Bustles

Hello, hello!

Just wondering if anyone could enlighten me as to what course a writer takes at Smith... I would like to eventually become involved in journalism. I also would like to go to a college with an active Creative Writing program. Anyone have any input?

SmithieandProud

Okay, here's the skinny on the Smith English dept. writing programs. We don't offer creative writing as a major, and it's also not really a "program" per se, but the English department is good and they offer classes where you can do Creative Writing. Those are mostly concentrated into nonfiction, memoir, short stories, poetry, and playwriting. They sometimes require you to submit work in advance to be approved for the course, and they are always small colloquia or seminars.

If you are an English major, you can also do a creative special studies, where you come up with your own creative project to work on for the semester with an advisor. THis is a good option for sophomores or juniors who can't take the offered creative courses, or have some big idea. As a senior, you can also do a creative thesis.

Extracurricularly, we have a student paper, the Sophian that anyone can write for (you should, I'm an editor!). It's not the NYTimes, but if you want to do journalism then the most important thing is to start amassing clips and this is an easy way to do it. There's a literary journal published every year called Labrys that you can submit pieces for. The Poetry Center just celebrated its 10th year, and they bring one poet to campus each month for a reading and a q & a.

The bottom line is, if it's important to you to go to a school with a straight "Creative Writing" major or faculty, Smith doesn't have that. But if you'd like to major in say English, or Theatre, with a focus on Creative, you can do that.

I've taken Reading and Writing Short poems and it was a great course. Annie Boutelle, who also teaches crafting the memoir, was fantastic and we had great assignments. We met twice a week, and on one day we were supposed to have read a poem and come in with a reflection on it, and hte other day we were supposed to write a poem in the style or reflecting the thing we were learning that week. Great course, very creative. I've always wanted to take short stories, but never had the guts to submit anything.

The English department is great, good faculty, nice spread of courses, very interesting, and cross lists with Comparative Literature and sometimes American Studies.

Bustles

Hmmmm. I see. Thanks!

I hear good things about the Smith CDC--are the opportunities as good for English people like myself?

SmithieandProud

You mean CDO (Career Development Office)? They have good opportunities for everyone, they make an effort to bring a variety of recruiters from different fields. Can't remember for sure, but I think they have newspaper people. Definitely publishing companies come in to recruit. And you can work as a real reporter or intern for the Daily Hampshire Gazette, our local paper, in the summer, I have a friend who did that.

Also, the Fall 118 writing colloquium include humor writing, travel writing, and a few other disciplines that i forgot to mention. But the upper level courses in writing are mostly those I listed.

Bustles

That all sounds good! Okay, this is good to know. I was getting worried. Thanks a lot...

and yes, I did mean CDO, I just picked some likely acronym and went for it.

mini

They also have Trudy Rubin on the Board of Trustees.

SmithieandProud

No worries, there are a lot of acronyms to remember at Smith: SGA, CDO, HONS, BSA, CDM, MSU, SOS, SAA, HP, HVP, HR, HCA, the list goes on. Sometimes on tours people start giving me these looks like I'm speaking mandarin, and then I realize that I just rattled off meaningless acronyms at them.

Bustles

Tourguide, huh? Giving any tours this Saturday? Maybe I'll connect a name to a face...

Bustles

Oh no!

I just accidentally stumbled across THIS:

"For Humanities:
Government (esp. International relations and American Govt), English (though not Creative Writing), European History, Dance, Architecture, Art"
-SmithieandProud

Now, while I do realize you were very honest with your original post, was there a specific reason you said that? Or just your own experience?

SmithieandProud

Well, these two posts were sort of different contexts. You asked about the general opportunities available and I listed them. The other poster was asking what are Smith's "strongest" departments, what is it really known for.

The English dept. at Smith is definitely English Language and Literature focused. The bulk of the classes are in that, and the bulk of the major requirements are in that as well. They offer a variety of creative courses, but in the end they are an English department. Doesn't mean you can't get lots of well-rounded practice with your writing, or that their aren't opportunities at Smith for a creative writer to develop, but if asked to rank what Smith is known for, I wouldn't say it's a top "Creative Writing" school, mostly cause it doesn't have a program solely dedicated to that.

Though, not to sound like a cheerleader (I hate CC cheerleaders), but I think schools that have CW programs don't give you any better practice than you would get at schools with just English programs like Smith. The main difference is that CW schools you can do your major doing pretty much only creative, and at Smith you're going to have to take your shakespeare, milton, or chaucer, your survey literature courses (quite good, I reccommend American literature before 1865 with the egotistical but fabulous Michael Thurston), etc.

Hope that clears things up. My expereince with the dept. has always been good, like I said I really liked my Reading and Writing Short Poems class.

And sorry, I'm not giving any tours on campus until I return from being abroad in the fall, but good luck! I hope you get somebody good. Look for Margaret Mitchell's house (Chapin, with the pillars) which inspired Tara in Gone with the Wind, and if you have time, swing up to the rare book room and ask if you can have a peek at one of Sylvia Plath's manuscripts.

SmithieandProud

Oops, sorry scratch that, the Rare book room is closed on saturdays. Come back another time though, worth the visit!

dad2011

My daughter, a first year student, has has a great internship opportunity at the Hampshire County Gazette, the local newspaper for Northampton and surrounding areas. She has published a large number of articles to add to her portfolio.

starshooter

dad2011,
Could you elaborate on your daughter's experience interning at the Hampshire County Gazette? Did she have prior experiences in journalism? How did she go about securing an internship at the gazette?
I am going to be a freshman at Amherst this fall. I never considered journalism as a potential field of study until this year after taking an International Relations course at my school. Since then, I've begun to devote much of my free time reading newspapers, and now I hope that one day I could be the one writing the articles. However, because of this late discovery of an interest in journalism, I practically have no experience at all with any aspect of the field. Is it too late to pursue my interest? How competitive do you think it is to land an internship at the Hampshire County Gazette? How strong of a background in journalism are they looking for?

Momwaitingfornew

Bustles, while you should not go to Smith if you want to major in creative writing, they *do* have some guest writers who teach in the limited offerings. I believe that Amy Bloom is in residence this spring.

If you were really motivated, you could go to one of the other colleges for creative writing courses. Both Hampshire and Amherst supposedly have good courses, and UMass has a fine MFA program, although it's not clear that the best professors would be teaching undergrads.

SmithieandProud

starshooter, if you have no experience, I would start writing for the Amherst college paper. Especially if they have an opinions section, you can begin to amass some international relations op-eds. A lot of the writers for the Smith paper have ended up with internships at the Gazette.