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The Creative Writing
Program
Unleash your creativity
Study with Published Award-Winning Writers:
Mona Lisa Saloy, Ph.D., M.F.A.; Dedra Johnson, M.F.A.
The Creative Writing Program at Dillard University
Dillard is
one of very few Historically Black Colleges and
Universities (HBCUs ) where students can study the
writing field in a program designed according to the
national standards set by the Association of Writers and
Writing Programs (AWP). Since 1995, Dillard University
students have success in and outside of classes.
Because of
the expectations of readers and the industry, we
encourage our students who pursue writing to Major in
English; for others more interested in magazine
publishing, music, or feature writing, we encourage them
to major in Mass Communications or any subject content
of their choice such as Theater, Art, Music, even
Education. We offer a full range of courses in each
genre: creative non-fiction, drama, fiction, poetry,
screenplays, and preparation for industry. We now offer
advanced classes in all areas. The full catalogue of
courses and majors is available online through the
website. On campus, students publish their creative
work in The Dillard Review, a journal of arts
and letters, which provides hands-on-practice in all
aspects of publishing from editing and writing, to
layout, design, and production.
Off campus,
our students won national, regional, and local prizes in
literature and have published in anthologies and other
journals. After graduating, some students work in the
industry at publishing companies, newspapers, teach
workshops, or work at other journals. Others work in
the industry performing at venues such as Slams, at the
Apollo Theater, and on Def Poetry Jam. Many continue
their studies toward advanced degrees. One Dillard
graduate completed the Master of Fine Arts (MFA) and the
Ph.D. in Creative Writing and is a university professor;
he has also won fellowships to the prestigious Cave
Canem, Bread Loaf, and most recently the Bunting
Fellowship of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study
at Harvard University, Cambridge. Others completed the
MFA in Drama writing and in Poetry; they are also
professors who continue to write, perform, and publish.
Also, at least another two former students are in the
process of completing graduate school.
In addition,
Dillard University students are taught by award-winning
writers. As Director of the Program, my book,
Red Beans and Ricely Yours: Poems,
won the PEN/Oakland Josephine Miles Award in Poetry in
2006 and the T. S. Eliot Prize in Poetry in 2005 from
Truman State University Press. My essays, fiction, and
verse appear in anthologies and journals. My
screenplay, “Rockin’ for a Risen Savior,” a full-length
documentary on the ring-shout worship Easter Vigil of
Black women in rural Louisiana, is in negotiation for
production. My colleague, Dedra Johnson’s novel,
Sandrine’s Letter to Tomorrow,
was honored by The Times Picayune Book Editor as
the “Best debut novel of 2007.” Dedra Johnson’s short
fiction appears in anthologies and journals, and she has
produced short screenplays. We consult with local,
state, regional, and national arts agencies and are
members of AWP.
In addition,
The Creative Writing Program curriculum is enhanced with
visits by a cadre of some of the best writers in our
nation and the world. Guest Writers to Dillard
University include most recently Nikki Giovanni, Alice
Wilson Fried, Valentine Pierce,
Ishmael Reed, Charles Johnson, Pearle Cleage, prior
to her passing Gwendolyn
Brooks, Haki Madhubuti,
Ngugi Wa’Thiango, Al Young,
Kalamu ya Salaam,
E Ethelbert Miller,
Tom Dent, Brenda Marie
Osbey, a Dillard graduate and former Poet Laureate of
Louisiana. We are uniquely poised to provide a
well-rounded educational experience for budding writers,
as well as the skills necessary to aid them in pursuing
advanced study or industry employment. Every industry
in the world employs writers. Good writers do well.
Red Beans and
Ricely Yours,
Dr.
Mona Lisa Saloy
Associate Professor of English
Director, The Creative Writing Program
The Division of Humanities, where
creativity blossoms
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Dillard University's
Creative Writing Program
Study with Published Award-Winning
Writers
Mona Lisa
Saloy and Dedra Johnson
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Saddi Khali, Dr. Saloy’s former student, brought her something close to
rapping but not quite poetry. From Dillard
to studying with Kalamu ya Salaam and Tom
Dent to being featured on Def Poetry Jam &
at The Apollo, he’s publishing in
anthologies & journals, performing in Poetry
Slams, & teaches workshops |
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Jericho Brown,
a.k.a. Nelson Demery, class of ’98, became
a poet at Dillard, Jericho won fellowships
to Cave Canem, Breadloaf.
He published
Please, his first book of poems, in
2008. |
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Creative Non-Fiction
Dramas
Short Fiction
Novels
Poetry
Spoken Word
Screenplays
Guest Writers
Workshops
Learn the industry
Publishing
Layout & Design
Marketing
Every industry employs writers.
! ! ! ! ! ! Good writers do well. |
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Super Rich: A Guide to Having it All
By Russell Simmons
Russell Simmons knows firsthand that
wealth is rooted in much more than the
stock
market. True wealth has more to do with
what's in your heart than what's in your
wallet. Using this knowledge, Simmons
became one of America's shrewdest
entrepreneurs, achieving a level of
success that most investors only dream
about. No matter how much material gain
he accumulated, he never stopped lending
a hand to those less fortunate. In
Super Rich, Simmons uses his rare
blend of spiritual savvy and
street-smart wisdom to offer a new
definition of wealth-and share timeless
principles for developing an unshakable
sense of self that can weather any
financial storm. As Simmons says, "Happy
can make you money, but money can't make
you happy." |
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The New Jim Crow
Mass Incarceration in the Age of
Colorblindness
By Michele Alexander
Contrary to the
rosy picture of race embodied in Barack
Obama's political success and Oprah
Winfrey's financial success, legal
scholar Alexander argues vigorously and
persuasively that [w]e have not ended
racial caste in America; we have merely
redesigned it. Jim Crow and legal racial
segregation has been replaced by mass
incarceration as a system of social
control (More African Americans are
under correctional control today... than
were enslaved in 1850). Alexander
reviews American racial history from the
colonies to the Clinton administration,
delineating its transformation into the
war on drugs. She offers an acute
analysis of the effect of this mass
incarceration upon former inmates who
will be discriminated against, legally,
for the rest of their lives, denied
employment, housing, education, and
public benefits. Most provocatively, she
reveals how both the move toward
colorblindness and affirmative action
may blur our vision of injustice: most
Americans know and don't know the truth
about mass incarceration—but her
carefully researched, deeply engaging,
and thoroughly readable book should
change that.—Publishers
Weekly |
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The White Masters of the
World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
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Ancient African Nations
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If you like this page consider making a donation
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Negro Digest /
Black World
Browse all issues
1950
1960
1965
1970
1975
1980
1985
1990
1995
2000
____ 2005
Enjoy!
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The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
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The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
/
Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
Slavery /
George Jackson /
Hurricane Carter
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The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
/
January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of
Haiti
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ChickenBones Store
(Books, DVDs, Music, and more)
posted 1 March 2009
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