The Program
The Creative Writing Program at Grossmont College is a comprehensive program offering an introductory course in creative writing and repeatable writers’ workshops in fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, drama, and novel writing. The courses are taught by working writers who are as committed to their students’ writing as they are to their own. As Richard Hugo once stated, “A creative writing class may be one of the last places you can go where your life still matters.” With Hugo’s words in mind, we work to foster the development of creative writers at all skill levels in a supportive, professional, and dynamic atmosphere.
In addition to maintaining this atmosphere, we publish The Acorn Review, a literary magazine managed by students and featuring the creative writing and artwork of students. Recently, the magazine featured selections from visiting writers such as Steve Kowit, Aimee Bender, Jimmy Santiago Baca, Nick Flynn, and Marge Piercy, as well the winning poems, short fiction, and creative nonfiction from various writing contests the Creative Writing Program sponsors. The magazine serves as a stellar introduction to publishing and the publishing world.
It is also our mission to actively serve and engage students, faculty, and the community through a rich variety of readings and other literary events that are always free and open to the public. In the spring of 2010, our 14th Annual Literary Arts Festival featured an amazing lineup of writers: Matt de la Pena, Marilyn Chin, Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, Ella deCastro-Baron, Brandon Cesmat, and writers from the exciting new anthology from San Diego City Works Press, Lavanderia, A Mixed Load of Women, Wash and Word . The keynote speaker for our 15th Annual Literary Arts Festival will be the incomparable Dorothy Allison! For more on Allison, check out this interview.
As support for the arts has dwindled, especially in the East County, we rigorously seek to cultivate a diverse literary community and to celebrate and promote literature and its role in our culture. If you are interested in supporting our program, please visit the Grossmont College Foundation.
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Program Student Learning Outcomes
After completing two or more creative writing courses a student will:
1. Create literary works, employing the elements appropriate to one or more chosen genres, in an authorial voice that demonstrates authenticity, aesthetic ability, and literary sensibility.
2. Practice–at a high level of efficiency–the habits of a writer, including frequent writing, revising, and reflecting.
3. Read and infer like a writer, that is, recognize and analyze the dynamic relationship between content and form in the literary works of classic, contemporary, and new literary voices.
4. Use skills as a critic to contribute to and benefit from a writers’ workshop.
5. Value and support the local and greater writing community through attendance and/or participation in various literary arts activities and performances.
