UG Programs Creative Writing Concentration
Looking for information on how to apply to creative writing workshops, regardless of major/minor status? Click here.
Important: Due to the high number of applications for the creative writing workshops, the Department cannot guarantee acceptance into the three workshops required for this program. Students may not declare the Creative Writing Concentration until they have completed the third workshop in their chosen genre.
Enrollment in any creative writing workshop is by application only. Before the quarter begins, professors provide handouts (available in 149 Kaplan and online) outlining the procedures and deadlines for submitting writing samples. Generally, the submission deadline is two to three weeks before the beginning of the quarter. You may apply to more than one workshop, but you must inform each instructor that you are doing so.
Instructors will notify students of their acceptance into a workshop via email when the quarter begins. Students accepted to a workshop will be given a PTE number on the first day of class to enroll.
For additional information, please write to creativewriting@english.ucla.edu.
Preparatory Coursework
- English Composition 3: English Composition, Rhetoric, and Language
This is an introductory course focusing on fundamental writing skills. It is administered by UCLA Writing Programs, located in 146 Kaplan. If you received a score of 4 or 5 on either of the Composition & Literature or Language & Composition AP tests or scored 5-7 in the Language-English (native) IB exam, then you will receive credit for English Composition 3 and 8 units toward graduation. - English 4W/4HW/4WS: Critical Reading and Writing
This course introduces students to literary analysis, through close reading and written exposition on selected literary works. - English 10A: Literatures in English to 1700
English 10B: Literatures in English, 1700-1850
English 10C: Literatures in English, 1850-Present
The English 10 Series is a foundation for your study of English Literature at UCLA. This yearlong series is a survey of major writers and genres, with emphasis on tools for literary analysis such as close reading, argumentation, historical and social context, and critical writing. Students should take the 10 series in sequence early in their career at UCLA.
The Major
10 Upper-Division Courses
- All courses used to fulfill requirements for the English major must be 4 or 5 units and taken for a letter grade.
- Seminars may not be applied toward Historical or Breadth requirements.
- When choosing classes to fulfill requirements for the major, students are expected to select those courses that best reflect their own interests and simultaneously contribute toward a coherent program in literary studies.
4 Historical (one course in each period)
Literatures in English before 1500
Literatures in English 1500-1700
Literatures in English 1700-1850
Literatures in English 1850-Present
2 Breadth (one course is required in two of the three areas below)
Gender, Race, Ethnicity, Disability and Sexuality Studies
Imperial, Transnational, and Postcolonial Studies
Genre Studies, Interdisciplinary Studies, Critical Theory
3 Creative Writing (in the same genre)
Students pursuing the concentration must specialize in either Poetry (English 136) or Short Story (English 137). English M138 is a variable-genre course and DOES NOT apply towards the concentration.
•Enrollment in any creative writing course is by application only.
•No student may enroll in more than one creative writing workshop per quarter.
•No more than two workshops may be completed with the same instructor.
1 Senior English Seminar or English Capstone Seminar