Techies and fuzzies generally don’t agree on much, but members from each faction are lining up to take classes through the Creative Writing Program, causing waiting lists to swell to unprecedented levels. With a faculty of globally esteemed professors and accessible young lecturers, students say the program provides some of the best undergraduate teaching on campus.

Because of their popularity, the demand to take writing classes exceeds the number of places available in sections. According to English Prof. Eavan Boland, who is the program’s director, the number of sections offered has been limited by the program’s tight budget.

“On the important issue of waiting lists, we obviously do not want them at all,” she said. “Putting on extra sections is what we want to do. It’s also what we believe is right. But we cannot, as a program, always afford this, and in a perfect world we would wish to have a blanket assurance from the University administration that any sections we put on would be covered.”

As a partial solution to the double-edged sword of popularity, next year the program will be offering a new course, titled “An Introduction to the Creative Writing Minor.” Adam Johnson, who is currently teaching intermediate fiction, will lead the course.

Boland said that one of the reasons the program has become more visible and approachable to undergraduates is the creation of the creative writing minor five years ago.

“The minor is particularly important,” Boland said. “It reassures us that gifted, committed student writers who choose the sciences, or other non-humanities courses, won’t have to give up their talents or interests if they major in a non-humanities subject.”

There are currently 35 creative writing minors, and Boland said that number is “growing fast.” In addition, 40 percent of English majors opt to pursue an emphasis in creative writing as part of their major.

Jones lecturer Katharine Noel said that nearly all of her beginning and most of her intermediate students are pursuing majors other than English.

“Some are serious writers; others like the balance a creative class gives their schedule,” Noel said. “A few are there because they think a creative writing class will be easy — in fact it’s pretty hard work — intensive but fun.”

Students say the faculty in both fiction and poetry are among the strongest in the country. Established writers like Tobias Wolff and Ken Fields teach advanced classes, while the up-and-coming Jones lecturers teach many of the beginning and intermediate classes. Also, each year the program brings visiting writers to campus to teach for a quarter. Nobel Laureate J.M. Coetzee, author of “Disgrace” and “Elizabeth Costello,” is currently teaching a class as the Stein Visiting Writer, and Thom Gunn was the Mohr Visiting Poet during fall quarter.

“I think the faculty is fabulous,” said Karan Mahajan, a junior who is pursuing a double-major in English and Economics. “I have been able to take classes with a variety of teachers. Undergraduates usually don’t have the opportunity to study with writers like Tobias Wolff and J.M. Coetzee.”

Jones lecturers are selected to teach writing courses after completing two years as Stegner fellows. The fellowship is a graduate program for eminent young writers named after the novelist Wallace Stegner, who, along with poet Yvor Winters, founded the Creative Writing Program at Stanford in the 1940s. It is the second-oldest program in the country. There are currently 20 fellows, 10 poets and 10 fiction writers, who were selected from as many as 800 applicants.

“I think it helps that we have Stegner fellowships,” said Jenny Zhang, a junior. “I feel like they take more care with your writing and your workshops. They are midway between a friend and a mentor. It is very motivating to see someone who is just a couple of years older than you working hard and being on the cusp of making it big.”

Zhang is pursuing a major in Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity and has taken six writing courses since her arrival at Stanford, two in poetry and four in fiction. She said that the courses have been a humbling experience for her. She related the story of taking her first poetry class where a friend had e-mailed a poem to their professor before classes started.

“The teacher redid the poem and brought it to class to bring him down a notch,” Zhang said. “But it was a great class.”

Julie Orringer, another Jones lecturer who pursued writing during her undergraduate years at Cornell University, said she understands the appeal of writing to students at a competitive university.

“Creative writing can provide a kind of relief from the idea that everything you study in college must somehow benefit your professional goals,” Orringer said. “When I was an undergraduate, I loved reading and talking about fiction and poetry simply because it cast light on the mysteries of human existence. There’s something inherently fascinating about trying to understand why human beings behave the way they do.”