Creative Writing Program
As Jodi Picoult says, "You can always edit a bad page. You can't edit a blank page."
Take a creative writing class this semester!
Grossmont College offers Southern California’s largest and best community college Creative Writing Program, with top-notch classes, nurturing workshops, and talented instructors to challenge you to sculpt your voice into the next wave of cutting edge literature. We offer courses tailored to different writing skill levels, writing and editing experience, and writing genres. You can also earn a Certificate in Creative Writing with your English degree. Our courses fall into several categories: general creative writing classes, workshop sequences, and production and editing classes. Being enrolled in a Grossmont College Creative Writing class provides you with exclusive opportunities to meet nationally and internationally renowned authors, participate in readings and literary events, publish your work, and even edit a literary journal.
Visit "About Our Program" to see our full catalog of workshops and courses.
This year's FRS is generously underwritten by the Grossmont College English Department, the GC Academic Affairs Symposium and Lecture Fund, and the Foundation for Grossmont and Cuyamaca Colleges (FGCC) Creative Writing Fund. All events of the Fall Readings Series are available to the public and free of cost, including parking for off-campus guests. Visit the Fall Readings Series microsite for more information about this year's FRS events:
Banned Books/Banned Lives: novelist Alex Espinoza
THURSDAY October 5, 11AM-12:20PM PVAC THEATRE
Alex Espinoza is the author Cruising: An Intimate History of a Radical Pastime (Unnamed Press 2019), a provocative and personal non-fiction study of the political and cultural forces behind the gay male cruising scene.
poet Brandon Som
TUESDAY October 24, 2 - 3:20PM PVAC THEATRE
Chicano/Chinese-American poet Brandon Som is the author of The Tribute Horse (Nightboat 2014), 2014 winner of a Nightboat Poetry Prize and Kate Tufts Discovery Award, and the new followup collection, Tripas (Georgia Review Books, 2023).
Lester Bangs Memorial Reading: journalist Brooke Binkowski
WEDNESDAY November 15, 12:30-1:45PM ZOOM Registration: tinyurl.com/2buseh24
Fact-checker for Snopes and TruthOrFiction.com, Brooke Binkowski is a longtime, award-winning multimedia journalist whose reporting focuses on anti-disinformation journalism, environmental justice, borders, migration, and human rights
New Voices A Student Reading
MONDAY December 4, 7-8:30PM PVAC
Curated by the Creative Writing Program, this very popular biannual student reading showcases the talent of fall semester students performing original works of poetry, fiction, non-fiction, drama, and hybrid forms.
FALL 2023 CREATIVE WRITING COURSES
ENGL 126: INTRO TO CREATIVE WRITING
section 3045 Distance Ed (Online), 3 cr., with Julie Cardenas
section 3064, T/Th 11AM-12:20PM, Rm 51-573, 3 cr., with Daniela Sow
ENGL 130-133: SHORT FICTION WRITING I-IV
sections 3066-3069, W 7-9:50PM, Rm 51-584, 3 cr., with Enrique Cervantes
ENGL 140-143: POETRY WRITING I-IV
sections 3074-3077, T, Th 2:00-3:20 PM, Rm 51-583, 3 cr., with Adam Deutsch
ENGL 145-148: ACORN REVIEW: EDITING AND PRODUCTION I-IV
sections 9138-9141 Dist Ed (Online), 3 cr., with Julie Cardenas
ENGL 175-178: NOVEL WRITING I-IV
sections 2734-2737 Dist Ed (Online), 3 cr., with Rich Farrell
About Registering...
The single most important show of support you can give the Grossmont College Creative Writing Program is to fill our classes and keep our workshops thriving. Whether it’s weeks before the semester starts or weeks before it ends, less than robust enrollment can cause what is potentially the most important and inspiring class you might ever take to be put in the cross-hairs for cancellation. Safeguard these courses and your chances to work with some of the best creative writing instructors in San Diego. Invite a friend and hold your seats by registering early.
Our Mission
The mission of the Grossmont College Creative Writing Program is to serve and engage students, faculty, and the community actively through a rich variety of readings and other literary events, and to cultivate a diverse literary community that celebrates and promotes writing for the vital role it holds in our culture.
We also host the The Literary Arts Festival, conducted annually at the end of April's "National Poetry Month," a week-long calendar of events celebrating authors and the transformative power of creative writing in all its diverse forms. Each year, the Creative Writing Program hosts award-winning writers as one-of-a-kind, free-of-charge opportunities to experience literature beyond the page. All the details for 2022 will be available on this site!
Please consider donating to the Creative Writing Fund of The Foundation for Grossmont and Cuyamaca Colleges to help the Creative Writing Program promote literary arts through continued sponsorship of opportunities and events like the Literary Arts Festival. Visit "Foundation Giving" right now to securely make a tax deductible charitable contribution. Your support helps us open up worlds of creativity to our students and community. Thank you!
