalls of overused adverbs, characters who speak in clichés or lack emotion, and long paragraphs of dialogue-as-exposition. Use published examples to examine then practice the forms effective dialogue can take. Also, examine point of view and how to use it as the lens through which readers see the action in your story. Use hands-on writing exercises to explore the benefits and pitfalls of first person, third person and omniscient narrators. Learn techniques to create effective, believable voices for your point-of-view characters. Understand what works (and what doesn't) in your own writing. This course is ideal for fiction and nonfiction writers, but the point of view portion is especially beneficial for poets as well.
This course is not currently scheduled.
Metaphor and Scene
2 quarter units academic credit, X410.23.
Effective use of metaphor and elements of scene are two indispensable skills for any writer of poetry, fiction or creative nonfiction.
The building blocks of every story, whether that story is one page long or four hundred, are scenes. With the help of published examples and writing assignments, discover what goes into creating an effective scene, and how scenes add up to poems and stories. If you're working on a novel, you will understand how scenes transition into chapters and longer story arcs. Explore character and character needs, sense of place and point of view, and spend some time sharpening your dialogue skills.
In addition, you'll examine and discuss metaphor and other figures of speech, including metaphor's cousin, the objective correlative. Examine everyday objects and activities and learn to activate them as vehicles for larger themes and underlying meaning. Develop a deeper understanding of how to make your work resonate on two levels: the practical reality of your character's lives and the larger themes you are addressing.
This course is not currently scheduled.
Structure and Style
2.5 quarter units academic credit, X410.22.
Structure
and style are intimately connected in all forms of creative writing.
Learn how to identify and shape your own unique style and structure
when writing in any genre.
Explore ways to find each piece
of writings' most effective structure. Consider where and how a
particular piece might begin and end, and understand that creative
writing is not necessarily linear. Learn about building tension,
creating momentum, compelling the reader to continue and leaving the
reader satisfied (but wanting more) at the end.
Also, focus on the writing process by learning to improve the way you arrange words into lines, sentences, paragraphs and more. Learn what works and what doesn't in your own writing and how to organize words to clearly express thoughts and ideas. Work on English usage and style, and examine published samples as a means to expand your repertoire of possibilities. In this course, you'll gain a greater appreciation of the art of writing and build confidence in your ability to move your writing to the next level.
This course is not currently scheduled.
The Tomales Bay Workshops
3.5 quarter units academic credit, X400.31.
University of
California, Davis Creative Writing Program
October 21-25, 2009
Albert and Elaine Borchard
Foundation Keynote
Speaker:
Robert Hass, U.S. Poet Laureate (1995-1997) and
Pulitzer Prize Winning Poet
Tuition: $1,550 (includes the $150
application fee).
Space is limited, so please apply as early as
possible. The deadline is September 15, 2009, or until full.
Four days of working with an established author, receiving constructive feedback and generating new material.
What Past Participants Are Saying
Download 2009 brochure
(650 KB)
Download 2009 application
(68 KB)
Download 2009 schedule
(1 MB)
The Tomales Bay Workshops bring aspiring writers into close community with nationally-known poets and writers, and respected editors and agents. Workshops limited to 12 participants ensure an intimate setting. In addition, participants have the opportunity to purchase one-on-one tutorials with a publishing professional.
The workshops are held at the Marconi Conference Center in Marshall, California, on the eastern shore of pristine Tomales Bay, just north of San Francisco in Marin County. The Marconi Center sits on a wooded hillside that overlooks serene water and mountains beyond. The center offers comfortable rooms, excellent food and inviting hiking trails. Come to relax, learn and explore.
The Workshops
There will be six workshops, which meet each morning for four consecutive days. Workshop are:
- Fiction: Imagery, Mystery and Description in the Short Story with Mary Gaitskill. Read and discuss established short story writers, past and present. Discussions focus on how writers may use words to create non-verbal imagery with layers of meaning and/or feeling through which we sense the hidden and irrational lives of their characters and stories, how authors blend the primitive with the intellectual, how words may be used to describe or at least to glimpse the indescribable. Writing exercises are assigned.
- Personal Narrative: Finding the Story in History: Shaping Fact into Art with Fenton Johnson. Asked to explain Zen Buddhism in ten words, Suzuki Roshi, being a good Zen Buddhist, took two: "Everything changes." At the end of writing the essay, at the end of reading it, you or your reader will be that much closer to your death. How do we embody that constant change in this most abstract of media? In this workshop, you will look at how we take the facts--of our lives, of our research, or both--and shape them into a storytelling arc. Sometimes that arc rises to a climax in a predictable way, at other times we create movement through vivid imagery, tone, pacing or structural devices, ranging from page breaks to the insertion of material quoted from interviews or other writers. We will look at opening paragraphs of classic essays and memoirs whose narrative strategies vary from fireworks (e.g., James Baldwin) to contemplation (e.g., Joan Didion, Thomas Merton). Along the way, we will make time to discuss the spirit that moves us, since the energy setting our writing in motion must finally become the energy that sustains the work.
- Poetry:
- Fiction and Memoir:
- Fiction:
Please indicate your workshop preference on your application form.
Publishing Consultants
Participants will have the opportunity to confer privately with publishing industry professionals. Acceptance for these sessions will be determined on a first-come, first-served basis. There is a $100 fee for each half-hour session.
The Albert and Elaine Borchard Foundation Keynote Speaker
Robert Hass, U.S. Poet Laureate from 1995-1997, is a poet of great eloquence, clarity and force, whose work is rooted in the landscapes of his native Northern California. His most recent book is a collection of poems entitled Time and Materials, which won both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. Widely read and much honored, Hass brings the same kind of energy found in his poetry to his work as an essayist, translator and activist on behalf of poetry, literacy and the environment. He has published many books of poetry, including Field Guide, Praise, Human Wishes, and Sun Under Wood, as well as a book of essays on poetry, Twentieth Century Pleasures. Hass has also translated many of the works of Nobel Prize-winning Polish poet, Czeslaw Milosz. He is a recipient of a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship, twice the National Book Critics’ Circle Award (1984 and 1997), and the Yale Series of Younger Poets in 1973 award. Hass is a professor of English at UC Berkeley.
The Tomales Bay Workshops Faculty
Mary
Gaitskill
is the author
of the novels Two Girls, Fat and Thin
and Veronica, which was nominated
for
the National Book Award, the National Critic’s Circle Award
and the Los Angeles Times Book
Award. She is
also the author of the story collections Bad
BehaviorBecause They Wanted To,
a PEN/Faulkner Award nominee. Her story “Secretary”
was the basis for the
feature film of the same name. Her stories and essays have appeared in The
New Yorker, Harper’s, Esquire, Best
American Short Stories and The O.
Henry Prize Stories. In 2002 Gaitskill received a Guggenheim
Fellowship for
fiction. Her latest story collection released in March 2009.
Fenton Johnson is the author of the novels Crossing the River and Scissors, Paper, Rock as well as the memoir Geography of the Heart. His most recent book, Keeping Faith: A Skeptic's Journey among Christian and Buddhist Monks, received a Kentucky Literary Award and a Lambda Literary Award. Johnson has served as a contributor to Harper's and the New York Times Magazine. He is the recipient of numerous awards, among them a James Michener Fellowship from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships for fiction and nonfiction, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Johnson is an associate professor in the Creative Writing Program at the University of Arizona.
Dana Levin’s In the Surgical Theatre received nearly every award given to first books and emerging poets, including the American Poetry Review/Honickman First Book Prize. Levin’s poetry has appeared in many anthologies and magazines, including Poetry, Conduit and The Kenyon Review. She has received fellowships and awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, PEN, the Witter Bynner Foundation, the Library of Congress, the Rona Jaffe Foundation and the Whiting Foundation. A 2007 Guggenheim Fellow and poetry teacher for more than 17 years, Levin chairs the Creative Writing and Literature Department at the College of Santa Fe.
Robin
Romm
is the author
of two critically acclaimed books, her collection of stories The
Mother Garden and The
Mercy Papers, a memoir.
The
Mother Garden was a finalist for the PEN and the Northern
California
Independent Bookseller's Book of the Year awards.
The
Mercy Papers received a cover
review
by the New York Times Book Review,
calling it "a furious blaze of a book."
Romm is assistant professor of creative
writing at the College of Santa Fe.
Pam Houston is the author of two collections of linked short stories, Cowboys are My Weakness, which was the winner of the 1993 Western States Book Award and has been translated into nine languages, and Waltzing the Cat, which won the Willa Award for Contemporary Fiction. Her stories have been selected for volumes of Best American Short Stories, The O. Henry Awards, The Pushcart Prize, and her story The Best Girlfriend You Never Had appeared in Best American Short Stories of the Century. Her first novel, Sight Hound, was published in January 2005. She is the Director of Creative Writing at the University of California, Davis, and teaches at many writers conferences and festivals in the U.S. and abroad. When not in Davis, she lives in Colorado at 9,000 feet above sea level near the headwaters of the Rio Grande. For more information on Houston visit www.pamhouston.net.
The Format
Morning workshops offer participants the opportunity to work closely with an established writer, to receive constructive feedback from peers, to spend four intensive days dedicated to creative work and to generate new material.
Afternoons will be devoted to craft talks by conference presenters and panels comprised of visiting editors, agents and members of the larger Davis writing community.
Evenings will be devoted to readings by conference presenters and UC Davis creative writing faculty.
The Setting
The workshops will be held at the Marconi Conference Center in Marshall, California, on the eastern shore of Tomales Bay. The conference center, located on a California State Historic Park, sits on a wooded hillside that overlooks serene water and the mountains beyond. Inviting hiking trails offer a chance to see white fallow deer among the foliage or venture down to the coastline where locals harvest oysters.
Accommodations
The Marconi Conference Center provides comfortable lodging nestled in the pine trees. Double or triple rooms are available. Each smoke-free room has a private bath, study desk and wireless Internet access. Rooms are filled on a first-come, first-served basis. There are a limited number of single rooms available for a supplemental fee of $800. Disability-accessible and equipped rooms are available. Please let us know ahead of time if you require these accommodations. For additional information, visit http://www.marconiconference.org/index.htm.
Participants should bring comfortable walking shoes, as many Marconi Center walkways are not paved and run over small hills. Also, please bring warm clothes, in case the fog rolls in.
Albert and Elaine Borchard Foundation Fellowships
Three Albert and Elaine Borchard Foundation Fellowships will be awarded to workshop participants (one each for poetry, fiction and nonfiction/personal essay). Fellowships cover the cost of tuition, room and board, but do not cover transportation or the $150 application fee. To apply for a fellowship, you must fill out the conference application form, pay the application fee and include a cover letter and writing sample (10 pages of fiction or nonfiction/personal essay, or five poems). Indicate that you want fellowship consideration on the top left of the cover letter and on the application form. Please apply in one genre only. Deadline for fellowship consideration is April 20, and awards will be announced by mid May.
Professional Consultations
Participants will have the opportunity to confer privately with publishing industry professionals. Acceptance for these sessions will be determined on a first-come, first-served basis and space is limited. There is a $100 fee for each half-hour consultation. Accepted participants may sign up for one or more publishing consultation(s) when they submit the required fees and enrollment documents; these documents will contain detailed sign-up and submission instructions.
This
year’s
consultants are Jonathan Bohr Heinen, senior editor of Iron
Horse Literary
Review; Jay Schaefer, editor at large for Workman Publishing;
and Elizabeth
Wales of Wales Literary Agency in Seattle. Consultants' bios.
Requirements
Acceptance to the program is based upon review of a writing sample (10 pages of fiction or nonfiction/personal essay, or five poems). Applications are reviewed on a first-come, first-served basis, and you will be notified of acceptance. Please note: Those who have attended the Tomales Bay Writers' Workshops during a prior year do not need to submit a writing sample.
Fees
Enrollment in the Tomales Bay Workshops is $1,550 ($1,400 tuition + $150 application fee) and covers one four-day workshop, admittance to all panels and readings, opening and closing banquets, all meals (dinner on Wednesday; three meals Thursday through Sunday; breakfast on Monday) and lodging for five nights. Vegetarian meals are available upon request.
The application fee of $150 must be submitted with your application and writing sample. If you are not accepted, your application fee will be returned. If you are accepted, you will be notified of your workshop placement and asked to confirm your intention to attend by submitting a minimum deposit of $700. The remaining balance of $700 is due July 15.
Supplemental fees are due July 15. These include:
- The single room supplement ($800)
- A private session with publishing professional ($100)
- The optional UC Davis fee for 3.5 units of academic credit ($180)
Please note: There are a limited number of consultation sessions and single rooms available, and they will be reserved on a first-come, first-served basis. Please submit any optional fees as early as possible after acceptance into the program to guarantee your request. Full participation in the Tomales Bay Workshops and events is expected. No discounts are available for lodging or meals on your own.
If space is still available after August 1, applications must include the full payment of $1,550, which includes the $150 application fee. All fees will be fully refunded if applicant is not accepted.
Cancellation Policy
If you cancel by August 15, 2009, your tuition will be refunded minus a $30 processing fee and the $150 application fee. Once you have enrolled, the $150 application fee is not refundable. Refunds for cancellations made after August 15 are contingent upon filling your place and will be made only if your place is filled. In the unlikely event that we must cancel a workshop and you do not wish to transfer to another workshop, you will receive a full refund.
For more information, email us at tomales.bay.workshops@gmail.com
Getting to the Marconi Center
For driving directions and a map, visit http://www.marconiconference.org/maps.htm.
This course is not currently scheduled.
Free info Sessions
Attend a Writing Information Session to learn more about this program.
Resources
The Sacramento Poetry Center is a non-profit community organization dedicated to supporting poetry and the literary arts in the Sacramento region.
Sutterwriters are regional-based groups of writers whose focus is on the art of writing as a form of healing.
