The Creative Writing Program will give several of our most talented senior English majors whose emphasis is creative writing the opportunity to write a creative thesis for consideration of Honors in English. Our goal is to help such students envision and complete a substantial project that will serve as the capstone of their writing careers at Penn.
Students are eligible to apply if a) they will be seniors in the fall of 2009, b) are declared as an English major with a Creative Writing emphasis, and c) have at least a 3.7 GPA in the major.
Students who wish to be considered must submit to Gregory Djanikian, Director of Creative Writing, a 500-word proposal outlining the scope and ambitions of the project, as well as a sample of writing (in the genre of the proposed project) of no more than 15 pages. Hard copies of both submissions must arrive at the Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing at 3808 Walnut Street by October 5.
The Creative Writing Program will choose candidates for Honors sometime before pre-registration in late October. Those chosen will be urged to begin their projects before the second semester, and in the spring will either a) take a creative writing course in the appropriate genre, in which case the faculty member teaching the workshop will serve as the thesis advisor, or b) arrange for an English 199 (Independent Study) with a faculty member who will serve as thesis advisor. Theses will be due during the second week in April, and will be read by both the thesis advisor and a second reader, both of whom must agree on whether or not the project has earned Honors. Selection to the Honors program does not guarantee that the project will receive Honors.
The main body of the Creative Writing thesis will consist of an extensive piece of writing (novel, collection of stories, collection of poems, long poem, play, screenplay, sequence of essays, long-form nonfiction, documentary nonfiction, photojournalism, creative monograph, etc.) prefaced by a critical commentary of at least 8-10 pages in length. The critical commentary should describe the intellectual, theoretical, and/or aesthetic contexts or backgrounds to the work or should narrate the procedures or methodology used in creating the work.
Please submit your proposal and writing sample (by October 5) to:
Gregory Djanikian
Director of Creative Writing
Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing
@ the University of Pennsylvania
3808 Walnut St.
Philadelphia, PA 19104