<p>I’m asking around about different creative writing programs. I wasn’t able to find out much about Bard but my SAT tutor said that it has a good program so I’m visiting in October.</p>
<p>My questions are:
Have you heard good things about it?
How many (if any) workshops are there? and in what areas? (fiction, nonfiction,etc.)
Is there screenwriting and/or playwriting available within the program?
Is the work challenging?
How are the professors?</p>
<p>Bard’s writing program is one of the best in the country with an amazing faculty. [Bard</a> College | Academic Programs](<a href=“http://www.bard.edu/academics/programs/programs.php?id=779023&pid=797]Bard”>http://www.bard.edu/academics/programs/programs.php?id=779023&pid=797)
[Bard</a> Program in the Written Arts](<a href=“http://writtenarts.bard.edu%5DBard”>http://writtenarts.bard.edu)
[Bard</a> College | Academic Programs](<a href=“http://www.bard.edu/academics/programs/programs.php?id=611019&pid=774]Bard”>http://www.bard.edu/academics/programs/programs.php?id=611019&pid=774)
[Program</a> in Literature](<a href=“http://literature.bard.edu%5DProgram”>http://literature.bard.edu)</p>
<p>Bard was not high on my daughter’s list until she sat in on a class with Michael Ives. It changed her life. I am a professional writer as is my husband and we are astounded at the quality of the writing program and the quality of the teachers. My daughter, primarily interested in poetry, has four different poetry teachers to work with! Most LACs will have one. And they have almost all been great teachers. (Check out Ives’ comments on Rate My Professor. There are all kinds of fiction, nonfiction, playwriting, screenwriting, creative nonfiction–just check out the course list, check out the teachers (Francine Prose!) on Rate My Professor, and then visit yourself. That’s really important. Sit in on a class. My daughter went to an Advance Poetry class at Bard and she not only wanted this teacher but she wanted these kinds of interesting writers as her peers…then she went to an Advanced Poetry class at Wesleyan filled with lacrosse players looking for an easy grade and her decision was made. I will also add that my daughter did the Breadloaf Young Writers program in high school and many of the most talented kids she met there are also now at Bard. Plus it’s beautiful beyond belief with great local cafes and plenty of inspiration from the Hudson.</p>
<p>Bard’s creative writing program is fantastic and quite competitive. Lots of people enter Bard expecting to get into the creative writing program and end up doing their (also excellent) literature program instead. Classes are small, professors are fantastic (you may click with some more than others), you get results based on what you put into it.</p>
<p>The creative writing program is great. I will say I started at Bard as a Written Arts major (what we call creative writing), and ended up switching just to literature because I personally did not have a good experience. Bard’s writing program favors the avant garde, which isn’t my thing. The professors are great, and there are a lot of workshops in fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry. They are hard to get into though. Each class other than the First-Year workshops (I believe, it’s been awhile so I could be wrong/it could have changed) require portfolios and then the professors choose who gets in. </p>
<p>There are no screenwriting/playwriting classes within the program. They are considered part of the film department and theater department respectively. The work can be very challenging. I think the challenges of writing really comes from how you approach it. Workshops can get intense, mostly in really good ways.</p>
<p>It was just announced that the author Neil Gaiman will be joining the faculty in the Spring. [Bard</a> College | Press Releases](<a href=“Renowned Writer Neil Gaiman to Join Bard College Faculty as Professor in the Arts<br />”>Renowned Writer Neil Gaiman to Join Bard College Faculty as Professor in the Arts<br />)</p>
<p>From the press release: “Gaiman, who joins the College in the spring semester of 2014 as a member of the Theater and Performance faculty, will teach courses across the Division of the Arts and the Division of Languages and Literature. His first course will be an advanced writing workshop exploring the history of the fantastic, approaches to fantasy fiction, and the meaning of fantasy today, taught through the Written Arts Program and the Experimental Humanities concentration.”</p>
<p>wow, that is very exciting…I know he taught a well-received workshop there last year.</p>
<p>Does anyone have any more recent news about this appointment? thx</p>
<p>It looks like last semester, and the coming semester he teaches one intensive class (classes all bunched into a short time period.)
This fall: Adapting Shakespeare Neil Gaiman
Cross-listed: Experimental Humanities, Written Arts In this intensive writing and performance workshop we will explore the history and practice of adapting Shakespeare’s plays into a variety of genres and styles. We will ask why some new versions have become iconic in their own right, and what makes for a particularly successful adaptation, addressing the constraints, norms, and cultural connotations of each medium. Using A Midsummer Night’s Dream as our primary source text we will unpack Shakespeare’s dramatic strategies (such as juxtaposition, comic tropes and conventions, extremity, fantasy) and examine existing adaptations (films, poetry, graphic novels, plays, musicals, television.) We will also create our own contemporary responses the play in a variety of genres, which we will both write and perform. Admission by application. Applications are welcome from upper-level students with substantial backgrounds in writing, theater, dance, music, and studio arts. (The course will meet for 4 3-hour evening sessions each week during the weeks of November 17, December 1 and December 8 2014. 12 sessions in total.) Class size: 15</p>
<p>Note that Anne Carson has now joined the Bard faculty, as well, and will start teaching in the fall.</p>
<p>Here’s the link to the upcoming course list. Note, you can also access past course lists here, too. <a href=“http://inside.bard.edu/academic/courses/current/”>http://inside.bard.edu/academic/courses/current/</a></p>