Stereotypically, creative writing, like art history or flute performance, is one of those disciplines that gives parents heartburn, especially when they imagine the artist’s life straight from the pages of La Boheme. Presented with the announcement that their undergraduate has decided to study writing, even the most liberally educated parents will be tempted to pose the question, “Have you considered…pharmacy?”

The University of Colorado Denver creative writing program, though, takes a refreshingly practical approach. In addition to preparing students for graduate study (a typical trajectory for young poets and novelists), faculty in this program are giving students opportunities to edit, mount and promote literary festivals, work in internships and gain experience in the local art scene.

Creative writing at UCD is a relatively new course of study. Although Introduction to Creative Writing workshops have been offered through the Department of English for many years, the program as such didn’t coalesce until the English department hired poet and American literature scholar Jake Adam York and fiction writer Teague Bohlen in 2000.

In fall 2001, the English department began offering a creative writing option through both of its majors: English and English writing. Since its debut, the number of course offerings has more than doubled. And annual enrollment continues to surge 10 to 20 percent. During academic year 2006–2007, students filled approximately 450 seats in creative writing classes.

Today, three faculty members are dedicated to the program: York, author of the poetry collection A Murmuration of Starlings, who also teaches American literature part-time; Bohlen, winner of the 2007 Colorado Book Award for his novel, The Pull of the Earth; and Jennifer S. Davis, who won the prestigious Iowa Short Fiction Award for her short story collection, Her Kind of Want, and whose new anthology, Our Former Lives in Art, was published this summer. The program is augmented, too, by a handful of talented adjunct professors.

Students who major in English with a creative writing option have the chance to choose an emphasis in fiction or poetry, and can select among a raft of writing, literature and theory courses as well as sample magazine writing, business writing, technical writing and introduction to movie writing. To graduate, students must complete an internship or senior project in creative writing or film studies. Some creative writing classes are even offered online.

“Students are starting to realize that education is about solving problems,” York says, explaining the popularity of the program, “and creative writing is a great way to solve problems. They know their jobs will change and feel that being creative is important.”

And, “being able to communicate,” adds Sharron Harris, a junior in the program who also serves as the managing editor of Copper Nickel, the University of Colorado Denver’s national literary and arts journal.

Produced mainly by students, Copper Nickel (www.copper-nickel.org) is a striking, edgy magazine that culls submissions from established writers all over the country. Unlike traditional undergraduate literary magazines that publish student work exclusively, Copper Nickel is a periodical “committed to presenting the established beside the emergent” and uses high editorial standards when selecting pieces to publish.

“We try to publish the best stuff we can find,” York says, “and some of that ‘best stuff’ is work our students created.”

About 25 students work on Copper Nickel, handling an array of functions that range from editing and design to promotion, sales and advertising. But running a small press doesn’t guarantee publication in it. The September 2007 edition of Copper Nickel included poems from two creative writing program alumni, R.J. Lambert and Kathryn Colburn. Photographs by students Theo Mullen and Clinton T. Sander, “New Orleans After Katrina,” were also featured. Most issues, York estimates, are between 15 and 40 percent student written, but the work has to meet the student/faculty editorial board standards.

“Undergraduate students edit the journal,” York says, “which means they get to deal both with their peers (in activities that build their sense of community while they build their critical skills) and with established writers (which enables them to view themselves as part of a larger community of writing that is not defined by geography, age or experience). Undergrads can contribute to the journal and have their work published in a venue that cannot be dismissed as a ‘campus literary magazine.’”

At UC Denver, there is nothing dusty or removed about the writing enterprise; it’s all about doing work and bringing it to life in print, performance or other media. Throughout the year, the Denver Mint Reading Series (co-produced by the Copper Nickel, the Writing Center and CU Denver Live!), for example, brings writers to campus such as Kent Haruf, author of Plainsong and Eventide, narrative prose poet and author of The Balloonist Eula Biss, and Pulitzer-prize winning poet Phillip Levine for students to meet and hear. There are publication parties biannually for the launch of new issues of the magazines. And there is a new publication initiative—a press, called Counterfeit Books, that publishes book-length works.

Students also have the chance to work for the Advocate (www.ucdadvocate.com), the UC Denver student news magazine, which Bohlen advises. Bohlen, who honed his chops writing and editing for small newspapers, also helps place students in local internships at places like the Mayor’s Office, Westword and 5280 Magazine.

“There are so many great things for students to get involved in,” Bohlen says. “There’s more to offer than just these classes.”

Though the program is young, alumni have gone on to prime graduate placements at institutions that include Columbia University, Cornell University, the University of Alaska, the University of Texas-Austin and Sarah Lawrence College, among others. Others now work as grant writers, arts administrators, corporate communicators, editors and freelancers.

“I’ve been lucky to have participated in some wonderful programs,” says Davis, who’s also taught at the University of Alabama, the University of Miami, New College of Florida and Eastern Washington University. “I think these are some of the best students I’ve ever taught.”

For Harris, she came to UC Denver with the intention of finishing an old finance major, but after attending a reading, decided to rekindle a long dormant affair with words. “After raising kids,” she says, “I decided I needed to try it.”

According to Harris, the intellectual and creative training she’s received has transformed the way she thinks, both creatively and in very practical, tangible ways.

“Here,” she says, “you get to practice something and you do get to create a product.”

To learn more about creative writing at UC Denver, visit www.cudenver.edu/clas/english

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