Creative Writing at NTU has a range of offerings for undergraduate and graduate students, who benefit from innovative teaching, skilled mentorship and a stimulating environment of literary exchange. All courses are taught by practicing and publishing writers, including the prominent local and international authors who regularly join the programme as guest teachers and writers-in-residence. Students can sample creative writing through undergraduate courses, pursue a Minor in Creative Writing, undertake a creative Final Year Project or develop a major work through the graduate programme.

Creative writing helps in the intellectual and aesthetic development of students, whether or not they aim to write professionally. Each piece of writing brings together the particular and the general and is both an invention and a "take" on the world. These inventions allow students to explore in a concrete way sociological, economic, historical, linguistic, and psychological verities embedded in everyday life practices, and to imagine new possibilities. In some respects, this parallels what philosophers call thought-experiments.

Students who write poems and stories of their own are generally more aware of, and sensitive to the finer points of how language operates. Creative writing encourages conceptual speculation. It makes legitimate the expression of emotions, reactions, opinions and intuitive judgments. These are discouraged by the protocols of academic writing but can play a huge role in the development of verbal, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and existentialist intelligence.

Creative Writing Faculty

NTU’s Creative Writing teachers are practicing and publishing writers and performers. The programme is coordinated by poet Asst Prof Jennifer Crawford, with additional teaching by fiction writer and editor Assoc Prof Sim Wai Chew, playwright and performer Jocelyn Chua and poet and playwright Ng Yi-Sheng (winner of the Singapore Literary Prize). Prominent guest teachers have included novelist Suchen Christine Lim (also a winner of the Singapore Literary Prize), British-Australian dramatist D.J. Britton, and poet and critic Peter van de Kamp.

Singapore Writing Residencies

The Creative Writing programme is home of the NTU/NAC Singapore Writing Residencies, which bring outstanding national and international writers into close contact with students. These writers are hosted in the Division of English while they work on their own novels, plays, poems and screenplays. They offer their experience and their skill to the creative and professional development of students through consultation, mentorship, teaching and the sharing of their own works.

In 2011-2012, the Singapore Writing Residency (National) is held by Grace Chia Krakovic

Readings and Discussions

The Creative Writing Programme hosts discussions and readings by a diverse range of writers, both local and international. Guests have included Grace Chia Krakovic, Suchen Christine Lim, Alfian Sa’at, Cyril Wong, Catherine Lim, Jocelyn Chua, Alvin Pang, Pooja Nansi, Kathleene West, Peter van de Kamp, Madeleine Lee, Qaisra Shahraz, Melissa de Villiers, Lisa Samuels and Chuah Guat Eng.

Open Mic readings are regularly organized by Epiphany, the student English and Drama Society, and are lively events with strong participation from student writers and musicians.

Epiphany: the English and Drama Society

Epiphany is the student English and drama society, which aims to promote the literary and theatrical arts in NTU. Through its theatre wing, Epiphany stages top-notch plays from both NTU students and professional playwrights during its annual LitFest. Its publication wing, on the other hand, strives to showcase the best of student works through Epiphany’s now-monthly magazine, which can be found here: http://ntuepiphany.wordpress.com/magazine/ . Apart from that, Epiphany hosts fortnightly Open Mic sessions which welcomes students to perform anything from poetry, prose, music, to drama and comedy. Further details about Epiphany and its upcoming events can be found on its Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/groups/8646224743/ , or contact the group at epiphany.hq@gmail.com .