Creative Writing Community

The Creative Writing Community offers students incredible opportunities to develop their craft in the company of peers, to perform their work in community settings, participate in internships, and work under the guidance of award-winning, supportive teachers.

The creative writing community at Washington State University is a vibrant part of the English Department as well as the larger campus and the public. The Creative Writing Major brings students together in the study of writing poetry, fiction and creative nonfiction. Students also have the option to pursue a Creative Writing Minor and two Creative Writing certificates: one in editing and publishing and one in creative writing for film and media production.

Our faculty members, all well published working writers and scholars, nurture young writers from beginning-level craft classes on to advanced workshops. Students and faculty and others from the community share new work and support each other through monthly Open Mics and collaborate with one another via internships, clubs, and other on-campus organizations to host literary events and publish journals including LandEscapes and Blood Orange Review.

For more information contact Interim Director of Creative Writing, Lauren Westerfield, at lauren.westerfield@wsu.edu.

Blood Orange Review

Founded in 2006 as an “inclusive space in contemporary literature”, Blood Orange Review arrived at WSU in 2015 with founding editor and creative writing faculty member Bryan Fry. Today, BOR is one of the longest continually running online literary magazines and remains a sought-after publishing platform for emerging and established writers and visual artists, as well as a teaching tool for the department. BOR is edited by creative writing faculty and assisted by undergraduate interns in fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, marketing, web editing, and design.

LandEscapes

LandEscapes provides a unique opportunity for students to work at a professional publication on both sides of the industry—the business side and the artistic side–and strives to uphold and spotlight the creative excellence that Washington State University has to offer by showcasing the full spectrum of student work in the arts—literature, the fine arts, and music.

WSU Crimson Review

WSU Crimson Review is a student-founded and led literary review journal at Washington State University, dedicated to “uplifting marginalized voices in literature.” Student editors and writers at Crimson Review compose reviews to uplift new (debut) and historically marginalized voices in literature and publishing in various categories. The review’s mission is to “provide WSU students (both undergraduate and graduate students” from various majors with hands-on experience in editing and publishing book reviews, connecting with publishers, and finding their next favorite read.”

Ink and Pen Creative Writing Club

Ink and Pen Creative Writing Club is an online gathering space for writers enrolled in Global Campus courses and degree programs. Find community, writing prompts, resources, guest speaker events, and more: Ink and Pen Creative Writing Club.

EcoArts on the Palouse

EcoArts on the Palouse is a student-and-community-centric project that features exhibits of contemporary art works in many media and forms. Our mission is to provide a lens onto the shared ecologies of overlooked wild edge spaces in the grassy Palouse biome and to explore how situated creative making may influence human relation to the land, water, and other species.

Open Mic

Students, faculty and others from the community share new work and support each other through monthly Open Mics held in various locations on campus and in downtown Pullman. Check the Open Mic page, updated regularly, for event times and venues as well as special guests and prizes. Special thanks to our community partners and sponsors at Cougs for Recovery.