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Program checklist · BFA

Creative Writing, BFA

Stony Brook University · Stony Brook, NY

A checklist is the list of requirements to complete this program and receive the award, as the college publishes it in its catalog. It is the same for everyone. It does not say what you have completed; that comes from applying your own record.

Program
Award
BFA
Credential class
ceterms:BachelorDegree
Catalog edition
Fall 2026 Undergraduate Catalog
Checklist type
degree-program
Description
A Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in creative writing offers a way for students to write compellingly about the issues at the “deep heart’s core” of their - and our - experience. Through workshops in the practice of craft, majors develop their capacity for expression and persuasion, seeking the voice and form of expression that best connects what they have to say with their audience. In literature courses, they learn to read like a writer and to contextualize their own work. The capstone project, a book-length manuscript, teaches self-reliance: students learn to apply their skills and carry a creative vision through to completion. The major’s interdisciplinary aspects and project-driven structure promote creative thinking about students’ own interests and burgeoning competencies, about the nature of truth, and about the time and place in which their imaginations live.
Identifiers
IPEDS UNITID
196097
CourseShelf checklist
CK_196097_efa17326
CollegeTransfer.Net
Institution Transfer Profile
Source
CourseShelf publish 61

Requirements to complete

Every course or condition the catalog lists, in the catalog's order.

Admission Requirements

2 items
  1. Current Stony Brook students are encouraged to apply to the major in their first or second year.
    Not resolved to a course
  2. Transfer students already in their second year at another institution are strongly encouraged to apply to the major along with their application to Stony Brook. Speak with the program director to plan a path through this 60-credit degree.
    Not resolved to a course

Degree Requirements

0 items

    Study within the Area

    0 items

      Introductory courses required of all majors (9 credits)

      3 items
      1. CWL 190
        Introduction to Contemporary Literature 3 credits
        Not resolved to a course
      2. CWL 202
        Introduction to Creative Writing: Writing Everything 3 credits
        Not resolved to a course
      3. CWL 250
        Join the Conversation 3 credits
        Not resolved to a course

      Ten writing workshops (30-31 credits)

      7 items
      1. CWL 300
        Forms of Creative Nonfiction 3 credits
        Not resolved to a course
      2. CWL 305
        Forms of Fiction 3 credits
        Not resolved to a course
      3. CWL 310
        Forms of Poetry 3 credits
        Not resolved to a course
      4. CWL 315
        Forms of Scriptwriting 3 credits
        Not resolved to a course
      5. CWL 320
        Forms of Interdisciplinary Arts 3 credits
        Not resolved to a course
      6. CWL 325
        Forms of Science Writing 3 credits
        Not resolved to a course
      7. CWL 510
        520, 530, 540, 550 Forms of Fiction, Poetry, Scriptwriting, Creative Nonfiction, Professional and Scientific Writing (MFA faculty). By special permission, majors may take a graduate writing workshop, or may count credits earned in EGL 285 , EGL 286 , THR 325 , or THR 326 toward this requirement. Note that a maximum of 6 graduate credits may be applied toward the undergraduate degree.
        Not resolved to a course

      Two literature courses for writers (6 credits)

      3 items
      1. CWL 330
        Topics in European Literature for Writers 3 credits
        Not resolved to a course
      2. CWL 335
        Topics in American Literature for Writers 3 credits
        Not resolved to a course
      3. CWL 340
        Topics in World Literature for Writers 3 credits
        Not resolved to a course

      Four “Capstone Cluster” courses (15 credits)

      4 items
      1. CWL 390
        The Ethics of the Creative Imagination 4 credits
        Not resolved to a course
      2. CWL 450
        Senior Project 3 credits
        Not resolved to a course
      3. CWL 487
        Mind the Gap: Independent Reading 4 credits
        Not resolved to a course
      4. CWL 499
        Thesis 1-6 credits
        Not resolved to a course

      Upper-Division Writing Requirement

      0 items

        SBC Courses

        3 items
        1. Freshmen who matriculate in the Fall of 2019 or later
          Not resolved to a course
        2. Transfer students who matriculate in the Spring of 2020 or later
          Not resolved to a course
        3. Students who rematriculate in the Fall of 2019 or later
          Not resolved to a course

        Sample Course Sequence

        0 items
          Source. Stony Brook University, catalog Fall 2026 Undergraduate Catalog — https://catalog.stonybrook.edu/preview_program.php?catoid=11&poid=1415&returnto=1134. Captured page pages/0219.html.gz. Assembled from the institution's published catalog as captured; every record names its captured page and source URL. Assembled, not asserted.