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South Gate Creative Writing School (Denmark)

South Gate Creative Writing School offers aspiring authors a Degree of Fine Arts in Creative Writing, while providing a practical education in the art and business of storytelling for modern media.

Master popular genres while developing your unique voice, along with a small, supportive and diverse group of peers. Study in Denmark or online, and learn the skills to become a working writer.

Contact Information

Østerågade 25, 2tv Aalborg Denmark 9000 Phone: +45 4131 8032 Email: [email protected] https://southgateschool.dk

Bachelor of Fine Arts in Creative Writing +

Undergraduate program director.

The South Gate education is designed as an inspiring experience for artists. The innovative curriculum provides a holistic and fluid approach to craft, avoiding busy work to free up your time for writing.

Each semester has 5-6 core courses, plus additional electives and masterclasses. You will practice your craft and learn the business of the literary world. You will learn how to make a living through writing.

Theme Driven Semesters

The program is organized into eight semesters, each focusing on one genre or trend. You will learn about its history, evolution, and craft, and then practice writing it or work on your own text.

Each semester, you will read approximately ten primary texts such as novels, short stories, comics, games, and scripts so you can experience and enjoy the form firsthand.

Science Fiction and Fantasy

This semester dives into the origins and subgenres comprising the intertwining genres of Science Fiction and Fantasy. Learn about Space Opera and Planetary Romance, The Golden Age of Science Fiction, Epic Fantasy, New Wave, Heroic Fantasy, Cyberpunk, Contemporary Fantasy, Afrofuturism, and the New Weird & Slipstream.

This semester traces the development of Romance from the 18th century, and argues against widespread disdain for the literary genre. Uncover the hidden virtues of the romance genre largely hidden from mainstream literary culture, from Pamela to Jane Eyre, Regency Buck, Sweet Starfire, Dance Upon Air, and more.

Mystery & Crime

This semester presents the evolution of mystery and crime, to the hugely popular literary genre it is today. You'll engage with subgenres from 18th century crime writing through the Newgate novel, sensation fiction, The Golden Age, the Private Eye, Spy Fiction, The Thriller, Post-war American Police Fiction, Female Detectives, and Black Crime Fiction.

Seriality & Transmedia

Serial forms are increasingly pervasive and span all media types. This semester examines how seriality and transmedia function, and how extensions, expansions, continuations, and sequels contribute to contemporary storytelling and the business behind it.

This semester explores literary devices and cultural origins of the Gothic genre and its transition into the broader horror genre of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Study Wieland, The Mysteries of Udolpho, Dracula, The Yellow Sign, The Turn of the Screw, The Haunting of Hill House, Psycho, It, and more.

Narrative Complexity

This semester addresses a range of increasingly popular complex narrative techniques and how to make them accessible to an audience. Learn to tell stories featuring multiple plots or protagonists, non-human or unreliable narrators, non-linear time, temporal and stylistic distortions, and epistolary devices.

Fairy Tales

Fairy tales are simple expressions of deeper thoughts. This semester explores the origins, cultural dissemination, and psychological power of stories that transcend geographical, cultural and social boundaries. Learn to interpret tales from varied traditions and sources such as Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm.

Rulebreakers & Rebels

As writers, we are tasked with learning the rules. This semester celebrates rebels who have broken rules of subject matter, perspective, chronology, and narratological models, and yet achieved wild success. Read and study Mark Z. Danielewski, Jodi Picoult, Nabokov, Lars von Trier, Gertrude Stein, and more.

Industry Spanning

Courses and electives are designed to provide access to current industry trends and moneymakers. You will have the environment and freedom to experiment, expand, and adapt your skills to the opportunities you seek.

Books and Novels

You will learn how to map out a novel or series and how to divide your writing time into steps and goals. You will learn how to contact and communicate with potential agents and print-industry publishers.

Film and Television

You will have the opportunity to contribute to events and workshops that focus on writing for the screen. You will learn about the production process and how to pitch film and television ideas to production companies.

You will have a chance to work with organizations in the community by writing and adapting stories for the stage. South Gate School has a theater in the building, providing free access to a performance environment and a local audience eager to see your work performed live.

You will learn new techniques for ideation, worldbuilding, and character development intended for the narrative components of video games, table-top games, and live roleplaying. You'll learn to write proposals to promote your visions and make them reality.

Course Structure

Each week at South Gate School, you’ll have 5 to 6 classes focused on creative writing and the business of creative writing, and all related by the semester's overarching genre or trend. You'll soon become accustomed to approaching any project using the knowledge, tools, and business perspective you achieve in these courses.

In this course, you’ll study notable writers within the semester's genre, and learn the historical, social, and cultural context of the genre's evolution over time. A series of lectures will explore the intricacies of how war, politics, religion, art, and societal expectations have influenced the genre and its literature.

2. Genre Study

In this course, you'll read and discuss primary texts from the semester's canon of literature. You'll dive into a specific sub-genre by reading and presenting an assigned text, dissecting its plot, characters, dialogue and description. You'll research and share the author's backstory and how their work has been received by the public and adapted over time.

3. Literary Criticism

Literary criticism courses teach you how to evaluate and abstract literature through established forms of criticism. You will build a collection of lenses like formalism, feminism, and Marxism, and contemporary forms like love and ideology, animals, eco, the uncanny, and queer.

These courses aim to develop your craft of writing. You'll study components of successful narratology and how to improve yours. You'll learn plot paradigms and story structures, and how to build unforgettable characters and worlds. You'll learn to use the Principle of Antagonism, how to write dialogue, and how to create tension at the sentence level.

5. Practicum

This course is a forum where your work generates feedback from classmates and the instructor. It uses a "fly on the wall" approach in which you only listen to how an audience might read your text. By teaching students to give supportive and motivational feedback, this environment fosters safety and encouragement so you and your story can flourish.

6. Business

South Gate School's unique approach provides an understanding of the literary business in order to help you become an artist-entrepreneur. You’ll learn how to build a branded author platform and to write articles, blogs and reviews. You'll learn how to produce business plans, proposals and grant applications, and how to query agents and read contracts.

7. Electives

Optional workshops offer 2-4 sessions in specialties like character development, novel or screenwriting, comics, children’s books, worldbuilding, game narrative, creative non-fiction, microtension, or poetry. Masterclasses feature expert lectures on subjects like sociolinguistics or representation, or immersive research experiences like a survival course or touring a navy ship.

Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing +

Graduate program director, leanne kline christiansen.

LeAnne Kline Christiansen graduated Magna Cum Laude with a Master's Degree in English from Pennsylvania State University in Creative Writing: Fiction, Nonfiction, and Poetry (2009) and Dean's List graduate with a Bachelor's Degree in Communications: film & Video. Awarded a teaching assistantship from Pennsylvania State University, she taught Composition and Rhetoric, Introduction to Fiction, Introduction to Nonfiction, Introduction to Poetry, Creative Writing, and Intermediate Fiction. She lived and worked in California, where she worked for impressive companies like ICM (International Creative Management) in the Motion Picture Literary Department and Warner Music Group in the Sales and Marketing Department. She currently teaches at Aalborg University in the Department of Culture and Global Studies. She was accepted into the New York Pitch & Shop Conference, NY; Hawaii International Conference on Arts and Humanities; Writing by Degrees, NY; Uncanny Media, Netherlands. Her work has been published in Poetic Diversity, The Taj Majal Review, Centre Daily Times, Blood Moon Rising Magazine, The Centrifugal Eye, Microhorror, The Little Bitty Poetry Competition, Poetry Vibe, and Eternal Portraits.

Leslie Crislip Nielsen

Leslie Crislip Nielsen holds a Master of Arts in English Literature from The Ohio State University and a Master of Fine Arts in Poetry and Creative Nonfiction from Ashland University. Her poems have appeared in journals such as r.kv.r.y., The Missing Slate, Literary Mama, Common Threads, and AKROS review. She has also written for and directed pieces for stage, including one performed in and around an Olympic-sized swimming pool. Editorial work includes roles as publisher and editor for Poets’ Quarterly and reader for the esteemed River Teeth Journal. She has taught all genres and levels of creative writing, academic and business writing, and humanities courses for northeast Ohio universities including Kent State University, Malone, Walsh, and Mount Union. Leslie’s photography has appeared in exhibits in Columbus, Ohio and Viborg, Denmark. Credits include instructional books in swimming and gymnastics, artwork and art direction for numerous CD covers and inserts, plus promotional materials for various arts organizations. She has sung and toured with vocal groups performing works from jazz to classical masterworks, recorded vocal tracks for many settings, and danced with a semi-professional modern company. Leslie also enjoys speaking and teaching private workshops on creativity and inspiration across artforms.

Visiting Writers Program +

Daniel Vejrgang Nielsen, Amalie Rusborg, Ralph Soll, Steen Christiansen, Marianne Kongerslev, Victoria Ichizli-Bartels, Dennis Friedrichsen

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Copyright © 2024 by AWP. All rights reserved.

South Gate Creative Writing School

South Gate Creative Writing School offers aspiring authors a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Creative Writing, while providing a practical education in the art and business of storytelling for modern media.

Master popular genres while developing your unique voice, along with a small, supportive and diverse group of peers. Study in Denmark or online, and learn the skills to become a working writer.

It’s practical. You’ll read, watch, analyze, and practice writing for various media, including popular and literary fiction, plays and film, children’s literature, young adult, and game narrative.

This highly personal creative writing program means that you’ll receive a hand-crafted education tailored to the times and adapted to your level, needs, and interests.

Theme Driven Semesters

The program is organized into eight semesters, each focusing on one genre or trend. You will learn about its history, evolution, and craft, and then practice writing it or work on your own text.

Industry Spanning

Courses and electives are designed to provide access to current industry trends and moneymakers. You will have the environment and freedom to experiment, expand, and adapt your skills to the opportunities you seek.

Course Structure

Each week at South Gate Creative Writing School, you’ll have 5 to 6 classes focused on creative writing and the business of creative writing, and all related by the semester’s overarching genre or trend.

Learn More!

Students are invited to visit our website now, look around, and get in touch with us by phone, email or social media. We love to meet fellow artists and talk about how to help achieve your dreams.

© 2024 EACWP

Privacy Overview

South Gate Creative Writing School

Introduction

South Gate Creative Writing School offers aspiring authors a Degree of Fine Arts in Creative Writing, while providing a practical education in the art and business of storytelling for modern media.

Master popular genres while developing your unique voice, along with a small, supportive and diverse group of peers. Study in Denmark or online, and learn the skills to become a working writer.

It's practical. You’ll read, watch, analyze, and practice writing for various media, including popular and literary fiction, plays and film, children’s literature, young adult, and game narrative.

This highly personal creative writing program means that you’ll receive a hand-crafted education tailored to the times and adapted to your level, needs, and interests.

Theme Driven Semesters

The program is organized into eight semesters, each focusing on one genre or trend. You will learn about its history, evolution, and craft, and then practice writing it or work on your own text.

Industry Spanning

Courses and electives are designed to provide access to current industry trends and moneymakers. You will have the environment and freedom to experiment, expand, and adapt your skills to the opportunities you seek.

Course Structure

Each week at South Gate Creative Writing School, you’ll have 5 to 6 classes focused on creative writing and the business of creative writing, and all related by the semester's overarching genre or trend.

Learn More!

Students are invited to visit our website now, look around, and get in touch with us by phone, email or social media. We love to meet fellow artists and talk about how to help achieve your dreams.

Østerågade 25, 2tv, 9000, Aalborg

• Degree of Fine Arts in Creative Writing

Institution also offers:

• Bachelor (1) BACHELORSTUDIES

South Gate Creative Writing School

Independence High School Student Wins Creative Writing Award

• Updated: Apr. 27, 2024, 7:23 p.m. |
• Published: Apr. 27, 2024, 7:15 p.m.

Independence High School writer Callia Shumay Submitted by Independence Local Schools

• Mark T. Baxter, special to cleveland.com

Independence, Ohio – Exceptional writing skills have scooped Independence High School student Callia Shumay top awards in a writing competition.

She was awarded both silver and gold keys in the Scholastic Writing and Art event and now her work will feature in an exhibit at Cleveland Museum of Art.

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Creative Writing

Help transform the lives of south carolina's most promising writers as they learn the value of craft and sound writing techniques from experienced, published authors..

The South Carolina Governor's School for the Arts & Humanities Foundation supports the Governor's School Creative Writing Department by funding needs not met by state operating funds, such as underwriting special programs, projects, and experiences offered at the school by providing financial and other assistance:

Guest Artists

Guests artists play a valuable role in the classroom and make the Governor's School experience so unique compared to other schools.  

"I believe that the guest artist program is extremely valuable for me, my peers, this school, and even my teachers. We’re constantly growing, and it's through other people that we learn how. An outside perspective (or in this case a writer) is extremely beneficial because there are certain things that can't be learned until someone asks a question. Through reading and talking to other artists I learn new skills and philosophies that my teachers, as intelligent and creative as they are, may not have thought to teach me because it's not their artistic style” - Class of 2022 Creative Writing Student

Last school year, the Foundation funded over $6,000 to bring professional guest artists to campus including:

•  Stephen Graham Jones, a New York Times Bestselling Author who has published over twenty books and won numerous Shirley Jackson Awards, Bram Stoker Awards and a Ray Bradbury Award.
• Emilia Phillips, currently a faculty member at UNC-Greensboro is a poet and the author of Embouchure. She is the winner of a Pushcart award and has published four chapbooks. 
• Julia Ridley-Smith, the 2020-21 Kenan Visiting Writer at North Carolina-Chapel Hill is the author of The Sum of Trifles , released by University of Georgia Press in 2021. Her second book, a collection of stories will be released in 2024.

Department Support 

As a residential arts school, students have unique needs and opportunities, and the Foundation is committed to assuring access to those opportunities to all students. The Foundation supports special learning experiences and other costs including field trips, guest adjudicators, competition fees, and student reading awards.

How YOU can make a difference  

Your tax-deductible gift to the foundation ensures that cost is not a barrier for any student who is accepted to the Governor's School, elevates the school’s learning environment, and makes our one-of-a-kind arts community possible.

Please consider making a gift today so our young artists can share their gifts for years to come. With a monthly donation, you can show your support of the Governor's School all year-round.

Two HFA Students Awarded Five College Prose and Poetry Prize for Creative Writing

UMass Amherst undergraduate students Andrea Peter ’25, a comparative literature major, and Livvy Krakower ’24, an English major, were among the 2024 Five College Prose and Poetry Prize recipients honored at a reading and reception April 18 in Hampshire College's Harold F. Johnson Library.

Celebrating creative writing of all genres, the Five College Prose and Poetry Prize, formerly PoetryFest, was reinstated in 2023 after a hiatus due to the pandemic. The contest received 150 total submissions from students representing UMass Amherst, Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke and Smith colleges, and The Care Center of Holyoke this year.

“For me the most amazing thing about the Five College Poetry and Prose competition is to meet fellow writers from other institutions,” says Krakower, a winner for prose who also won the prize in 2023. “Each college in the consortium is so unique and I am thankful that I have been able to hear pieces I would never hear if not for the competition.”

Peter won a poetry prize in the competition.

“Thanks to Five Colleges, Inc., and our English departments for supporting this work,” says Donna LeCourt, chair of the UMass Amherst English department. “Prizes to undergraduates are important and help to build their reputations in literary and professional communities. The opportunity for our graduate students to judge and manage literary awards provides exceptional professional development and helps distinguish them as creative leaders. I’m happy to see this prize come back to the Five College community.”

“I had a wonderful time judging the prose prize,” says 2024 prose judge and UMass Amherst MFA candidate Danielle Bradley, who was joined on the judging panel by fellow UMass Amherst MFA candidate and poet Ide Thompson ’24. “All of the submissions were impressive, and it was so special to hear many of the winners read their submissions at the reception.”

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South Gate  Creative Writing School

The art and business of storytelling

Applications are welcome from March 1 -   August 15.

For attendance in Denmark, applicants must have EU residency or EU citizenship, including dual citizens of any EU country such as Denmark. If you do not already reside in Denmark, please apply early, allowing time to acquire Danish residency, which you'll need for housing and other services in Denmark. If you are not an EU resident or citizen, SGS is unable to assist in obtaining Danish residency or a student visa.

For attendance online, applicants may be residents or citizens of any country.

Please prepare the following materials before applying. We look forward to reading your work!

Résumé or CV

Provide a résumé or curriculum vitae (CV) that describes your education, work experience, any publications, and ancillary information and awards : 1-3 pages.

Personal Statement

Specify your motivation for applying, projects you would like to develop, your writing goals, and your expectations of the degree program. As the program is taught in English, this essay must be written in English : 3 pages, double-spaced, 12 pt, Times New Roman, English language.

Writing Sample

Submit samples of work that best represent you as an author and artist. This may include samples of short stories, chapters, poems, book proposals, scripts, illustrations, or other works: maximum 20 pages, double-spaced, 12 pt, Times New Roman, English language.

Transcripts

Provide copies of your transcripts for upper secondary/high school and above. If graduating this summer, you may provide your final transcript after submitting your application.

Letters of Recommendation

Provide two (2) letters of recommendation including at least one from an academic reference. You may provide these after submitting your application. Include contact information: full name, organization, address, phone number, and professional e-mail address.

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Do you have questions or comments about South Gate School or the application process? Feel free to ask or tell us anything. We look forward to hearing from you!

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• Creative Writing Minor
• Minor in Filmmaking
• Graduate Programs
• BFA Curriculum
• BFA Rationale
• Courses/Topics
• How to Apply
• Statement of Purpose
• Writing Sample
• Recommendations
• Minor Admission
• Southampton/Manhattan Options
• Creative Writing Showcase
• Film Showcase
• Imagine Wednesdays
• Create Wednesdays
• Special Events

How Do I Get Into the Creative Writing Minor?

Minors and non-minors alike are welcome to enroll in CWL 202 on a first-come, first-served basis. Registering for advanced writing workshops, however, requires that you have taken the prerequisite, CWL 202. If SOLAR is not recognizing your prerequisite, you'll need the permission of the program, obtained by emailing [email protected] . Include your SBU ID number, the course you'd like to take, which section of that course, and the name of your CWL 202 instructor, along with the semester in which you took it.

Transfer students may have introductory creative writing courses from other institutions evaluated as substitutes, also by emailing [email protected] or visiting the office at Melville Library N3017. You'll need to provide a syllabus for the course you took.

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