91706

WRIT 121 A

First Fiction Workshop

Benjamin Hale

M W 3:10 pm-4:30 pm

OLIN 107

PART

This course involves both intensive reading and writing of the short story, and is intended for students who have made prior forays into the writing of narrative but who have not yet had a fiction workshop at Bard. Class size: 12

91707

WRIT 121 B

First Fiction Workshop

Porochista Khakpour

T Th 1:30 pm-2:50 pm

OLIN 308

PART

See above. Class size: 12

91708

WRIT 122

Nonfiction Workshop I

Susan Rogers

T Th 1:30 pm-2:50 pm

OLIN 107

PART

This course is for students who want to write “creative” essays. Creative nonfiction is a flexible genre that includes memoir, the personal essay, collaged writings, portraits, and more, ranging from lyrical to analytical, meditative to whimsical. Students will read a range of works and then offer up their own creative experiments, paying particular attention to the relationship between language and ideas. Weekly writings and readings. No prior experience with creative nonfiction is needed. Class size: 12

91709

WRIT 123 A

First Poetry Workshop

Robert Kelly

W F 1:30 pm-2:50 pm

SHAFER 100

PART

Open to students who have never had a workshop in poetry and who desire to experiment with making their own writing a means of learning both about literature and poetry and about the discipline of making works of art. Attention is mainly on the student’s own production, the individual’s awareness of what sorts of activities, rhythms, and tellings are possible in poetry, and how poets go about learning from their own work. The central work of the course is the student’s own writing, along with the articulation, private and shared, of response to it. Readings are undertaken in contemporary and traditional poets, according to the needs of the group, toward the development of familiarity with poetic form, poetic movement, and poetic energy. Attendance at various evening poetry readings and lectures is required. Class size: 12

91710

WRIT 123 B

First Poetry Workshop

Celia Bland

M W 11:50 am-1:10 pm

OLIN 101

PART

See above. Class size: 12

92129

WRIT 221

Fiction Workshop II

Dinaw Mengestu

M 3:10 pm-5:30 pm

OLIN 304

PART

This workshop is open to any thoughtful mode of making fiction, whether traditional or experimental or in between. Students will be expected to produce and revise three or four carefully developed stories and to provide written critiques of their peers’ work, as well as to read and respond to published fiction.

Class size: 12

91712

WRIT 227

Reading as Writing as Reading

Philip Pardi

T Th 1:30 pm-2:50 pm

OLIN 305

PART

The idea for this class is simple: reading and writing are joined at the mind through the eye, ear and heart; how we write is informed by what we read. The hope is that, by reading various writings, you will discover methods and means for furthering your own work. The aim of the class is to help you explore the possibilities of form in relation to your chosen subject-matter. Form, by definition, involves limits. Free verse is not free. The poetic line is one simple limit; tone and cadence and diction are aspects of formal limits. Then there are imposed or prescribed limits, like the decision to write using only nouns beginning with the letter “M”, or to write a poem without any adjectives, or a poem written using a procedure that moves language into unanticipated places, or a sonnet. Class size: 12

91713

WRIT 318

The Personal Essay

Susan Rogers

W 1:30 pm-3:50 pm

OLIN 308

PART

This course involves equal parts reading and writing and is for students who want to develop their creative writing and analytic thinking. Readings are taken from Philip Lopate’s The Art of the Personal Essay, which traces the long tradition of the personal essay from Seneca through Montaigne (the father of the personal essay), and on to contemporary stylists such as Richard Rodriguez and Joan Didion. The personal essay is an informal essay that begins in the details of everyday life and expands to a larger idea. Emphasis is placed on reading closely to discover the craft of the work: how scenes and characters are developed, how dialogue can be used, how the form can fracture from linear narrative to the collage. Students’ works—three long essays—are critiqued in a workshop format. The course is for students with experience in writing workshops, fiction writers and poets who want to explore another genre, and writers who enjoy expressing ideas through the lens of personal experience. Those who bring knowledge from other disciplines are encouraged to apply. Class size: 14

91714

WRIT 324

Fiction Workshop III

Joseph O'Neill

M 11:50 am-2:10 pm

OLIN 107

PART

This is a workshop in prose fiction for advanced students. Students are expected to submit at least two works of fiction to the workshop and critique their peers’ writings. Class size: 12

91715

WRIT 340 A

Affinities & Discoveries

Mona Simpson

PART

The first semester of a yearlong classIn this course, we will engage with a broad range of literary magazines, in print and online, from samizdat to Condé Nast. Students will be guided to recognize and identify literary sensibilities, developing their own affinities and eventually engaging in a more concrete way with the particular periodicals they most admire (in various forms potentially including submission of their own work). In this manner an ongoing conversation begins to take place: one that can extend well beyond Bard. Throughout the semester, we will discuss the mechanics of literary community building, from submitting, interning, blogging, tweeting (one recent editor of The Paris Review Daily maintains a Twitter feed about all things Pym), forming literary chat rooms and real-life book clubs. We will consider strategies for sustainable engagement with the reading and writing students have cherished at Bard, extending into their twenties and far beyond. The professor will come for intense sessions (two days in a row) three times during the semester. The weeks in between, the class will meet and Skype with the professor. The professor will also require written responses to the reading biweekly. This is a yearlong course; those who register for Fall 2016 must commit to continue for Spring 2017.

Prospective registrants must email a writing portfolio to [email protected], with a copy to [email protected], and with “APPLICATION TO AFFINITIES CLASS” in the subject line. Applicants will be notified of their status via email no later than the night before registration opens. See writtenarts.bard.edu for general guidelines on workshop submissions. Class size: 10

91716

WRIT 405

Senior Colloquium:Written Arts

Benjamin Hale

M 4:40 pm-6:00 pm

OLINLC 115

PART

1 credit. The Senior Colloquium in the Written Arts is an integral part of the Senior Project. It has several objectives: intellectual/artistic, social, and vocational. The primary purpose is to guide seniors, both practically and philosophically, in the daunting task of creating a coherent and inspired creative work of high quality within a single academic year. Emphasis is on demystifying the project process, including its bureaucratic hurdles, as well as exploring the role of research in the creative realm, and helping students use each other as a critical and inspirational resource during this protracted solitary endeavor, sharing works in progress when appropriate. This supplements but never supplants the primary and sacrosanct role of the project adviser. Program faculty and alumni/ae, career development and other staff, and outside speakers (such as editors, translators, MFA graduates and directors, publishing personnel, etc.) contribute their collective wisdom and experience, sharing the myriad ways in which writers move an idea toward full creative realization, and giving a glimpse of the kinds of internships and careers available to the writer. Class size: Required for all students enrolled in a Written Arts Senior Project. Class size: 40