What happens when international doctoral students participate in a creative writing workshop? Very often, students at our large midwestern U.S. university enter classes having learned English in their native countries with a heavy emphasis on only skills and grammar. They have not had the chance to play with language, to express themselves through poetry, narrative, or expressive voice. One of the authors created the course Writing Workshop for International Graduate Students so doctoral students from different countries would be able to come together not only as a community of writers learning English, but as a community of international writers. The students were asked to turn off their academic writing voices and to explore their creative ones. Slowly, through the writing process of choice, drafting, sharing, editing, revision, and drafting in other genres, the students began to feel more confident as writers. Several discovered that they were poets. Others were willing to take the risk to try different genres. All of the students felt that their academic writing had improved. The authors' findings suggest that it is crucial to allow opportunities for international students to write creatively in both their native and nonnative languages in order to help them succeed in all of their university courses.