The English Department is not the only body that wishes to see the program grow. Undergraduates have long expressed frustration over the difficulty in getting into creative writing courses and lobbied for additional offerings. And, according to Watson, the University backs an expansion of the program.

“The University is very interested in having people trained to think of themselves as writing for a general audience, a general public of some sort,” he said. “I think creative non-fiction is an extremely good route to learning how to do that and I think that is certainly what the Faculty of Arts and Sciences is interested in in relation to it.”

Though much of the program’s growth is being driven by creative non-fiction, which Watson said draws non-concentrators, program instructor Sam Marks attributes the increased popularity of all of the courses to student’s desire to create.

“I think students today are as interested in creating things as much as they are analyzing them,” said Marks, one of the most recent department hires.

Another of those new instructors, Mark J. Poirier echoed the sentiment. He said he believes that many students have not had the time to be creative before arriving at Harvard and that the program offers a chance to do so.

“Part of the issue with creative writing is that that to get into Harvard, you have to take all of these AP classes and all of that, and you don’t have much time in high school to be creative,” he said. “I think that is why Harvard students are so attracted to these creative writing classes.”

Launched in October, the Campaign for Arts and Sciences—FAS’s portion of the capital campaign—will seek to raise $600 million for “Faculty and Our Scholarly Enterprise.” The University has not said how that money will be distributed.

—Staff writer Jill E. Steinman can be reached at jill.steinman@thecrimson.com. Follow her on Twitter @jillsteinman.