How to Enroll

Most Creative Writing courses are available for direct enrollment in Axess: SimpleEnroll. However, some of our courses may require instructor consent, submitting an application, or completing the Course Preference Form prior to enrolling in the course. When browsing in ExploreCourses, pay special attention to the Notes sections, which will indicate if direct enrollment is available or if an application submission or the Course Preference Form is required. Instructions for all enrollment processes can be found below.

A variety of Creative Writing courses are available for direct enrollment in Axess: SimpleEnroll. Register for these courses in SimpleEnroll, no additional forms nor separate applications necessary. To view available classes, browse ExploreCourses or our list of courses.

Enrollment can be tricky to navigate. To set yourself up for success each quarter, consider the following:

• Pay your tuition and fees
• Clear any holds blocking your registration
• Review your academic plan of study with an advisor

Other helpful enrollment tools can be found on the Registrar's website.

Remember: If you enroll into a course, then you must attend the first class meeting to secure your spot in the course.

Some Creative Writing courses may require instructor consent to enroll. To request instructor consent for a given course, follow its instructions listed below. When browsing on ExploreCourses, the instructions can also be found in the Notes section of the course.

English 91AI/Oceans 157H Creative Writing & Science: The Artful Interpreter with Sara Michas-Martin

Fill out the online Google form by December 1 to request instructor consent:

Winter 2024 Form

Priority goes to seniors who are declared Creative Writing minors or English majors (then juniors, sophomores, and freshmen). They will be followed by seniors with any other major (then juniors, sophomores, and freshmen).

A few Creative Writing courses require a separate application to be considered for enrollment. The instructor(s) of the course will review the applications and select their pool of students accordingly. Each course application is linked below.

English/Africaam/Femgen 192B Poetry Is Not a Luxury with Aracelis Girmay

Poetry Is Not a Luxury * These places of possibility within ourselves are dark...

The titles of this course are words thought and dreamed by Audre Lorde in her essay "Poetry Is Not a Luxury" (a version of which was first published in 1977). In this essay she writes: "For within living structures defined by profit, by linear power, by institutional dehumanization, our feelings were not meant to survive. Kept around as unavoidable adjuncts or pleasant pastimes, feelings were expected to kneel to thought as women were expected to kneel to men. But women have survived. As poets. And there are no new pains. We have felt them all already. We have hidden that fact in the same place where we have hidden our power. They surface in our dreams, and it is our dreams that point the way to freedom. Those dreams are made realizable through our poems that give us the strength and courage to see, to feel, to speak, and to dare." In this course we will consider the powers, resuscitations, and strategies found in the texts of a constellation of contemporary Black poets whose work emerges out of Black feminist thought and practices. My hope is that we will together listen toward the possibilities of this work, and through experiments in reading and writing, realize some of what these texts make it possible for us to think and feel and write and be.

Fall 2023 Application

English 90L/Chilatst 90 Latine Stories with Kirstin Valdez Quade

This is a course on the craft of fiction writing. We will read published literary short stories by contemporary Latine writers writing in the United States and begin to explore the vast range of fictional techniques employed by these writers. In discussing these published works, we will analyze how the formal elements of story - structure, plot, character, point of view, etc. - function in these pieces, so that students can apply these principles of craft to their own work. Students will write two complete short stories, which will be discussed in a traditional workshop format.

Winter 2024 Application

English/Amstud/Asnamst 91A Asian American Autobiography with Chang-rae Lee

This is a dual purpose class: a writing workshop in which you will generate autobiographical vignettes/essays as well as a reading seminar featuring prose from a wide range of contemporary Asian-American writers. Some of the many questions we will consider are: What exactly is Asian-American memoir? Are there salient subjects and tropes that define the literature? And in what ways do our writerly interactions both resistant and assimilative with a predominantly non-Asian context in turn recreate that context? We'll be working/experimenting with various modes of telling, including personal essay, the epistolary form, verse, and even fictional scenarios.

Winter 2024 Application

English 190SW Screenwriting Intensive with Edward Porter & Georgina Beaty

The main requirement for this course is a full length film script. The course explores elements of screenwriting including beat structure, character creation, scene vs. montage, as well as description and dialogue. Students will read four to five screenplays during the first half of the course and then write a 90-page film script in the second half of the course. Students will additionally write synopses, treatments, character sketches, and beat sheets. Designed for any student who has always wanted to write a screenplay.

Spring 2024 Application

English 192V The Occasions of Poetry with Arthur Sze, the Mohr Visiting Poet

We will explore a wide range of possibilities as we practice and develop the craft of writing poems. We will experiment through suggested (not required) weekly writing prompts that draw on ekphrastics, astronomy, translation (knowledge of a foreign language is not required), Asian poetic forms, diction and voice, simultaneity, prose poems, letter poems, and eventually will consider the rich, varied possibilities of the contemporary poetic sequence. We will use one book-length poem as a common text, and additional reading and research will include many other sources. The workshop format will involve a close reading of each student’s poems and will also use discussion as a vehicle to consider larger, deeper poetic issues at stake. I hope it will be an exciting journey as we take risks with language and encourage, support, and inspire each other to develop as poets.

Spring 2024 Application

Questions?

We're here to support you! Email creative1 [at] stanford.edu (creative1[at]stanford[dot]edu) with your inquiries, or stop by our advising hours and talk to one of our Peer Advisors.

For enrollment questions specific to Creative Writing, visit our Enrollment FAQ page.

For general enrollment troubleshooting, refer to the Student Services guide.