Global Arc

This course is an introduction to the reading and writing of "the lyric essay," a variety of non-fiction prose that refuses to obey the truth-telling, reality-capturing and argumentative priorities often associated with the essay. We will look at and produce essayistic writing that exists at the borders and intersections of traditionally separate forms, including poetry, fiction and journalism, and that integrates obsession, fragmentation, meditation, idiosyncrasy and hallucination into the creation of new prose shapes.

A beginning fiction workshop designed to introduce students to the craft of imitation as a point of creative departure. Reading the works of a series of contemporary Italian masters¿Alberto Moravia, Cesare Pavese, Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedeusa, Natalia Ginzburg, Italo Calvino, Antonio Tabucchi, Giorgio Bassani, among others--we will experiment with a range of techniques, styles, and themes. Echoing the voices of these authors, composing weekly exercises, we will strive to locate and articulate our own. All readings will be in translation.

We will read published literary short stories by contemporary Latinx writers and explore the vast range of Latinx experience in the United States as well as the vast range of fictional techniques employed by these writers. In discussing these published works, we will analyze how the formal elements of story--structure, plot, character, point of view, etc.--function in these pieces, so that students can apply these principles of craft to their own work. Students will write two complete short stories, which will be discussed in a traditional workshop format, and then submit a revision of one of those stories.

In this course we will write and interrogate poetry across many avenues. From written work to spoken word to instagram, traditional lineated verse to poems that see the blank page as more canvas than paper, we ask ourselves how this ancient holder for prayer, confession, and our wild strangeness performs across different manifestations of text and body. Analyzing works of contemporary American masters will be our foundation, adding our own experiments to the canon will be our goal reached through reading, watching, discussing, playing, writing, ritual making, and performing. Come prepared to write and play hard.

This fiction workshop will look at the ways writers learn from and pay tribute to one another - sometimes intentionally and explicitly, other times tacitly, perhaps even unconsciously. Reading across a range of genres and voices, each week we will discuss a pair of stories revealing writers' artistic heritage, in some cases clearly identifiable as literary tribute to (or subtle critique of) enduring stories, in other cases, less overt in acknowledgment. Throughout, we will explore fundamental elements of fiction through analysis and discussion of these works and through peer critique of student writing (your own original works).

This is a multi-genre writing class that explores daily creative practice. This semester, you'll be challenged to push your creative limits and to take risks in your work. Together we'll explore how we can become more alert to the world and how, through language, we can respond in fresh ways to the events of our lives. As we imagine other experiences and engage in a conversation with the long tradition of writing, we'll practice thinking flexibly and seeing opportunity in failure. In this class, you will be a member of a community of writers prepared to challenge and support each other as we navigate the process of creation.

Poets should come to this class ready to move, yell, play, and discover. Writing and performing our way towards a deeper understanding of ourselves as spoken word poets, we will collaboratively work our way towards a final public performance and, hopefully, the tools to better move the crowds we face, which are the tools to change the world one poem at a time.

Advanced practice in the original composition of poetry for discussion in regularly scheduled workshop meetings. Prerequisites: Two 200-level CWR courses.

Advanced practice in the original composition of poetry for discussion in regularly scheduled workshop meetings. Prerequisites: Two 200-level CWR courses.

Advanced practice in the original composition of fiction for discussion in regularly scheduled workshop meetings.