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York U (Canada)  /  Essays  /  Prompt 2

York U (Canada): Creative Writing statement of interest

Short statement; portfolio is 10 to 15 pages

Statement of interest, submitted with a 10 to 15 page portfolio of fiction, poetry, and/or creative nonfiction via MyFile. The program looks for original, vibrant, compelling and adventurous work and your own unique voice.
What it’s really asking

The program wants to understand why you write, what you are trying to develop as a writer, and why this program fits that goal. It is not a place to recite your grades or your love of reading in general. They are pairing the statement with your portfolio, so the two should feel like the same person.

Why they ask it

Creative Writing admits on craft and voice, not average. The statement frames how the faculty reads your portfolio. A sharp, honest statement makes a reader approach your pages with attention; a generic one makes them look for reasons to pass.

Three ways in
Name your obsession

Say what kind of writing you are actually trying to do and the question or preoccupation driving it. Specificity here is what makes a reader curious about your pages.

Point to a turning point

Reference a specific influence or moment that changed how you write, not a list of favorite authors. One real shift beats ten name-drops.

Tie it to the craft taught here

Connect your goal to what the program actually teaches, so your interest reads as informed rather than as flattery aimed at any school.

✕  Weak opening

“Ever since I was a child, I have had a deep and abiding passion for storytelling and the magic of words.”

✓  Strong opening

“I write short fiction about people who lie to be kind, and I have never once managed to make the lie feel like a virtue.”

✦ Annotated example · Creative Writing statement of interest. Written by EssayLens to teach, not a real applicant’s essay. Tap a highlighted line →
I write about the places people leave and the versions of themselves they leave there. 1My portfolio gathers three short stories and a sequence of prose poems set in the same fading mill town in southern Ontario, where I grew up listening to my grandmother narrate a country that no longer exists on any map. 2I am drawn to fiction that refuses tidy endings, and to poems that trust the reader to sit inside an unresolved image. 3In the enclosed work I have tried to let voice carry meaning: a cousin's voicemail that becomes an elegy, a recipe that turns into a confession. 4What I want from this program is pressure: editors and peers who will tell me when a line is doing less than it pretends to, and writers ahead of me whose risks will embarrass mine into being braver. 5I am not finished finding my voice. I am hoping York is where I keep losing and re-finding it.6
  1. 1A statement of interest should open with a real sense of the writer's preoccupations. This one line stakes out a genuine subject, signalling the 'unique voice' the program looks for instead of generic enthusiasm.
  2. 2It grounds the abstract in concrete material (a mill town, a grandmother's lost country). York rewards evidence over adjectives, and a vivid, specific origin reads as real source material rather than posture.
  3. 3Naming an aesthetic ('refuses tidy endings') shows the applicant has a developed sensibility, which speaks to the program's wish for adventurous, original work and a clear point of view.
  4. 4Pointing back to specific pieces in the portfolio integrates the statement with the submitted pages, exactly as the prompt frames it, and previews the experimental moves a reader will encounter.
  5. 5This addresses fit with the program (workshop, peers, mentorship) rather than vague 'fit with the school' prestige, which is precisely what York says it rewards.
  6. 6A short, honest closing line that resists overstatement. The admission of being unfinished signals self-awareness and adventurousness, ending on the program's own language of voice without claiming to have arrived.
Stuck? Start here
  • What do I keep writing about without meaning to, and why does it pull me?
  • What is one habit or weakness in my own writing that I want this program to push on?
  • Which piece in my portfolio best shows my actual voice, and does my statement point toward it?
Before you submit
  • My statement and my portfolio clearly sound like the same writer.
  • I named a specific craft goal, not a general love of words.
  • I tied my interest to what this program actually teaches, not to vague praise of York.

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