For junior English major Janessa Van Order, writing well is a life goal. As an aspiring writer, however, she considers the English department's focus on literature disappointing.
"My career goal is to be a fiction writer, and at UB there is not enough focus on the creative aspect," said Van Order. "All the emphasis is put on lit courses."
Many schools, such as Binghamton University, offer a creative writing focus for English majors. UB, however, currently carries no specific major for students who wish to concentrate on creative writing. Even its celebrated English department is focused mainly on literature, and only offers a handful of writing classes per semester.
Irving Feldman, distinguished professor of English and instructor of both creative fiction and poetry courses, says that he rarely hears a demand for a more dedicated course offering of that genre. He does, however, see the potential benefit of offering more writing classes.
"Having more courses would help serious young writers by giving them additional takes on their work," said Feldman.
Junior English major Don Dimmick disagrees with Feldman. Dimmick has taken a number of the current writing courses and does not feel they are adequate.
"Writing poetry in creative writing classes and having it simply interpreted or criticized is useless to an aspiring writer," Dimmick said. "I feel that a course offering serious study of writing mechanics and stylistic methods is lacking."
According to professor Stacy Carson Hubbard, director of English undergraduate studies, the lack of writing courses is simply a reflex of lax student demand.
"I haven't heard any complaints of students not being able to get into the current courses we're offering, and most of them cap low at 20," said Hubbard.
While Hubbard does not feel student demand for more creative writing courses is overwhelming, she is mildly disappointed with the lack fiction novelists teaching within the English department.
"We have no novelists in the faculty like we had in recent years; we'd like to fix that," said Hubbard.
Kate Caccavaio, a senior English major, believes that a creative writing concentration would appeal to both English literature students and those in other majors.
"A creative writing program, or at least a larger variety of writing courses, I believe would benefit the university," Caccavaio said. "I wanted creative writing to be the focus of my major, but I've never been able to take even one course because they usually offer only one creative fiction course per semester, and it's usually at an inconvenient time."
Hubbard suggests that most of the student demand is currently on more in-depth journalism and education curriculums. The English department now has courses focusing on the teaching of certain aspects of literature at high school and college level.
For example, a new course offering for the coming fall semester, ENG 414/518: Teaching Shakespeare is a course that will instruct both undergraduate and graduate-level students who are interested in teaching Shakespeare how to do so at virtually any educational level.
The general sentiment among UB's English students is that with the department bringing in multiple new faculty members and broadening its educational reach, UB's dynamic English department gives notable satisfaction with its course offerings. Although the need may not seem prevalent to the faculty, the majority of the students feel that there is one area in which the program is lacking - a larger emphasis on creative writing.
Photo: Breadchastick / Wikimedia Commons
