Creative Writing
Creative Writing Program
![Floating pieces of paper](/sites/lacc.edu/files/styles/image_with_text_0_mobile_a/public/image-with-text/2023-11/AdobeStock_440372161.jpeg?h=1731b01e&itok=fM5YxWdF)
Creative Writing Certificate
Earning LACC’s Creative Writing Certificate demands an additional commitment to coursework over a prolonged period of time. We welcome writers of all genres, whether you work in prose or poetry, science fiction or magical realism, or memoir or crime fiction. We are also happy to assist connecting you to coursework within the Theater and Cinema/TV departments for performance-based writing.
- You will be expected to complete three required courses over a year-long period at the minimum.
- Your instructors will focus on the mechanical nature of writing, helping you develop the skills to plan, execute, and revise your work.
- You will develop an understanding of your readership and create text that meaningfully connects with an audience.
The certificate of achievement in Creative Writing can further develop your resume, and the department is currently developing a full associate degree.
Creative Writing Courses
Please note that ENGLISH 124, 127, and 227 are required for the Creative Writing Certificate Program. ENGLISH 78 is an optional course.
Transfer Credit: CSU, UC
Students learn the primary structures of memoir writing, including chronology, theme, and tension. Students read full-length memoirs by published writers in order to outline and compose their own memoirs. Students learn to recognize and explore memories and experiences, decide what to include and exclude in their writing process and discover new meanings from their pasts, which give perspectives to the present. All material is submitted in a supportive workshop atmosphere designed to help writers formulate, design, and construct their own memoir.
Transfer Credit: CSU, UC
Students will explore and deepen their understanding of the creation of short form prose works, typically called Short Stories. Students will learn the foundational mechanisms of short prose through the engagement of professionally published prose from accomplished authors across a variety of times, locations, and themes. Students will develop the skills in the writing of short fi ction, focusing on character, narrative development, voice, style, and revision.
Offered every fall semester
Transfer Credit: CSU, UC, C-ID (ENGLISH 200 or ENGL-CW 100)
Prerequisite: ENGLISH 102
Students receive intensive training in writing poetry, prose fiction, and/or playwriting. Students compose works that are discussed as part of instruction, supplemented by examples of published writers and theoretical essays on the creative process.
Transfer Credit: CSU, UC
Prerequisite: ENGLISH 127
Students receive advanced, intensive training in writing poetry, prose fiction, and/or playwriting. Students compose works that are discussed as part of instruction, supplemented by examples of published writers and theoretical essays on the creative process. This course directly builds upon the skillsets established in English 127, providing emphasis on revision and expansion of work.
LACC Creative Writing Club
English & ESL Department