Creative Writing Courses - Fall Term 2008

Instructor: Christine Evans

English Cakr. Advanced Playwriting, Mon. 1-3
This workshop-based course is for writers with prior experience in dramatic writing (or a strong background in another creative writing genre or performance.) It combines intensive weekly in-class writing with play analysis and dramatic theory.  Students will be expected to present work in class and to constructively critique others’.  We’ll move beyond the basics of dramatic structure to explore an extended range of approaches to performance writing, including experimental and  contemporary work.  Readings may include works by Sarah Ruhl, Adam Bock, David Grieg, Naomi Iizuka, Migdalia Cruz, Quiara Hudes and others.  Students will develop a play over the semester through two complete drafts, in addition to several shorter works. We will also view performances (video and live) and create short site-specific performances.

Application Requirements for English Cakr:
Please submit the first five to ten pages of a play or a short piece of creative work (5 page maximum) that you feel best introduces you as a writer. Please also include a substantive letter of introduction that includes your background in dramatic writing and/ or performance, gives a sense of your creative passions, influences and questions and sets out your interest in writing for the stage (as distinct from fiction, poetry, or screenwriting.  I’d also like you to describe one single moment from a live performance you attended  (not a video or film of a performance) that inspired you, and why.

English Ckr. Introduction to Playwriting, Tues. 1-3
Plays are unusual beasts in the world of writing; they are design templates for live performance. Therefore, learning to think architecturally is a vital part of the playwrights' craft. This workshop-based course introduces students to a range of structural and aesthetic approaches to playwriting—always with live performance in mind. It combines intensive weekly writing and discussion of student work with play analysis and dramatic theory. All students will complete a one-act play and several shorter pieces.

Application Requirements for English Ckr:
Please submit the first five to ten pages of a play--or if you haven't written one yet, a short piece of creative work that you feel best introduces you as a writer. Please also include a letter of introduction that gives a sense of your creative passions, influences and questions; what you hope to learn in this course; and what's exciting to you about playwriting in particular (as distinct from fiction, poetry or screenwriting).

Instructor: Darcy Frey

English Cnfr. Introduction to Creative Nonfiction, Tues. 2-4
Whether in essay, memoir or reportage, creative nonfiction employs many of the same literary techniques as fiction: narrative structure, character development, scene-setting, extended dialogue, emphasis on voice and point of view. In addition to workshopping student writing, we will discuss examples of the genre by writers such as Joan Didion, Vivian Gornick, William Maxwell, and John McPhee. Assignments include one oral presentation, two short narratives, an extensive revision, and typed critiques of classmates’ work.

Application Requirements for Introduction to Creative Nonfiction:

Please submit 3-5 pages of creative/literary nonfiction (essay, memoir, narrative journalism, etc, but NOT academic writing) or, if you have not yet written much nonfiction, an equal number of pages of narrative fiction. Also, please write a letter of introduction explaining who you are as writer at the moment and where you hope to take your writing; what experience you may have had with creative/literary nonfiction; which nonfiction writers and books you most admire; what excites you about nonfiction in particular; and what you consider to be your strengths and weaknesses as a writer.

English Cnnr. The Nonfiction Novella, Wed. 4-6
In any long-form nonfiction (essay, memoir, journalism), there are countless ways to narrate a true story. In this workshop, students will examine techniques for giving their nonfiction material dramatic and suspenseful energy: chronology, argument, juxtaposition, retrospection, revelation. Students will develop one major narrative while studying craft in the writing of Julia Blackburn, Truman Capote, Spalding Gray, Janet Malcolm. Assignments include one oral presentation, two short exercises, a 20-page narrative, and typed critiques of classmates’ work.

Application Requirements for The Nonfiction Novella:

Same as for “Introduction to Creative Nonfiction.” Also, if you already have an idea for a longer nonfiction narrative you hope to pursue in this workshop, please supply a brief (one-paragraph) description of it.

Instructor: Bret Johnston

English Crr. Fiction Writing, Thurs. 4-7
An introduction to fundamental aspects (technical and conceptual) of writing fiction. We begin with
short exercises and move toward the completion and revision of original work. We’ll read Munro,
Welty, Diaz, Lahiri, and others, and explore how practicing writers negotiate character, narrative
structure, setting, voice, etc. Individual reading assignments will also be devised on a per project basis.
As the term continues, we’ll devote increasing amounts of time to the discussion of student work.
Written assignments include exercises, typed critiques for each workshopped story, two original
short stories, and at least one extended revision.

Application Requirements for English Crr:
Please submit the first few pages of a short story (or novel), and a substantive letter of introduction.
I'd like to know some of the authors and books you love, and why; your writing experience and ambitions;
any other kinds of art that influence your writing (music, movies, or visual art that you admire); and because great fiction is often spawned from the extraordinary knocking up against the ordinary, I'd like for you to write a couple of sentences about the strangest thing you've ever witnessed. I don't want to know about the strangest thing you've ever done, and I don't want you to make something up; rather, just describe the strangest thing you can remember seeing.

English Ctr. Advanced Fiction Writing, Wed. 4-7
See English Crr. Students in the advanced class will also make presentations on craft, and be expected
to revise work more often and to a higher standard. Generally for students who have
previously taken fiction workshops.

Application Requirements for English Ctr:
Same as Crr (see above).

Instructor: Jamaica Kincaid

English Cvr. Fiction Writing, Wed. 1-3
A seminar/workshop. Readings include Bruno Schultz, Jean Toomer, Robert Walser, and Rimbaud’s Illuminations, among others.

Application Requirements for English Cvr:
3-5 pages of autobiographical writing. Describe yourself, your life, and your interest in writing and reading. You may include additional samples of fiction writing; however, they are not required.

Instructor: Joanna Klink

English Cpkr. Poetry Workshop, Tues 1-4
Open by application to both undergraduates and graduates.  This is a poetry workshop involving critical analysis of student work as well as reading and discussion of poems by established poets.  On a weekly basis we will examine student poems and the practical issues in poetics (descriptive language, syntax, diction, etc.) they bring to light.  Be prepared to do imitations; some memorization may also be required. 

Application Requirements for English Cpkr:
Please submit a letter of interest and a portfolio of five poems.

Instructor: Peter Richards

English Cpr. Poetry Writing, Tues. 1-4
A poetry workshop open by application to undergraduates and graduate students alike. In this class students will study modern and contemporary poets and can expect to submit their own poems on a weekly basis for peer review.

Application Requirements for English Cpr:
English Cpr (Poetry Writing) Submit five pages of poetry. A poem may be longer than one page, but no single page should include more than one poem. You are welcome to submit any kind of poem you like, but I am especially interested in poems that are visually precise, emotionally complex, and attentive to the way words sound. In your letter of application, please describe your writing background and which artists, both literary and otherwise, inspire you. Alternatively, you may want to discuss which thinkers, books, or movements you find especially exciting. Poets are students of everything, so don't worry if your passions range far from literature.

English Cqr. Advanced Poetry Writing, Wed. 1-4
An advanced poetry workshop with an emphasis on revision and aleatory methods for generating new work. Readings include John Ashbery, Gertrude Stein, Andre Breton, John Cage, Frank O'Hara, Raymond Queneau, Arthur Rimbaud, Robert Motherwell, Kenneth Koch, Francis Bacon, Marianne Moore, Wallace Stevens, James Merrill, Frank Stanford, Elaine De Kooning, John Keats, Lyn Hejinian, among others.

Application Requirements for English Cqr:
Application materials the same as for English Cpr

Instructor: Daniel Rubin

English Clr. Introducation to Screenwriting, Mon. 1-3 & Wed. 1-3
If you¹ve never written a screenplay - or even if you¹ve written several - this course may be helpful to you. Weekly in and out of class writing assignments will focus on the basics of screenwriting: story, character, dialogue, theme and tone. We will be simultaneously exploring the written work and the processes of writing employed by the screenwriter. Although primarily a workshop, the course will cover highly practical Hollywood skills (writing script coverage, pitching) as well as the less practical (the writer¹s quest for originality and meaning). The goal of this course will be to give students the skills and confidence to write a movie of any type or length, from a studio feature film to a YouTube featurette.

Application Requirements for English Clr:
Please submit 3-5 pages of any dramatic writing you have done, which could be a screenplay, stage play, comedy sketch, or even fiction or poetry ­ as long as it reflects some aspect of storytelling. Additionally, please answer the following questions: 1. What movie would you be most proud to have written (if your answer is ³Groundhog Day², thank you and please choose another)? 2. What movie do you most enjoy watching but would be embarrassed to have written? 3. Have you ever studied film production or film history? 4. If you could ask me one single question about screenwriting, what is it? Finally, briefly explain why you are interested in taking this course.

Instructor: Katherine Vaz

English Csr. Fiction Writing, Tues 3-5
An emphasis on finding your voice as a writer and learning the fundamentals of vivid prose. Weekly writing exercises (finding art in the world, capturing dialogue, using painting and music as a key to entering language) will be supplemented by intensive close readings in the seminar and an introduction to the elements of traditional craft—character, plot, setting, tone, etc. We'll also pay attention to magical realism, flash-fiction, experimental forms, global literature. Authors read may include Fitzgerald, Chekhov, Garcia Marquez, Rodoreda, Kawabata, Cortázar, Salter, Schulz. Course requirements include two submissions to the workshop (short fiction only) and one extensive revision.

Application Requirements for Csr:
Submit 3-5 pages of your best writing—no restrictions, but please keep the pages to no more than 5—plus a detailed cover letter telling me what inspires you in general in the world at large, what you find intriguing and mysterious, and what books in particular, or works of art or films, are special to you. Who are you as a writer at the moment, and what would you like your writing to accomplish? I'd like to know what you want to learn in the course, and what you feel your strengths and weaknesses are as a writer.

English Cwr. Advanced Fiction Writing, Wed 1-3
You should either have taken a beginning course or have a sound grasp of the fundamentals of the craft of fiction before applying for this section. A review of these elements will occupy our first weeks, along with advanced exercises toward furthering your creative voice. Students will make their own craft presentations, and close readings will occupy some of our focus, but the emphasis will be on intensive reviews of your own work, which may be either short fiction or novel excerpts. A special section on magical realism, flash-fiction, and a look at global literature. Authors may include Fitzgerald, Chekhov, Garcia Marquez, Rodoreda, Kawabata, Cortázar, Salter, Lispector, Schulz. Two submissions to the workshop, and two extensive revisions.

Application Requirements for Cwr:
The same requirements as for CSR, (3-5 pages of your best writing, plus a detailed cover letter). If you plan to work on a novella or novel, please also give me a summary of what you envision as the book's overall arc or driving force or plot. Of course you may not know it completely yet, but sketch out (very briefly, not more than a paragraph or two) your starting vision.