The Riggio Honors Program: Writing and Democracy is an innovative sequence of writing workshops and close-reading seminars designed to offer gifted undergraduate writers in the School of Undergraduate Studies a balanced and substantial literary education. As one part of the Leonard and Louise Riggio Writing and Democracy Initiative at The New School, the honors program accents "the writer in the world," and extends to undergraduates the mission and resources of The New School's well-known graduate program in Creative Writing.
The core of the program is a curriculum of writing workshops (fiction, nonfiction, poetry) and literature seminars, culminating in a thesis project. You also earn credit for attending the Writer's Life Colloquium, an ongoing series of public readings, literary forums, lectures, symposia, and panel discussions. Additional elective courses are selected from the broad curriculum of The New School for Public Engagement. Riggio Honors students graduate with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Liberal Arts.
The program is structured to create and foster a community of undergraduate writers through regular student readings and other peer-group activities, including an
award-winning literary magazine, 12th Street, which is edited and published by Riggio honors students.
The Riggio Honors Program is available to students matriculated in and seeking an undergraduate degree at The New School. The program is a 32-credit series of writing workshops (fiction, nonfiction, poetry) and literature seminars culminating in a thesis project. Students also receive credit for attending an ongoing series of public readings, literary forums, lectures, symposia, and panel discussions; the Writer's Life Colloquium. The honors program is a project of the Leonard and Louise Riggio Writing and Democracy Initiative at The New School. All students who have been accepted into the Riggio Honors Program: Writing and Democracy must maintain a grade point average of 3.0. Scholarship money is available.
