Along with a handful of other writing programs nationwide, Brown provides a home for writers who are envisioning new paths in fiction, poetry, digital language arts, and mixed media.
Literary Arts
Literary Arts
For fifty years, Literary Arts at Brown University has been a creative and intellectual center for a diverse and innovative literary community.
Literary Arts
For fifty years, Literary Arts at Brown University has been a creative and intellectual center for a diverse and innovative literary community.
Course Information
During the registration period, students may register for courses depending on certain factors —some are open based on class year, others on declared concentration.
After the Registration period, instructor permission is needed to gain entry/access to the waitlist. No one will receive such permission until lotteries are run on the first day of the semester — for spring 2025, lotteries will take place on Wed., 22 January.
After the Registration period, instructor permission is needed to gain entry/access to the waitlist. No one will receive such permission until lotteries are run on the first day of the semester — for spring 2025, lotteries will take place on Wed., 22 January.
Literary Arts offers a mixture of workshops, seminars and hybrid workshop/seminar courses each semester, many of which are special topics (and are subject to change from one semester to the next).
Academics
Undergraduate
The Department in Literary Arts offers courses in fiction, poetry, screenwriting, digital & cross-disciplinary writing, and translation, as well as seminar courses in reading and writing about literature.
Graduate
Graduate students in Brown's Literary Arts MFA program may choose to focus in one of three tracks – Fiction, Poetry, or Digital/Cross Disciplinary Writing.
Recent News
Rhode Island Public Radio
Kwame Dawes featured on Rhode Island Public Radio
Kwame Dawes, Professor of Literary Arts at Brown and newly-named Poet Laureate of Jamaica, talks about poetry with Artscape reporter, Luis Hernandez.
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Brown Alumni Magazine
Robert Coover, 1932-2024 (In Memoriam, Brown Alumni Magazine)
Robert Coover, TB Stowell Adjunct Professor, is remembered for is writing, his teaching and his advocacy on behalf of new forms of literature in print and digital frameworks.
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Brown Daily Herald
Screenwriting course given high marks in Brown Daily Herald
Jennifer Levin and John Eisendrath have designed their spring 2026 Advanced Screenwriting workshop to reflect the dynamics of a writers' room. And the workshop members have good things to report.
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