Beginning Workshops

In the same way that water is composed of two elements—hydrogen and oxygen—the personal essay essentially consists of anecdotes and reflections, i.e., facts and thoughts, or the objective and the subjective. What happened, and what what happened *means*. The artistry of the essay consists of not only balancing these two elements but combining them so that they complement but also contradict one another. In this workshop you’ll write multiple drafts of your own attempt at the form while line editing and critiquing your classmates’ attempts. At the same time we’ll read (and write about) foundational essays that are in overt dialogue with one another, starting with “Why I Write,” by George Orwell, and “Why I Write,” by Joan Didion. We’ll read James Baldwin in conjunction with the seminal essay he inspired Adrienne Rich to write, then look at infusions of poetry into the form via Natalia Ginzburg and Margaret Atwood. We'll end by reading Didion’s essay, “Goodbye to All That,” paired with Eula Biss' cover version, also titled "Goodbye to All That." You'll leave knowing the recent history, basic theory, and practice of nonfiction's most fundamental form.

Although humans live among non-human species, we often see representations of “nature” as utterly separate from human existence. However, the realities of a rapidly changing world unsettle this false distinction. This introductory workshop will consider how conventions of nonfiction might disrupt the nature/culture binaries. Developing aspects of literary craft, including form, voice, structure, scene-setting, and image, we will frame our creative endeavors through the lens of writing in the Anthropocene. Readings and workshop submissions will engage with apocalyptic fright, but also explore how language and form unearth delight. To begin, we will investigate human relationships to companion species with the aim of understanding the narrative elements of origin stories. We will then shift to representations of so-called native and non-native species to examine how language shapes, and can re-shape, these categories. Students will leave workshop having established a writing practice steeped in craft and shaped by questions of how we might write and think adaptively about current contexts. Readings include texts by Marwa Helal, Amy Leach, Tao Orion, Elena Passarello, Carl Safina, and Gary Snyder.

“If you want a compelling story, put your protagonist among the damned”—Charles Baxter

While crisis is to be avoided in life, when it comes to narrative, trouble is your friend. In this beginning workshop, you'll explore the ways writers create conflict in their stories, be it internal or external, spiritual or physical, romantic, financial or familial. We'll look at how writers use specifics of craft--including point of view, scene and summary dialog, causality, interiority, place, and narrative time--to create conflict that feels organic, foregrounded and inevitable. We’ll read and model masters of the form like ZZ Packer, George Saunders, Jhumpa Lahiri and Yiyun Li, and do weekly writing exercises that encourage you to take creative risks and hone new skills. Each student will work toward a final portfolio of one polished, revised story, with strong emphasis on focused and productive peer critique and in-class commentary.

You’ve heard this one before.  Fairy tales are some of our most durable stories, and they are durable in two ways: they can survive not only the passage of time but the distortions of creative retellings.  In the first third of this class we will study folk tales from varied traditions, learning to recognize basic elements of storytelling such as closure, plot twist, and economy.  In the middle third of class we will write and workshop our original retellings, using the old tales as a frame in which to practice modern techniques like scenic narration, incidental detail, and interiority.  Finally, in the last third of the class you’ll write and workshop an original fairy tale.  Students will be responsible for weekly response papers and detailed critique of classmates’ workshop submissions.  Tales will be drawn from around the world; our modern models may include Franz Kafka, D.O. Fagunwa, Angela Carter, Italo Calvino, Yoko Tawada, and Ludmilla Petrushevskaya.

Representing Ourselves: “We read to find ourselves” or so Harold Bloom told the mainstream media collective to which he belongs. But what about those who lack representation from canon to curriculum to publishing industry and literary criticism? How does our practice of reading and writing differ from the default standards of being which the American literary imagination has deemed “universal”? In this multicultural multi-genre workshop we will read and honor the works of people of color, Black, Indigenous, Muslim, immigrant, women, queer, gender-nonconforming, disabled, and incarcerated artists. Students will deconstruct and celebrate the unique ways in which they create and encounter ideas that may differ from their own, drawing connections between worldview and craft. Through collective leadership, mutual respect, and rigorous practice, students will boldly explore their identities with the goal of developing a nuanced literary aesthetics. Half the quarter will focus solely on original student work. Students will self-direct their goals, craft artist statements, and lead workshop discussions.

Shaping Poems: This course introduces students to poetry writing first by exploring various ways of generating material, then by shaping that material into poems. We’ll refine devices such as image, rhythm, and metaphor while we also explore the musical movements of mind that lyricism makes available. The class will practice literary community building by discussing peers’ poems in workshops, by responding to poems and essays by contemporary and modern poets and critics, and by attending literary events on campus. For the first few sessions, we will focus primarily on readings and in class writing. As we move forward, we will spend most of class time workshopping student poems. Students can expect to turn in several drafts of poems, serve as discussion leaders, provide written comments to their peers, and assemble a final portfolio.

This course introduces fundamental ideas about poetic form and approaches to poetic writing through close reading and discussion of poetry (modern and contemporary but not exclusively). We will consider poetic elements from the ground-up—reading closely for sound, image, syntax, and meaning—in order to enliven those elements in student writing. Likewise, we will consider how poems appear at a cross-roads between history and experience (the past and present) in order to inspire students to write not only about themselves but about real and imagined social, cultural, historical, and intellectual locations and horizons. We will do so in conversation with our peers by way of regular workshops, in which students will give feedback to one another’s works, learning thus how to read critically while generously, and how to respond collegially while also constructively.  At the end of the quarter students will revise drafts based on the class writing exercises and workshop conversations, to produce a portfolio prefaced by a critical reflection. Students who are interested in the multidisciplinary and multimedial intersections of poetry are especially encouraged to apply.

Scenes are often considered the building blocks of narrative story-telling. In this course, we’ll examine short fiction through the lens of scene, starting from the basics: What are scenes, how do they work, and what should they accomplish in a story? We’ll consider the scene’s relationship with context, tension, subtext, narrative arc, and other story elements. Together we’ll examine how authors like Bret Anthony Johnston, Rebecca Lee, and Jhumpa Lahiri use scenes to great effect, with a particular focus on setting, dialogue, action, and detail. In addition to readings, students will complete several short writing exercises and one longer story, which you will workshop and substantially revise. You will also engage with the work of your peers, delivering thoughtful, encouraging, constructive critiques.

Understanding Narrative Points of View: Writers at all levels learn through the careful reading of works they admire. We will spend more than a third of our time in this class reading stories worth learning from, both classic and contemporary, by writers like James Baldwin, Edith Wharton, and Jhumpa Lahiri. Discussion will be lively—passionate opinions and enthusiasm are welcome—but most of our focus will be on the choices writers make, the nuts and bolts of craft, including: point of view, tone, direct and summary dialog, setting, and use of time. In-class exercises will further hone your understanding of specific techniques, fire your creativity and get you writing. We will then move to writing workshop, where you will have the opportunity to present your work to the group. Critique will be respectful and productive, with emphasis on clarity and precision. By the end of the course, you will have generated significant raw material and completed at least one story, which will be revised and handed in as a final portfolio.

Basics of Narrative Design:

Describing fiction writing as an “art” is perhaps a misnomer. Depending on who’s describing it, the process of creating a narrative is more like driving in the dark, or like woodworking, or gardening. It’s like raising a half-formed, misbehaved child and then trying to reason with it. The metaphors abound, but the techniques for creating effective fictional prose are often quite consistent. This course will begin with a weeks-long consideration of selected works of fiction where discussion will aim to distinguish the basic devices of effective storytelling. Weekly topics will range from subjects as broad as point of view and plot arrangement to more highly focused lessons on scene design, dialog, and word choice. Throughout the term, the writing process will be broken down into stages where written work will focus on discrete story parts such as first pages, character introductions, and dialog-driven scenes before students are asked to compose full-length narratives. Along the way, students will chart their processes of conceptualizing, drafting, and revising their narratives. Finally, in the latter weeks of the quarter, emphasis will shift to the workshopping of students’ full stories.