On Thursdays from 6 to 8:30 p.m. in Spring 2025, UIS is offering a course for those looking to develop their creative writing skills. ENG 470: Creative Writing presents students the opportunity to create a short book of original work, learn how to submit their work to publishers, and attend creative writing events online and in person.
Professor Meg Cass sat down with the Observer to talk about the upcoming course.
Photo courtesy of Prof. Cass / UIS faculty headshot
Brandon Damm: Why should a student sign up for this course?
Meg Cass: Creative writing is rewarding, but drafting the story is only the first step. We’ll explore how to define and focus a book-length project and how to navigate the publishing industry. Also, we’ll do a lot of creative writing prompts together along the way and have some fun!
BD: Will students have a published book at the completion of this course?
MC: For our final, everyone in the class will have the option to either self-publish or generate the opening chapters/sections of a longer work. All students will also create a query letter describing their book project as a whole.
BD: Is this class good for fiction and non-fiction writers?
MC: Absolutely. We will study and generate examples within fiction and nonfiction. We will also go over writing a query letter for a book project and submitting work to magazines and agents, skills needed in these genres. Lastly, as a published fiction writer who took a very long road to get to my first book, this is the class I wish I could have taken as a student!
BD: What will students learn in this course?
MC: How to conceptualize a book project, how to describe what makes your voice and project unique, how to be in community with other creative writers, and how to find your readers.
Anyone interested in creative writing can contact Professor Cass at mcass3@uis.edu. UIS students wishing to register for the course can contact their advisor or visit the self service tool online.
About the instructor:
Meg Cass is a fiction writer, teacher, and editor who has over twenty years of experience in literary editing and publishing. Their first book, ActivAmerica, was selected by Claire Vaye Watkins for the Katherine Anne Porter Prize and was published in 2017. Their stories have appeared in numerous magazines, including Smoke and Mold, Ecotone, ANMLY, Foglifter, manywor(l)ds, Mississippi Review, and Passages North. Their flash fiction has been anthologized in the Wigleaf Top 50 (2024, 2012), The Best Small Fictions Anthology (2024), and the SmokeLong Quarterly Best of the First 10 Years Anthology. They co-founded the Craft Chaps series (Sundress Publications), and the Changeling Queer Reading Series in St. Louis. They teach in the English Department at University of Illinois Springfield.