Three new creative writing professors will come to AU next semester, which may be the university's first step to expand the College of Arts and Sciences' program.
AU currently offers a Master of Fine Arts creative writing degree, but not an undergraduate degree or minor.
The literature department is considering adding a creative writing concentration to its existing literature major, according to David Keplinger, director of the CAS creative writing MFA program.
"I think that it would be a good thing for the students and I'm very supportive of that prospect, but we haven't even presented it to the council, so it's just in the beginning phases," he said.
Hiring three new professors will be a slight expansion to the creative writing department, as they will be replacing only two faculty members who have retired, according to Glenn Moomau, a CAS creative writing professor.
The new faculty members are non-fiction writer Rachel Louise Snyder, novelist Stephanie Grant and fiction writer Danielle Evens, Keplinger said in an e-mail to students and faculty in the creative writing MFA program. The department is still determining the new faculty members' schedules.
Moomau said he believes an undergraduate creative writing concentration would encourage more students to become literature majors.
"I think that those of us who teach a lot of undergraduates, like I do, know that students want it," he said.
Keplinger said he foresees the creative writing concentration being especially popular as a double-major that students would pair with other subjects, such as journalism. It would give students a broader resume.
Shannon McMahon, a sophomore in CAS who is majoring in literature, said she would be interested in pursuing a creative writing concentration within her major. She said she sometimes feels her major requirements are preventing her from taking as many creative writing classes she would like.
AU is also lacking in the variety of creative writing classes it offers, McMahon said.
"It is possible to retake some of the classes, but they're often taught by the same professors, so even if you take a class again and write different material, you're still going to get very similar feedback," she said in an e-mail.
Kristen Luppino, a junior in CAS and the School of Public Affairs, said she created her own non-official creative writing minor by combining honors colloquia classes. She said she hopes AU will someday expand the creative writing department enough to offer the subject as a major to undergraduates.
"We have all these amazing professors that we could use to continue our undergraduates' passion for creative writing, and there just aren't enough courses," Luppino said.
As of now, the literature department has not discussed adding an undergraduate creative writing major, Moomau said.
If a major is ever considered in the future, Moomau said he will be against the idea because it would not leave enough room for study in other areas.
"There are a lot of other things to learn and there are a lot of ways to become a writer," he said.
When it comes to finding a job after graduation, a creative writing degree may not be perceived as well as a literature degree would be, Moomau said.
The potential creative writing track is still a new idea and will probably take at least two academic years to fully develop, according to Moomau. However, he said he is confident that it will happen at some point.
"If and when that happens, and I think it probably will happen, there will be more undergraduate creative writing classes, I would assume," Moomau said.
Until AU can expand the program, Luppino expresses herself through a creative writing club she founded on campus in the spring of 2007. The club meets every Friday at 5:30 p.m. in the Battelle-Tompkins Building's second floor literary lounge. Meetings involve workshops, creative writing exercises and guest appearances from faculty and D.C. writers.
AU also has a Visiting Writers series which brings local writers to campus more than once a month, according to Keplinger.
"It's a great way to contact others who share your interests," he said.
You can reach this staff writer at mkendall@theeagleonline.com.
