Creative Writing Minor

We're pleased to offer students rigorous and diverse coursework in fiction and poetry, as well as a variety of electives in drama, creative nonfiction and screenwriting. Over the years we've been proud to host many great writers on campus, including Joy Harjo, Charles Wright, Tayari Jones, Ron Rash, Fred Chappell, James Dickey, Cris Mazza, Li-Young Lee, Robert Bausch and many others. Each spring ETSU sponsors a creative writing festival, ETSU Celebrates Creative Writing, which features workshops and readings from writers around the country.  

We have several scholarship opportunities available.

• Out-of-state creative writing students should check out our Creative Arts Scholarship.
• ETSU offers Fine & Performing Arts Scholarships for creative writers through the Honors College.

The Department of Literature and Language sponsors:

• ETSU Creative Writing Society 
•  The Mockingbird, our student-run literary journal
•  Aethlon: The Journal of Sport Literature, an international journal featuring writing on the intersection of sport and literature.

The minor is open to students majoring in any discipline.  We will update this space regularly with news on events and opportunities in creative writing here at ETSU and across the region.

Feel free to contact the Director of the Creative Writing Minor, Dr. Mark Baumgartner, if you have any questions. 

On November 14th, 2013, poets from across East Tennessee gathered at the Carroll Reece Museum, ETSU, to celebrate the release of The Southern Poetry Anthology Volume VI: Tennessee.

News and Events:

Black American Writers Series featuring the poet Major Jackson: September 18, 2023
     2 PM Roundtable Discussion and public Q&A Session in The Forum (D. P. Culp Student Center, Room 311) 
     7 PM Evening Reading in Brown Auditorium

Jeff VanderMeer Fall Residency: October 24-26, 2023. All events are free and open to the public. More details here.

Tuesday 10/24:

7pm, Film screening of Annihilation @ Cinema at The Bud Frank (Bud Frank Theater)

Wednesday 10/25:

1:40pm, Film Roundtable & Q&A @ Ball Hall Room 127

7pm, Public Reading @ Brown Hall Auditorium

Thursday 10/26:

1:20pm-2:40pm, Creating Imaginative Fiction Roundtable @ Sherrod Library Room 309

Jim Minick will read from and talk about his new book, Without Warning: The Tornado of Udall, Kansas, at ETSU on Wednesday Nov 15 at 4pm in the Rogers-Stout room 102 auditorium. This event is free and open to the public.

Jim Minick is the author or editor of seven books, including the award-winning Fire Is Your Water and The Blueberry Years: A Memoir of Farm and Family. His work has appeared in numerous publications, including the New York Times, Poets and Writers, Oxford American, Orion, and Shenandoah. 

Minick's talk is sponsored by the Bert C. Bach Written Word Initiative and the Environmental Studies minor.  

Be sure to check out The Bert C. Bach Written Word Initiative and ETSU's Black American Writers Series for more info on upcoming events.