Professor R. Smith, Chair
Professor Guinn
The mission of the creative writing department at Belhaven University is to train student writers to examine the world from a biblical perspective and to engage the world for Christ through their gifts for writing. In the program, students learn to cultivate the writing life as a high calling and to use writing as a tool for unraveling the mysteries of creation and human experience. Overall, the department imparts a biblical understanding of creativity in general and creative writing in particular, focusing on God’s gift of language to humans as one means of subduing creation and, thus, fulfilling the “cultural mandate” found in Genesis 1:28.
Practically speaking, the program seeks-through a variety of activities such as writing workshops, literature courses, applied experiences, and internship opportunities-to produce disciplined wordsmiths who write clearly, concisely, correctly, and creatively.
Graduates of the program will be qualified to pursue graduate study and careers in in many fields. Current alumni are youngadult novelists, university press editors, middle- and high-school teachers, independent booksellers, public relations consultants, graphic designers, filmmakers, teachers of English as a second language, art administrators, advertising copywriters, small-business owners, and even occupational therapists and public health experts. Most importantly, graduates will be writers who are equipped both to look at and speak to the world from a biblical perspective.
