Creative Writing: Read All About It
The proof of DU’s distinctive creative writing PhD program is in the publishing. A large percentage of graduates are signing book deals—often before they even graduate.
Created in 1947, the program offered one of the first creative writing PhDs in the country. Sixty years later, it still leads its field as one of the only programs that’s completely focused on doctoral students. (DU doesn’t offer a creative writing master’s degree.)
Here are just a few of DU’s creative writing PhDs who’ve gone on to publishing success:
Fiction writers
Janet Bland
Janet and DU English Professor Margaret Whitt co-wrote the writing textbook The Civil Mind (2006). Janet has also had a big success with her short-story collection A Fish Full of River. It was a finalist for the 2007 Colorado Book Award for Best Fiction.
- Read "My Niagara," a story from A Fish Full of River
Danielle Dutton
Danielle’s short-prose collection Attempts at a Life was published in March 2007, shortly before she finished her degree. Her novel S P R A W L will come out in February 2008.
- Read an excerpt from S P R A W L
- Read an interview with Danielle about Attempts at a Life.
Sandy Florian
Though she just graduated in 2006, Sandy already has three books to her name: Telescope (2006), 32 Pedals & 47 Stops (2007), and The Tree of No (coming out in 2008).
- Read Sandy’s poems "Atlas" and "Loom."
Peter Grandbois
Peter has seen a lot of success with his novel The Gravedigger (2006), It’s the story of Juan Rodrigo, a gravedigger in a Spanish mountain village who is haunted by the people he buries. Barnes & Noble picked the book for its Discover Great New Writers series, and Borders Books selected it for its Original Voices series.
The 2006 graduate has also published his short story collection A Single, Straight Line and his translation of San Juan: Ciudad Soñada by Edgardo Rodríguez Juliá.
- Read Peter's story "Gypsy Music."
Poets
Richard Greenfield
Richard’s book of poetry A Carnage in the Lovetrees was named one of Book Sense's Top Ten University Press Books for the Fall of 2003.
- Read Richard’s poem "Avenger."
Christine Hume
Christine’s poetry books include Musca Domestica (published in 2000, the year she finished her degree) and Alaskaphrenia (2004).
- Read Christine’s poems "Lunar Halo" and "What Became of the Company You’ve Kept, According to One Who Left."
- Read an interview with Christine about poetry and writing
Joshua Maria Wilkinson
Joshua’s name has graced a lot of covers. His books of poetry include Suspension of a Secret in Abandoned Rooms (2005), the book-length poem Lug Your Careless Body out of the Careful Dusk (2006), and The Book of Whispering in the Projection Booth (due out in 2008), as well as several others.
Joshua’s first film, a tour documentary about the band Califone called Made a Machine by Describing the Landscape is due out in late 2007.
- Read Joshua’s poem "Of Bird, String, & Fables."
- Read "from A Moth in the Projectorlight," a fragment from Lug Your Careless Body out of the Careful Dusk
Published on Dec. 11, 2007