"Susquehanna University has the best undergraduate writing program in the United States." -Robert Boswell, author of Century's Son, Mystery Ride, and Crooked Hearts

Watch the video of Dr. Bailey

Follow a Freshman creative writing major through his first fiction workshop class
"Every time you get workshopped it peels back another set of eyelids you didn’t realize you had shut and you see your story more clearly. Each workshop shows you how clear of a window into the world you’ve imagined that your words create." - Ryan Rickrode '11
click here to read more from Ryan's blog

"Susquehanna writing majors learn by doing, through intense workshops side by side with professional writers and by editing the various literary publications produced by the Writers Institute each semester. If you choose Susquehanna there's absolutely one thing you can be certain of, that when you leave you'll be an exponentially better writer than when you started."
-Sal Pane '07

From nine creative writing majors in its first year, 1996-1997, to 144 majors in 2008-2009; from one student magazine to four, including two that are nationally distributed; from original grant money of $2,000 to a recent grant of $500,000; and from regionally noticed to nationally featured in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Susquehanna’s Writers Institute has grown and been recognized.

But most important, Susquehanna’s writing students succeed.

They have been accepted, since 1999, to the best graduate programs: Iowa, Columbia, Arizona, Houston, Boston University, University of Chicago, Sarah Lawrence, Temple, Pratt Institute, Colorado State, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Massachusetts, Mills, Pittsburgh, George Mason, Hollins, Indiana, Washington (MO), Michigan, North Carolina at Wilmington, Idaho, New Mexico State, and many more.

They have won four Associated Writing Programs Intro Awards for poetry in the past seven years, and they have begun to publish in national magazines. One has recently won a national chapbook contest, and another a national magazine award for poetry. Two recent alums received book contracts during 2007 and will publish in 2008 and 2009.

They have secured jobs at magazines like Us Weekly and In Touch, the most successful magazine launch of 2002, as well as with publishers like Prentice Hall, Harper Collins, and Simon & Schuster.

They have secured dozens of internships, edited and produced on-campus and national magazines, and given formal readings of their creative work.

They have become lawyers, teachers, editors, journalists, grant writers, copyeditors, and advertising writers.

“I was not a writer when I came, but I will forever be one.” -Shanna Powlus ‘04