Creative Writing at Tusculum
- Creative writing students and faculty.
The Tusculum Review
We are one of a handful of colleges in the United States that offers our undergraduate students the opportunity to work for an international literary journal. Our journal offers students an opportunity to learn and refine their skills as reviewers of literature, critics of visual art, and as editors of the written word. Students learn the ins and outs of navigating a publications office, from database management to pagination and layout. These opportunities provide our students with unique qualifications for graduate studies and employment in publishing.
Awards & Prizes
Our students compete for substantial monetary prizes in an in-house literary competition. The Curtis-Owens prizes, endowed by a distinguished Tusculum College alum, are awarded annually in poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and scriptwriting. The prizes are judged by established, award-winning writers who come to campus to give a reading and to announce his/her selections at an awards ceremony in the spring. Past judges include Playwright David Muschell and Poet Sally Keith. This year, fiction writer Kellie Wells will serve as esteemed judge.
Each year’s Curtis-Owens winners are featured in The Oracle, a special creative writing supplement to The Pioneer Frontier, the college’s student-run newspaper.
Creative Writing in the Classroom
Our students complete workshop intensive courses in poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and scriptwriting in addition to introductory and intermediate creative writing courses. Additionally, students present a senior capstone project in a genre of their choosing.
Our creative writing students also take interest-based literature courses, including Women in Literature, American Modernism, Classical Mythology, Concepts of Language, and Genres in Shakespeare. Students are also offered the opportunity to take journalism/publication courses.
Reading & Travel Opportunities
The Creative Writing Program sponsors periodic public readings to showcase the creative projects of students. Senior creative writing students are honored annually with a formal public reading as part of Tusculum College’s Humanities Series.
Many of our students are rewarded with a trip to the annual Association of Writers & Writing Programs convention. We also often provide our students with field trip opportunities to attend readings and craft lectures.