Mission Statement

Undergraduate Program, Fiction Writing
The Fiction Writing Department is unreservedly committed to the Columbia College mission.  The department's goal, emerging directly from that mission, is to prepare students for a wide range of careers in creative writing — including the writing of novels, short stories, creative nonfiction, and scripts — and in jobs where effective communication, creative problem-solving, and group relationship skills are crucial factors.  In particular, those aspects of the college mission having to do with accepting each student's background and working to develop each individual's voice and vision; with encouraging an understanding of the important connection between aesthetic and professional concerns; with offering the model of an inventive faculty working professionally at what they teach; with fostering a strong sense of social awareness and commitment as well as a strong training in the craft of writing; and with promoting creative applications of classroom learning and skills in a variety of careers are all central to the department's ongoing educational efforts.  (read more)

Graduate Program, Creative Writing—Fiction
In concert with the Columbia College graduate mission of combining "a strong conceptual emphasis with practical professional education" while "preparing students with mature interests to be both competent artists and successful professionals," the Fiction Writing Department seeks to guide committed fiction writers to advanced achievement in fiction, creative nonfiction, and playwriting; to broaden their knowledge in the theory and practice of writing; to prepare writers for independent work in sustained narrative movements; and to offer conceptual and practical training useful in teaching and in a wide range of other professional occupations where effective communication, creative problem-solving, and relationship skills are crucial factors.  Developing individual voice and seeing-in-the-mind, nurturing the growth of personal vision within a liberal arts context, and encouraging respect for these qualities in others are central to the Fiction Writing Department's overall effort.  (read more)