Courses
Start building your summer today by selecting from hundreds of Columbia courses from various topics of interest. Courses for Summer 2024 are now available, with new offerings being added throughout the winter into early spring. Key to Course Listings | Course Requirements
Offered in collaboration with the School of the Arts, the Writing Department at Columbia University offers summer workshops and craft seminars in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry designed by acclaimed writers and editors. Hone your craft in courses that cater to a wide variety of writing styles, from comedy writing to travel writing, children's books, YA, art writing, and everything in between.
Students can apply to take individual courses listed below as a Visiting Student or as a part of the Arts in Summer program.
Course Options
The Fiction Writing Workshop is designed for students who have little or no experience writing imaginative prose. Students are introduced to a range of craft concerns through exercises and discussions, and eventually produce their own writing for the critical analysis of the class. Outside readings supplement and inform the exercises and longer written projects. Enrollment limited to 15.
Instructor
Erroll McDonald
Modality
In-Person
Day/Time
Mo 17:30-20:40
We 17:30-20:40
Enrollment
8 of 15
Arts and Culture in NYC
Visiting students can take this course as part of a Focus Area.
The Arts and Culture in NYC Focus Area leverages the artistic hub of NYC with insights from Columbia’s faculty, making it ideal for students who are interested in art history, creative arts, and those who are interested in enhancing their portfolio for an MFA program or graduate studies. Students enhance their academic experience through specialized co-curricular activities exclusive to the city and may earn a Certification of Participation.
The Fiction Writing Workshop is designed for students who have little or no experience writing imaginative prose. Students are introduced to a range of craft concerns through exercises and discussions, and eventually produce their own writing for the critical analysis of the class. Outside readings supplement and inform the exercises and longer written projects. Enrollment limited to 15.
Instructor
Molly McGhee
Modality
In-Person
Day/Time
Tu 13:00-16:10
Th 13:00-16:10
Enrollment
10 of 12
Arts and Culture in NYC
Visiting students can take this course as part of a Focus Area.
The Arts and Culture in NYC Focus Area leverages the artistic hub of NYC with insights from Columbia’s faculty, making it ideal for students who are interested in art history, creative arts, and those who are interested in enhancing their portfolio for an MFA program or graduate studies. Students enhance their academic experience through specialized co-curricular activities exclusive to the city and may earn a Certification of Participation.
The Nonfiction Writing Workshop is designed for students new to the practice of such genres as reportage, criticism, biography and memoir. Various techniques are explored through exercises and other assignments. Critique of student work is supplemented by outside readings.
Instructor
Matty Davis
Modality
In-Person
Day/Time
Mo 13:00-16:10
We 13:00-16:10
Enrollment
3 of 15
Arts and Culture in NYC
Visiting students can take this course as part of a Focus Area.
The Arts and Culture in NYC Focus Area leverages the artistic hub of NYC with insights from Columbia’s faculty, making it ideal for students who are interested in art history, creative arts, and those who are interested in enhancing their portfolio for an MFA program or graduate studies. Students enhance their academic experience through specialized co-curricular activities exclusive to the city and may earn a Certification of Participation.
The Nonfiction Writing Workshop is designed for students new to the practice of such genres as reportage, criticism, biography and memoir. Various techniques are explored through exercises and other assignments. Critique of student work is supplemented by outside readings.
Instructor
Zohra Saed
Modality
In-Person
Day/Time
Tu 13:00-16:10
Th 13:00-16:10
Enrollment
6 of 12
Arts and Culture in NYC
Visiting students can take this course as part of a Focus Area.
The Arts and Culture in NYC Focus Area leverages the artistic hub of NYC with insights from Columbia’s faculty, making it ideal for students who are interested in art history, creative arts, and those who are interested in enhancing their portfolio for an MFA program or graduate studies. Students enhance their academic experience through specialized co-curricular activities exclusive to the city and may earn a Certification of Participation.
The Poetry Writing Workshop is designed for all students with a serious interest in poetry writing, from those who lack significant workshop experience or training in the craft of poetry to seasoned workshop participants looking for new challenges and perspectives on their work. Students will be assigned writing exercises emphasizing such aspects of verse composition as the poetic line, the image, rhyme and other sound devices, verse forms, repetition, collage, and others. Students will also read an variety of exemplary work in verse, submit brief critical analyses of poems, and critique each others original work.
Instructor
Timothy Donnelly
Modality
In-Person
Day/Time
Tu 17:30-20:40
Th 17:30-20:40
Enrollment
6 of 15
Arts and Culture in NYC
Visiting students can take this course as part of a Focus Area.
The Arts and Culture in NYC Focus Area leverages the artistic hub of NYC with insights from Columbia’s faculty, making it ideal for students who are interested in art history, creative arts, and those who are interested in enhancing their portfolio for an MFA program or graduate studies. Students enhance their academic experience through specialized co-curricular activities exclusive to the city and may earn a Certification of Participation.
The Poetry Writing Workshop is designed for all students with a serious interest in poetry writing, from those who lack significant workshop experience or training in the craft of poetry to seasoned workshop participants looking for new challenges and perspectives on their work. Students will be assigned writing exercises emphasizing such aspects of verse composition as the poetic line, the image, rhyme and other sound devices, verse forms, repetition, collage, and others. Students will also read an variety of exemplary work in verse, submit brief critical analyses of poems, and critique each others original work.
Instructor
Dorothea Lasky
Modality
In-Person
Day/Time
Tu 17:30-20:40
Th 17:30-20:40
Enrollment
9 of 12
Arts and Culture in NYC
Visiting students can take this course as part of a Focus Area.
The Arts and Culture in NYC Focus Area leverages the artistic hub of NYC with insights from Columbia’s faculty, making it ideal for students who are interested in art history, creative arts, and those who are interested in enhancing their portfolio for an MFA program or graduate studies. Students enhance their academic experience through specialized co-curricular activities exclusive to the city and may earn a Certification of Participation.
Prerequisites: No prerequisites. Department approval NOT required.
This course will introduce students to writing about visual art. We will take our models from art history and contemporary art discourse, and students will be prompted to write with and about current art exhibitions and events throughout the city. The modes of art writing we will encounter include: the practice of ekphrasis (poems which describe or derive their inspiration from a work of art); writers such as John Ashbery, Gary Indiana, Eileen Myles, and others who for periods of their life held positions as art critics while composing poetry and works of fiction; writers such as Etel Adnan, Susan Howe, and Renee Gladman who have produced literature and works of art in equal measure. We will also look at artists who have written essays and poetry throughout their careers such as Robert Smithson, Glenn Ligon, Gregg Bordowitz, Moyra Davey, and Hannah Black, and consider both the visual qualities of writing and the ways that visual artists have used writing in their work. Lastly, we will consider what it means to write through a “milieu” of visual artists, such as those associated with the New York School and Moscow Conceptualism. Throughout the course students will produce original works and complete a final writing project that enriches, complicates, and departs from their own interests and preoccupations.
Instructor
Thomas Donovan
Modality
In-Person
Day/Time
Mo 13:00-16:10
We 13:00-16:10
Enrollment
3 of 12
Arts and Culture in NYC
Visiting students can take this course as part of a Focus Area.
The Arts and Culture in NYC Focus Area leverages the artistic hub of NYC with insights from Columbia’s faculty, making it ideal for students who are interested in art history, creative arts, and those who are interested in enhancing their portfolio for an MFA program or graduate studies. Students enhance their academic experience through specialized co-curricular activities exclusive to the city and may earn a Certification of Participation.
Instructor
Peter Catalanotto
Modality
In-Person
Day/Time
Tu 09:00-12:10
Th 09:00-12:10
Enrollment
4 of 12
Arts and Culture in NYC
Visiting students can take this course as part of a Focus Area.
The Arts and Culture in NYC Focus Area leverages the artistic hub of NYC with insights from Columbia’s faculty, making it ideal for students who are interested in art history, creative arts, and those who are interested in enhancing their portfolio for an MFA program or graduate studies. Students enhance their academic experience through specialized co-curricular activities exclusive to the city and may earn a Certification of Participation.
Instructor
Porter Fox
Modality
In-Person
Day/Time
Mo 17:30-20:40
We 17:30-20:40
Enrollment
11 of 15
The Young Adult (YA) publishing boom has changed the way we read—and write—coming-of-age stories. This course will introduce students to the elements that shape YA novels, and explore the fiction writing techniques needed for long projects, including narrative arcs, character construction, worldbuilding, and scene work. We’ll study work from a wide range of YA genres and authors, including Angie Thomas, Elana K. Arnold, Leigh Bardugo, Jason Reynolds, A.S. King, Elizabeth Acevedo, and more.
Students will begin to write and outline their own YA novel, and a variety of in-class writing exercises will support the development of each project. All students will workshop their own writing and respond to the work of others. By the end of class, students will have a portfolio of materials to draw from, and a richer understanding of the YA landscape and its possibilities.
Instructor
Emily Austin
Modality
In-Person
Day/Time
Mo 13:00-16:10
We 13:00-16:10
Enrollment
7 of 12
Arts and Culture in NYC
Visiting students can take this course as part of a Focus Area.
The Arts and Culture in NYC Focus Area leverages the artistic hub of NYC with insights from Columbia’s faculty, making it ideal for students who are interested in art history, creative arts, and those who are interested in enhancing their portfolio for an MFA program or graduate studies. Students enhance their academic experience through specialized co-curricular activities exclusive to the city and may earn a Certification of Participation.
Instructor
Patricia Marx
Modality
In-Person
Day/Time
Tu 13:00-16:10
Th 13:00-16:10
Enrollment
8 of 14
Arts and Culture in NYC
Visiting students can take this course as part of a Focus Area.
The Arts and Culture in NYC Focus Area leverages the artistic hub of NYC with insights from Columbia’s faculty, making it ideal for students who are interested in art history, creative arts, and those who are interested in enhancing their portfolio for an MFA program or graduate studies. Students enhance their academic experience through specialized co-curricular activities exclusive to the city and may earn a Certification of Participation.