Creative Writing, BA

The Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing at New England College blends curriculum built around a workshop-focused classroom approach with a wide ranging set of hands-on and individually guided practicum opportunities.

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Overview

Emphasizing the creative community as an essential element of any creative endeavor, the Creative Writing Department is comprised of energetic and engaging faculty –published and active in their field—who are dedicated to the one-on-one availability that distinguishes an NEC education. With a focus on individual transformation, the Creative Writing program bolsters and broadens existing areas of interest as opposed to shepherding students toward a singular aesthetic. The result is a knowledge-based, experiential course of study with an eye on flowering rather than funneling.

The goal of the Creative Writing major at New England College is to prepare students for a professional writing career and/or to prepare students for graduate work in the creative arts.

Students will approach Creative Writing as a craft‐based discipline rooted in the study of literature and writing. Through genre workshops and literature courses, students will gain the analytical, critical and creative skills necessary to develop an informed practice of craft and, as a result, produce original works grounded in the historical and theoretical knowledge of the discipline. In this context, the Creative Writing curriculum emphasizes the authenticity and integrity of public voice.

Program Details

Live What You Learn
- Study with esteemed, award-winning faculty
- Engage with a highly creative and close-knit community
- Connect with celebrated visiting writers
- Find your individual style and voice
Professional Opportunities

Creative Writing students go on to be successful in a broad spectrum of professional arenas. The strength of a creative writing background—in combination with the practical, hands-on education unique to the Creative Writing program at NEC—affords students opportunities ranging from freelance writing to publishing to careers in law and higher education. In addition, engagement in community-based activities as a Creative Writing major gives students the chance to create strong and lasting connections.

Faculty

Andrew Morgan

Professor, Creative Writing
Office: Spaulding, Henniker Campus
Phone 603.428.2349
Email: amorgan@nec.edu

Bio

Andrew Morgan is a poet and fiction writer who has been teaching at New England College for the last 15 years. He has been the recipient of a Slovenian Writer’s Association Fellowship which sponsored a month long writing residency in the country’s capital city of Ljubljana and his recent work can be found in magazines such as Conduit, Stride, Fairy Tale Review, Pleiades, Divine Magnet, Post Road, and New World Writing. His first book, Month of Big Hands was published by Natural History Press in 2013. Morgan teaches in both the undergraduate as well as graduate creative writing programs.
Jennifer Militello
Program Director, MFA in Creative Writing
Office: Spaulding 203, Henniker Campus
Phone: 603.428.2309
Email: jmilitello@nec.edu
Professional Website: jennifermilitello.com

Recent Press
- The Pact, Tupelo Press, 2021
- Knock Wood, Dzanc Books, 2019
- A Camouflage of Specimens and Garments, Tupelo Press, 2016
- Body Thesaurus, Tupelo Press, 2013
- Flinch of Song, Tupelo Press, 2009
- Anchor Chain, Open Sail; Finishing Line Press, 2006
Other notable press:
- Knock Wood featured at NHPR
- “Opinion” in The Nation
- Reading at Georgetown University
- “The Punishment of One Is the Love Song of Another” in Best American Poetry 2020
Educational Background
PhD, Bath Spa University
MFA, University of North Carolina Greensboro
BA, University of New Hampshire

Bio
Jennifer Militello is the author of six books of poetry and nonfiction, including, most recently, The Pact and Knock Wood, winner of the Dzanc Nonfiction Prize. Her work has been called “positively bewitching” by Publishers Weekly and “contemplative and fascinating” by Booklist, and Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Charles Simic has called her “one of the best poets of her generation.”

Her work appears in such journals as American Poetry Review, The Nation, The New Republic, The Paris Review, Ploughshares, POETRY, and Tin House, as well as in Best American Poetry, Best New Poets, and Poem-a-Day: 365 Poems for Every Occasion. She has been awarded the Barbara Bradley Award, the Yeats Poetry Prize, the Ruskin Art Club Poetry Award, the Betty Gabehart Prize, and the 49th Parallel Award, as well as grants and fellowships from the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts, the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, Writers at Work, and the Millay Colony for the Arts.

Militello taught at Brown University, University of Massachusetts Lowell, and Rhode Island School of Design before joining the faculty at New England College. She lives in Goffstown, New Hampshire.

Learn more about New England College’s MFA in Creative Writing program.
Maura MacNeil
Professor, Creative Writing
Office: Spaulding 204, Henniker Campus
Phone 603.428.2304
Email: mmacneil@nec.edu

Expertise, Awards, and Recent Press
Awards:
- NEC Kilgore Faculty of the Year Award, 2007
- New Hampshire College and University Council’s Outstanding Teaching in Postsecondary Education Award, 2013
- Periclean Faculty Leadership Grant from the Lang Foundation for the development of the course titled “Community in Our Towns: The NH Town Meeting” with Professor Inez McDermott
Books:
- This Last Place, Dancing Girl Press, 2019
- Lost Houses, Kelsay Books, 2016
- A History of Water, Finishing Line Press, 2007
Founder/Editor: off the margins, offthemargins.com

Educational Background
MFA, Vermont College of the Arts
BA, New England College

Research Interests
- Creative nonfiction and memory narrative
- Hybridity, Contemporary American Poetry, and Poetics
- Feminist literature and revisionist mythology
Bio
Maura MacNeil is a professor, writer, and editor who is the author of the poetry collections. Her poetry, prose, and critical writing have been published and anthologized both nationally and internationally in numerous publications. She is the founder and editor of Off the Margins, a website “that pushes the boundaries of language, conventional form, blended genre, and prose flash, featuring women writers who fearlessly tell the truth and risk vulnerability to give voice to their experience.” Her poetry has been nominated four times for the prestigious Pushcart Award. She was a founding member of the Stone Bridge Poetry Project and co-founder and editor of Entelechy International: A Journal of Contemporary Ideas and currently serves on the board of the Monadnock Writers’ Group. She is committed to community-based creative collaboration and is an active presenter for the NH Humanities to Go Program with her program titled “Family, Memory, Place: Writing Family Stories.”

Degree Requirements

Requirements

Grades of C‐ or better are required for any course credit to count toward the major in Creative Writing.

(56 Credits)

Take three (3) courses from the following list:

CW 2100 - Fiction Workshop
CW 2110 - Poetry Workshop
CW 2120 - Creative Nonfiction Workshop
CW 2990 - Special Topics in Creative Writing Credits: 4

Take two (2) courses from the following list:

CO 3120 - Journalism: Feature Writing Workshop
CW 3100 - Advanced Fiction Workshop
CW 3110 - Advanced Poetry Workshop
CW 3120 - Advanced Nonfiction Workshop
CW 3990 - Advanced Special Topics in Creative Writing Credits: 4
CW 3140 - Graphic Novel Storytelling

Take three (3) courses from the following list:

Take 8 credits in:

Liberal Arts & Sciences Core Curriculum, Bachelor's Degree

Electives

Select additional electives to reach 120 credits for a Bachelor's degree.