POTSDAM -- SUNY Potsdam will be the first State University of New York schools to offer a bachelor of fine arts degree program in creative writing.

The college will join only a handful of colleges in the Northeast to offer a rigorous undergraduate creative writing program.

Offered through the college’s department of English and communication, the program will offer students intermediate and advanced courses in poetry, fiction, screenwriting, creative non-fiction, playwriting, and professional writing.

Students will be required to read extensively in literature and register for a pre-professional internship, as well as completing a senior thesis.

Admission to the creative writing BFA program will be by application only, with students submitting writing portfolios for consideration.

The college already offers a bachelor of arts degree in English, with a concentration in creative writing that requires 37 to 38 credit hours in writing and literature to complete.

In contrast, the rigorous creative writing BFA will require 59 to 60 credit hours in upper-division writing and literature courses.

Students who are admitted to SUNY Potsdam’s creative writing BFA program will be required to offer a a solo reading of their work and complete an internship.

Creative writing BFA students will have a number of publications and projects to choose from at Potsdam in order to add to their portfolios. Students can work for the Peace Poetry Project, an outreach contest program aimed at the region’s elementary students; North Country Magazine, the undergraduate literary magazine; Blueline, SUNY Potsdam’s national literary journal; or Potsdam College Press.

The program is geared toward preparing students for careers as professional writers in a variety of areas, including publishing and writing for arts organizations and historical societies. It will make the most of the well-established interdisciplinary connections between the department and the other creative and performing arts on Potsdam’s campus.

As one of three designated arts campuses in the state university system, Potsdam has a commitment to the fine and performing arts. In addition to The Crane School of Music, SUNY Potsdam is home to programs in studio art, which has its own BFA program, and theater and dance, and offers teacher-training programs in each of these areas.

To learn more, visit www.potsdam.edu/academics/AAS/Engl/index.cfm.