Novelist 101

In order to provide more hands-on guidance on writing literary works, the program provides each student a mentor from the literary circle, in addition to academic advisers from the university.

The mentors of the program include Li Jingze, vice-chairman of the Writers' Association of China; novelist Yan Geling; award-winning writer Ge Fei; and poet Ouyang Jianghe. Two other mentors are novelist Li Er and literary critic Qiu Huadong, deputy editor-in-chief of People's Literature, a literary journal. Most of them have studied Chinese literature in university in the 1980s.

The program admitted its first 10 students in September, and throughout this fall semester, they will have two courses on writing. One is a series of lectures given by successful authors on their personal experiences of literary creation; the other is a writing workshop in which students have to bring their own pieces of writing every week for discussion.

"The program has provided us with a platform to discuss our works with others, and also the opportunity to get them published," says Guo Qian, one of the enrolled students.

"What's more, we can interact with famous novelists and poets, and the program has allocated them as our mentors based on our interest in different literary genres."

Besides the lectures and writing workshop, two-thirds of the courses in the program are the same as the courses of the program of modern and contemporary Chinese literature, which concentrates on academic training.