By offering classes in creative writing, academe has, ironically, reclaimed an aspect of literary study that it had divested when its humanities departments became specialized. In a classical education, students once studied Greek, Latin, rhetoric, and composition by writing stories and poems in Greek or Latin, often in imitation of past masters. Students studied the accomplishments of the past by entering personally engaging practicums that emphasized the creative act. Creative writing classes have become among the most popular classes in the humanities. In creative writing classes, students also analyze psychology and motives, the dynamics of social classes and individual, regional, and national beliefs.
Students shape experiences into stories and poems.
They order their lives and their world. Like America, AWP contains multitudes. AWP is an influential literary organization because it is, in fact, an organization of many organizations and many individuals, as each member college and university creates its own literary community locally while it makes contributions to contemporary letters nationally and internationally. AWP's members teach in hospitals, prisons, grades K through 12, and community centers as well as in colleges and universities. With 320 member colleges, universities, and conferences and thousands of individual writers, AWP has supported countless writers and their work.