Creative Writing

The Summer Creative Writing Institute offers students opportunities to write and share poetry and fiction under the guidance of a highly accomplished faculty member. At the same time, students will enjoy Paris life and culture while becoming steeped in some of its great literary legacy.

Throughout its history, Paris has inspired writers from France and around the world, often providing a refuge from the intolerance, censorship, or the parochialism of their home countries. Paris is, and always has been, a place of literary salons and lively gatherings of artists and writers in cafés. Amid social and political upheaval, revolutionary approaches to literary form and subject matter have emerged more often from Paris than from any other metropolis, reflecting life in the throes of a modernizing world. The towering figures of French literature such as Hugo, Zola, Balzac, Baudelaire, and Apollinaire all took Paris as their subject, and the preeminence of the written word and the artistic spirit of Paris attracted foreign writers including Stein, Joyce, Hemingway, Beckett, Miller, Baldwin, Rhys, and Wright, to name a few.

Visiting students enrolled in the Summer Creative Writing Institute select a single writing workshop in Poetry, Fiction, or Creative Nonfiction. The three creative writing workshops are designed to help students to read their own work objectively, develop a critical vocabulary, and work deeply on issues of craft. Workshops meet three and a half hours per day, four days a week, allowing three-day weekends for writing, travel, and tourism. 

One evening per week, students will attend readings and question-and-answer sessions with inspiring authors. The event evenings also unite the full group of creative writing students to enjoy informal discussion and refreshments. The combination of workshops and evening events make up four transferable academic credits for those who are coming from other universities. For AUP students, these courses can be applied to the B.A. in Creative Writing or the Creative Writing minor. Lower fees are available to auditors.

During the day, students benefit from the University’s library, common spaces, student café and, of course, the richness of the surrounding 7th arrondissement. Bordered by the Seine to the north, the Eiffel Tower to the west, and Les Invalides to the east, the septième is among the most enchanting and elegant of Paris neighborhoods, offering a rich array of restaurants, cafés, stores, and public spaces that, in the height of summer, show Paris at its best.

A large variety of AUP’s own cultural excursions provides students with organized opportunities to experience Paris and France. Students wishing to travel independently will find a wealth of advice available through the Cultural Programs Office.

Creative Writing Institute 2025 Travel Stipend Competition

This year we are pleased to offer three competitive travel stipends of up to €500 each to outstanding Creative Writing Institute students. To be considered, in addition to your completed summer application, please submit the following supplemental materials via email to admissionsaup.edu:

•     A sample of your creative writing: for fiction and nonfiction writers please include between 5 and 10 pages of your work, and for poets, between 3 and 5 poems     
•     A paragraph explaining how this three-week intensive course in Paris might help you develop as a writer

All students who wish to be considered for the travel stipends must submit their applications by April 15, 2024 2025. Winners will be announced in early May.

Travel stipends must be used for legitimate travel expenses that students incur in reaching Paris and will be disbursed only after students have completed their travel. Travel stipend recipients must retain and furnish all original receipts, boarding passes, train tickets, etc for their stipend to be processed.

COURSES STARTING IN JULY

Click on the course you would like to take, to view the individual dates and times under the header "schedule."  Pick from any of the courses below. 

3-week classes:

• The Poetic Experience
• Fiction Writing Workshop
• Creative Nonfiction: Crafting Personal Narratives