Featured courses
Little Writing, BIG PLAY: Haiku & Creative Intelligence
Haiku are small but mighty poems. They can encapsulate the extraordinary and the mundane in three simple lines–the black bead of a bluejay’s eye peering through snow or the cacophony of car horns and jackhammers on a city street. Haiku offer inexperienced and experienced writers alike an opportunity to play with language and expand the way they view the world. In this course, students will study the 16 principles of the Science of Creative Intelligence (SCI) through the practice of haiku and by reading the work of Basho, Issa, Buson, and Shiki, as well as excerpts from Natalie Goldberg’s Three Simple Lines: a Writer’s Pilgrimage into the Heart. The course will culminate in the creation of individual chapbooks featuring students’ haiku and original artwork.
Discovering Your Creative Process
The purpose of this class is to break boundaries and rediscover an easy relationship with the inner Muse. You’ll study your own creative process as well as what other artists, writers, and filmmakers have shared about creative inspiration. You’ll also hear from a variety of guest lecturers working in different media and discuss their work, career paths, and creative process.
The Hero in Literature
This course will explore the idea of the hero from antiquity to the present. The hero is a larger-than-life character whose actions affect the fate of a large community for good, or if a tragic hero, for ill. The hero’s behavior is a model for the ordinary individual. One of the great debates is whether the hero can even exist in the modern world. Among the texts and themes we will follow are The Odyssey (the Classical Hero), Beowulf (the Germanic Hero), Gawain and the Green Knight (the Medieval Hero), Siddhartha (the Spiritual Hero), and The Bean Trees (the Feminine Hero).
Our program is founded on the idea that creativity is not meant to be a struggle, but instead a fun and rewarding process. Developing writers in this online bachelor’s specialization can learn in a supportive, inclusive environment that emphasizes spiritual and personal growth.
As an MIU student, you’ll practice the Transcendental Meditation (TM) technique daily. TM practice has been scientifically proven to enhance brain functioning, increase creativity, and lower stress.
