Autumn 2006 Courses

Problems and Strategies in Creative Writing (CRWR 10000/30000)

This course examines the fundamentals of imaginative writing in the three major literary genres: poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. In addition to producing original work in poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, we will also explore methods for analyzing and evaluating imaginative writing by exploring the formal vocabularies of each genre. No consent required.

Instructor: Mark Slouka. Tuesdays, 1:30- 4:20pm.

Fiction

Beginning Fiction Workshop (CRWR 10200/30200)

The goal of this class is to introduce students to the processes involved in fiction writing by emphasizing the technical aspects of the form. This class will undertake a study of the essential methods and practices involved with the creation of fiction, primarily through the intensive reading and analysis of stories by established authors, but also by guiding students in creating their own work. Students will learn to identify various aspects of literary craft and incorporate them into creative exercises. Students will participate in critical discussions of literary work, with an emphasis on an author’s use of the rhetorical strategies that fiction writing involves. Students are expected to illustrate their understanding of such strategies by utilizing them in their own exercises. The class involves many readings and a weekly creative exercise, as well as a final project. In addition, students are expected to participate in discussions and critiques in a online forum designed for the class.

Instructor: Nicolas Pizzolatto. Tuesdays and Thursdays, 1:30-2:50pm

PQ: Instructor consent required.

 

Intermediate Fiction Workshop (CRWR 12000/32000)

The goal of this class is to guide students toward recognizing and using specific story structures and styles as a way to further develop their sense of voice, imaginative seeing, dramatic story movement, and story material. The activities of the course will emphasize the interrelated connections of reading, writing, listening, oral telling, sense of personal voice, and imaginative seeing—a continuation of those concepts as addressed in Beginning Fiction and also through the students’ own personal reading and subsequent journal responses. Weekly discussions of such literary elements will be expected, as well as the practical application to the students’ own creative work. Parodies and other activities will heighten the students’ awareness of the narrative form, particularly structure, style and story movement. Students will select a particular movement to rewrite extensively, as well weekly journal entries, readings, discussions and experiments. Active participation is an absolute requirement.

Instructor: Megan Stielstra. Day and Time: Wed, 12:30-3:20pm

PQ: Instructor consent required.

 

Advanced Fiction Workshop (CRWR 22100/42100)

The goal of this class is to further students’ understanding of the rhetorical strategies, methods, and artistic processes involved with creating narrative fiction, placing a special emphasis on the short novel or ‘novella.’ This class will undertake an advanced study of the techniques and practices of fiction writing, primarily through the intensive reading and analysis of work by established authors. Students will participate in critical discussions of literary work, with an emphasis on an author’s use of technique. Students will learn to identify various aspects of literary craft which they are expected to incorporate into their own creative endeavors. The class involves many readings, discussions, and the creation and revision of a substantial work of fiction, under the guidance of the instructor.

Instructor: Nicolas Pizzolatto. Day and Time: Tu/Thu 3:00-4:20pm

PQ: Instructor consent required.

Poetry

Beginning Poetry Workshop (CRWR 10300/30300)

This course will introduce students to the reading and writing of lyric poetry. Students will complete weekly assignments, or “imitations,” based on the work of published poets both contemporary and past. These assignments will form the basis for our discussions each week, and may be supplemented by reading assignments from a selection of essays on poetic craft. By the end of the quarter, students will have generated a substantial portfolio of original work and refined their critical skills as readers of poetry.

Instructor: Suzanne Buffam. Day and Time: Wed, 1:30-4:30pm

PQ: Instructor consent required.

 

Intermediate Poetry Workshop (CRWR 13000/33000)

In this course, we will explore fundamental concepts in the writing of lyric poetry. Because the course is designed as a workshop, a significant portion of each class will be devoted to the discussion and critique of one another’s poems. We will also read and discuss essays on poetic craft, history and theory, while studying the work of many poets both contemporary and past. By the end of the quarter, participants will have generated a substantial portfolio of original work and refined their critical skills as readers of poetry.

Instructor: Suzanne Buffam. Day and Time: Thu, 1:30-4:30pm

PQ: Instructor consent required.

 

Advanced Poetry Workshop (CRWR 23100/43100)

This course will offer students the opportunity to begin to think in depth about the distinctive qualities of their own writing and to explore how persistent poetic concerns and strategies can serve as the basis for creating extended works. We will read early and later work of selected poets to see how enduring preoccupations may develop over time, and we will also look at serial and long poems to explore how they are put together. Reading will include work by visiting poets Michael Palmer and Lisa Robertson and by George Oppen, Fanny Howe, and others. Each class meeting will allow ample time for students to discuss their own work, either individual poems or longer works as each student chooses. Please submit three to five poems and a brief informal statement discussing your primary poetic interests and how you see your work at this time.

Instructor: Mary Margaret Sloan. Day and Time: Thu, 1:30-4:20pm

PQ: Instructor consent required.

Creative Nonfiction

Beginning Creative Nonfiction Workshop (CRWR 10400/30400)

In this course we will study and practice nonfiction's fundamental form, the personal essay. The personal essay's inherently elastic structure is the perfect means for clarifying our struggles, as well as those of our culture and our time. Through daily and weekly reading, writing, and editing assignments you will learn to clarify and personalize your own essays and those of your classmates. At quarter's end you will publish your most evolved and polished essay of ten to twenty pages in our class's chapbook. You will receive one copy of this chapbook and a grade based on your participation and literary achievement. You will leave this course with writing and editing experience and a body of work to prove it.

Instructor: Daniel Raeburn. Day and Time: Tue, 9:00-11:50am

PQ: Instructor consent required.

 

Intermediate Creative Nonfiction Workshop (CRWR 14000/34000)

In this course we will examine what is creative about creative nonfiction. What makes a personal narrative rise above journalism, scholarship, or opinion to become a work of lasting, literary art? Through daily and weekly reading, writing, and editing assignments you will learn to combine the rhetorical strategies of literature--such as chronology, indirection, omission, voice, and dialogue--with your own retrospection and reflection. At quarter's end you will publish your most evolved and polished nonfiction of ten to twenty pages in our class chapbook. You will receive one copy of this chapbook and a grade based on your participation and literary achievement. You will leave this course with writing and editing experience and a body of work to prove it.

Instructor: Daniel Raeburn. Day and Time: Thu, 9:00-11:50am

PQ: Instructor consent required.

Writing Program

Writing Censorship (English 12703)

Description to come.

Instructor: Tracy Weiner. Tuesday and Thursday, 12:00-1:20pm

Writing for Performance

Visit the University Theater website for info about courses in Playwriting, Screenwriting, and TV Writing.