Creative Writing - Majors & Minors - Knox College

Creative Writing - Majors & Minors - Knox College
Creative Writing
Stories are how we understand the world. Telling them well is one of the most valuable skills you can learn.
Meet Your Professors
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Creative Writing Faculty
Creative Writing Courses
Creative Writing Requirements
English Department Website
Major, Minor
A quick reminder: You are not an algorithm.
AI technologies like ChatGPT are skilled mimics and text prediction tools. The words they produce, however, should not be called “writing.”
At Knox, you’ll learn not only how to express your ideas across different genres. You’ll also tap into that part of yourself that can never be reproduced by a machine. Your voice. Your point of view. Your words, and yours alone.
Maybe that sounds untrendy, but hey, we’re one of the oldest undergraduate creative writing programs in the country for a reason. We've been setting trends from the beginning, constantly inventing a place in which students can take risks.
Major or Minor in Creative Writing
Explore different ways of expressing your ideas, from genre fiction to playwriting. You’ll also study both contemporary and classic literature, as well as other forms of artistic expression.
Requirements
Courses
Course Spotlight
Creative writing majors take workshops in at least two different genres—fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, or playwriting and screenwriting.

Check out a few course examples.
ENG 205 Beginning Poetry Translation
ENG 207 Beginning Fiction Writing
ENG 306 Creative Nonfiction Workshop
ENG 311A Advanced Writing: Fiction into Film
ENG 371 In-Depth Reporting
Editors,
Explorers,
Performers
Luddites
Unite
Creative writing students have myriad opportunities to put their education to work through student publications, internships, study abroad opportunities, readings, open mics, and even a letterpress.
The Keiner Letterpress Studio is its own kind of writing workshop.
We think of printmaking as a visual art. At Knox, it’s also an important part of the creative writing program. Students design and print broadsides, chapbooks, and posters one character at a time. It’s a new way to think about the way words fit together, and what space—and silence—can convey.
Student-Run Publications
Many of our alumni have gone on to careers in publishing. They got their start working on one of the many magazines, journals, and newspapers produced on the Knox campus. These are just a small sample—maybe you’ll even start your own.
Catch
Help produce—or get published in—Knox College’s award-winning literary journal, Catch.
Learn about Catch
Quiver
Experiment with all genres of fiction.
Learn about Quiver
What is Milk Route?
The short answer is a reading series/capstone project for senior creative writing majors. It’s more than that, though.
Watch now
Writing Your Way to Success
As one of the most well-established undergraduate creative writing programs in the country, a Knox College creative writing degree prepares you to work and find success in practically any industry.
What Our Alumni Are Doing
They’re writing, of course. They are also pursuing careers you might not imagine a creative writing degree will prepare you for, like Brendan Reeves ’18, an anti-money laundering investigator at Banner Bank. (Imagine the stories he can tell!)
Kris Pandey ’25 | Graduate Student, Iowa Writers Workshop
Sage Lundquist ’23 | Education Outcome Specialist, Illinois Student Assistance Commission
Samuel Lisec ’21 | Community Reporter, The Record Community News Group
Shruti Mungi ’19 | Associate Content Specialist, The Red Pen
Samantha Duffy ’18 | Web Builder, McMaster-Carr
Lauren Assaf-Holmes ’10 | Of Counsel at Gibson Dunn
B.J. Hollars
07 | Professor of English, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire | Award-Winning Author of 13 Books
Norman Golar
02 | Vice President for Institutional Effectiveness & Research, Stillman College
Will Boast
01 |
Winner of the 2025 Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction
Meet Our Creative Writing Majors
Whether you’re a major, minor, or double major in creative writing, a world of possibilities is open to you at Knox.
Sage Lundquist
Sage is one of the general managers for the Voice of Knox College, or WVKC, Knox College’s radio station.
Meet Sage
Eric Espinoza ’23
Eric Espinoza ’23 is currently a program coordinator doing medical, legal, and education interpretation at Shirley Ryan Lab in Chicago.
Meet Eric
Katherine Zhang
Katherine is an aspiring medical professional who has a wide range of interests and involvements on the Knox College campus.
Meet Katherine
We’re an open book.
What do you want to know about Creative Writing at Knox? Reach out to Nick Regiacorte, Professor of English & Director of Creative Writing.
Email Professor Regiacorte
Tell us your story.
We offer scholarships for exceptional creative writers even if you choose to major in a different field. Ask us about how to apply, study abroad opportunities, and more.
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