19594

LIT 121 First Fiction Workshop

Binyavanga Wainaina

M . W . .

12:00 pm – 1:20 pm

OLIN 310

PART

This course is for students who propose a commitment to writing and have already written stories or worked toward narrative text of any length. Also, reading of selected writers. Group response, analysis and evaluation. Discussion of general principles. This course is open to first-year students only. Not available for on-line registration.

19534

LIT 123 First Poetry Workshop

Celia Bland

. . W . F

12:00 pm – 1:20 pm

OLIN 301

PART

This workshop is for students who strongly 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. Stress is on growth: in the student's own work, and in 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, both private and shared, of response to it. Readings will be 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. This course is open to first-year students only. Not available for on-line registration.

19531

LIT 124 Writing the World: Nonfiction Prose

Verlyn Klinkenborg

. . . Th .

1:30 pm – 3:50 pm

RKC 200

PART

This is a course in two skills: learning to make excellent nonfiction prose and learning to see the world around you. When it comes to the art of nonfiction prose, the emphasis nearly always falls on the personal, and especially on essay and memoir. In this course, I want to turn our gaze outward and to think about how we write from direct experience of events. Our models will be drawn from history and from the broad category of nonfiction writing often, and absurdly, called "current events." Our goal will be to become compelling witnesses and makers of acute prose—but our goal will also be art, not journalism. Students will be expected to write 4-5 pages every week. 

19058

LIT 221 Writers Workshop:Prose Fiction

Peter Sourian

. T . . .

10:30 -12:50 pm

ASP 302

PART

Practice in imaginative writing. Students will present their own work for group response, analysis, and evaluation. Also reading of selected writers. Permission of the instructor is required. Candidates must submit samples of their work, with cover letter, to Professor Sourian, via campus mail by 3:00 pm, Tuesday, November 18^th. Not available for on-line registration.

19184

LIT 222 Writer's Workshop:Poetry

Michael Ives

. T . Th .

4:00 pm -5:20 pm

OLIN 101

PART

Students present their own work to the group for analysis and response. Redings in contemporary poets and the problematics of poetics. Attention will be paid to oral presentation of the poem. Candidates must submit samples of their work, with cover letter, to Professor Ives, via campus mail by 3:00 pm, Tuesday, November 18^th. Not available for on-line registration.

19063

LIT 324 Advanced Fiction Workshop

Emily Barton Hopkins

. . . . F

1:30 pm -3:50 pm

RKC 200

PART

This is a workshop for students who are already deeply engaged in the writing of fiction of any kind (short or long, literary or genre, realist or experimental, etc.). Students will be expected to contribute new work frequently, including a few days on which everyone in the class will be asked to submit a short-short (500-word) story and we’ll workshop all of them. Students are also expected to be well versed in the helpful discussion of their peers’ work. There may occasionally be additional assigned reading of published stories and/or essays. Prerequisites: completion of either the First Fiction Workshop or Intermediate Fiction, or equivalent fiction writing experience. Admission to this course is by application and by permission of the instructor. Candidates must submit samples of their work before registration, with cover letter to Prof. Barton Hopkins via campus mail by 3:00 pm on Tuesday, Nov.18^th. Not available for on-line registration.

19060

LIT 3500 Advanced Fiction: The Novella

Mona Simpson

TBA.

.

PART

The second semester of a yearlong class, intended for advanced and serious writers of fiction, on the "long story" or novella form. Students will read novellas by Henry James, Flaubert, Chekhov, Flannery O'Connor, Allan Gurganus, Amy Hempel, and Philip Roth (and perhaps others) using these primary texts to establish a community of reference. We will discuss technical aspects of fiction writing, such as the use of time, narrative voice, openings, endings, dialogue, circularity, and editing, from the point of view of writers, focusing closely on the student's own work. The students will be expected to write and revise a novella, turning in weekly installments of their own work, and of their responses to the assigned reading. The course will meet six times over the semester, dates to be announced.

19057

LIT 422 Writing Workshop:Non-Majors

Robert Kelly

. . W . F

12:00 pm -1:20 pm

OLIN 101

PART

A course designed for juniors and seniors, preference to seniors, who are not writing majors, but who might wish to see what they can learn about the world through the act of writing. Every craft, science, skill, discipline can be articulated, and anybody who can do real work in science or scholarship or art can learn to write, as they say, "creatively"--that is, learn how to make what concerns them also interest other people by means of language. This course will give not more than a dozen students the chance to experiment with all kinds of writing. Poetry is the name of an activity, and that activity will sometimes produce objects called poems and sometimes other sorts of texts. Towards all resultant texts our attention will turn. This is not a course in self-expression, but in making new things. No portfolio is required but prospective students must consult with Prof. Kelly prior to registration. Candidates must submit samples of their work before registration, with cover letter to Prof. Kelly via campus mail by 3:00 pm on Tuesday, Nov.18^th. Not available for on-line registration.

19038

LIT 425 Narrative Strategies

Bradford Morrow

M . . . .

10:30 -12:50 pm

OLIN 101

PART

With special emphasis on post-genre fabulism and the New Gothic, this workshop is intended for the writer interested in engaging the theory that reading is a primary function of creating fiction. We will explore, through selected readings and responsive writing, the ways a literary narrative best finds its expression, its voice. Students will study contemporary fiction by David Foster Wallace, Jamaica Kincaid, Angela Carter, Rick Moody, Russell Banks, John Crowley, Kelly Link, and others. Class discussion will focus on the variety of technical means by which the author develops a story, and on intensive workshop discussion of student writing. Expect to write one critical essay about the style and technique of the writers we are reading, as well as two original works of fiction patterned on texts in the course, and a third story of independent work in progress. Candidates must submit samples of their work before registration, with cover letter to Prof. Morrow via campus mail by 3:00 pm on Tuesday, Nov.18^th. Not available for on-line registration.