Cumberland University announced today that it has created a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing that will be available to students beginning Fall 2019.

The program is the first of its kind in Tennessee and will be housed in the School of Humanities, Education and the Arts. This addition comes from a growing interest in students wanting to pursue writing as a career.

Creative Writing Program Director Kerry Ann Moore is excited about the creation of this major.

“Tennessee has a rich literary history, full of award-winning and best-selling authors who have helped shape our national literary landscape; thus, it makes sense for Cumberland to tap into this natural resource by embracing creative writing as a discipline,” says Moore. “I’m excited to give our students the opportunity to add their voices to this grand literary tradition as we continue to grow our program.”

Creative writing classes have been offered at Cumberland for years as a minor in English. The new program will focus specifically on fiction, poetry, non-fiction, and playwriting as well as give students hands-on editorial and publishing experience.

Eric Cummings, Dean of the School of Humanities, Education, and the Arts credits the recent rapid growth of the university as being a major factor behind the creation of the new program.

“As our student body has increased we’ve added several new faculty with terminal degrees in creative writing disciplines like poetry and non-fiction that have complemented the skills and experience of our existing English faculty, which are in screenwriting, playwriting, and fiction,” said Cummings. “As a result, we’ve been able to address the interest of our students to delve deeper into the many disciplines of creative writing.”

For more information, or to apply, visit www.cumberland.edu/admissions/.

CORRECTION: *This post previously stated the program would be a Bachelor of Arts in Creative and Imaginative Writing*