Creative Writing at PCC

The Creative Writing program at Pasadena City College offers students an opportunity to harness their creativity, develop their unique writing voices, and explore their craft and processes of creative composing with practicing writers and artists. PCC offers an array of courses and supplemental activities and events that provide students with an appreciation of literature, an awareness of themselves as readers and writers in a global world, and an understanding of the relationship between language, intellect, identity, and scholarship.

The Creative Writing program at PCC exposes students to:

  • the history of creative writing
  • traditional genres and hybrid genres
  • a community of writers
  • the cultural impact that writers have on the world
  • opportunities in editing and publishing

Program highlights include the Visiting Writers series, the fall Writer-in-Residence program, the spring Poetry Day celebration, and the literary journal PCCINSCAPE, which has been in continuous publication since 1949.

Students leave the Creative Writing program with a deep appreciation for the power of creativity and an understanding of the writer’s role in society and of literature’s impact on today’s world. Students can apply this knowledge to careers as diverse as law, marketing, medicine, industrial design, business, and of course, publishing, teaching, and entertainment.

Program alumni have gone on to pursue BA, MA and MFA degrees in English and Creative Writing at UC Berkeley, UCLA, the University of New Orleans, UC Santa Cruz, CSULA and more. Our alumni have served as editors for university literary journals like Bayou Magazine, and have volunteered with California Poets in the Schools and Write Girl, and many have gone on to publish their own creative work with first rate literary journals and small presses.

Visit the PCC Inscape website to learn more! http://www.pccinscape.com If you're a CW Alumnus, we want to hear from you! Email the Creative Writing committee chair, Dr. Ogden, at keogden@pasadena.edu

Creative Writing Courses

English 5A: Creative Writing

Creative literary expression; short story, poetry and essay. Individual experimentation with various forms; students evaluate their work and work of classmates in light of contemporary writings.

Prerequisite: Eligibility for Engl 1B

Transfer Credit: CSU; UC

English 5B: Creative Writing

Creative literary expression; short story, poetry, dramatic form and essay. The focus is on in-depth criticism of student work and professional writers.

Prerequisite: English 5A, 6, 7 or 8

Transfer Credit: CSU; UC

English 6: Short Story Writing

Theory and practice in writing the short story. Maximum credit 9 units, 3 units each semester.

Prerequisite: Eligibility for Engl 1B

Transfer Credit: CSU; UC

English 7: Inscape Magazine Publication

Critical review and selection of creative material; design and layout of a literary magazine. Maximum credit 6 units, 3 each semester. 

Prerequisite: Engl 1A

Transfer Credit: CSU; UC

Read Inscape Magazine

English 8: Writing Poetry

Writing of Poetry in all forms. Reading of traditional and current work. Maximum credit 6 units, 3 each semester.

Prerequisite: Eligibility for Engl 1A

Transfer Credit: CSU; UC

English 9: Creative Nonfiction

Writing and analysis of creative nonfiction such as memoirs, reviews, profiles, and nature writing. Maximum credit 6 units, 3 each semester.

Prerequisite: Engl 1A

Transfer Credit: CSU; UC