Creative Writing
On this page:
Why Creative Writing
Everyone writes.
We’re social beings. We tweet. We blog. We post status updates. Send emails that describe and shape descriptions of our day-to-day life for friends, family, and colleagues.
We turn in papers and lab reports that meet our professors’ expectations. Perhaps we keep a journal to reflect on the pleasures and ironies of daily experiences that take us by surprise.
Everyone writes.
But sometimes we put words on a page and we’re not sure what they are.
The Creative Writing program can give you a space to to figure out what kind of writing you want to do. Take a class. Or take a bunch of classes. Let us help you to discover what your writing might become.
Our Certificate
Open to all majors, the Creative Writing Certificate is designed to support young writers. Our distinctive mentorship program encourages conversations between faculty and students, between peer writers, as well as the many guest writers who visit UB each semester in our nationally regarded Exhibit X Fiction and Poetics Plus Series.
The Creative Writing Certificate program particularly invites students from outside the Humanities to take our courses. Whether you’re studying Architecture or Engineering, Business and Management, Arts or Dance, or programs in Applied, Computer, Cognitive, or Pharmaceutical Sciences, our faculty can find a way to work with you and your creative interests.
Students earn the certificate by completing 6 courses, starting with ENG 350SEM Introduction to Writing Poetry and Fiction, which is a prerequisite. A full list of requirements for the certificate can be found here.
The certificate is awarded concurrently upon completion of all program requirements and completion of a Bachelor’s Degree at the University at Buffalo. It cannot be awarded as a stand alone certificate either before or after the student has earned a Bachelor's Degree.
Our Literary Magazine
Students involved in the Creative Writing Certificate edit and produce NAME, our annual Undergraduate Literary Magazine. NAME publishes creative fiction and poetry from currently enrolled UB undergraduates. Its primary mission is to encourage and foster a thriving and vital community of undergraduate creative writers at UB. NAME was co-founded in 1998 by Jessica Smith with Matt Chambers, Rebecca Stigge, and Chris Fritton. The faculty advisor is Professor Christina Milletti.
Millonzi Distinguished Honors Scholarship
Millonzi Distinguished Honors Scholarship
One four-year scholarship covering all resident tuition and fees, minus any other aid received, is available to an undergraduate Honors student in the creative or performing arts. To be considered, students must have an unweighted high school average of at least 90 and a combined SAT critical reading and math score of at least 1230 or an ACT score of at least 27. A personal interview and a separate scholarship application are required. Contact the Honors College to request an application.
For the Honors College, link to the following:
http://honors.buffalo.edu/contact/index.php
How Do I Apply?
Contact the Director of the Creative Writing Program with any questions.
Incoming Students: Apply to the University at Buffalo
Apply to UB. When applying, you should indicate your intended major on the application form.
Current Students: Request to Add the Certificate
Submit the CAS Major/Minor Change Request form to request one of the following changes to your academic plan:
- Add a major, minor, or certificate in the College of Arts and Sciences
- Drop any major
- Drop any minor
