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Las Positas College
Creative Writing and Literature Class Descriptions
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English AA-T
English Course Descriptions
Creative Writing Certificate

Creative Writing and Literature Course Descriptions

Creative Writing Courses

English 11 — introduction to creative writing .

Introduction to elements and craft of various genres of creative writing, including narrative, verse, and dialogue, using materials drawn from individual’s own work and selected texts from established and peer writers. Practice in writing in various genres. Introduction to workshop method.

ENGLISH 12A — CRAFT OF WRITING FICTION

Practice in writing fiction. Developing internal and external sources for stories and novels; biographical sources, characterization, plot, points-of-view, narrative techniques; analysis and criticism of published writing and individual’s own work.

ENGLISH 12B — CRAFT OF WRITING FICTION: INTERMEDIATE

Practice in writing fiction at an intermediate level. Builds on the skills developed in English 12A by requiring the use of vivid description, specific detail, dynamic and rounded character development, consistent point of view, and logical plotting that avoids cliche. Focus on developing themes that create intellectual or emotional resonance. Expectation of sentence structure, grammar, and format accuracy. Develop internal and external sources for stories and novels; analysis and criticism of published short fiction and a book-length work; analysis and criticism of peer work and individual’s own work. Requires submission for publication at the end of the semester.

ENGLISH 12C — CRAFT OF WRITING FICTION: ADVANCED

Practice in writing fiction at an advanced level. Builds on the intermediate skills developed in English 12B by requiring a mastery of description, detail, character development, consistent point of view, and logical plotting that avoids cliche. Focus on achieving themes that create intellectual or emotional resonance. Expectation of sentence structure, grammar, and format accuracy. Develop internal and external sources for stories and novels; analysis and criticism of published short fiction and a presentation about the craft in a book-length work; analysis and criticism of peer work and individual’s own work. Requires submission for publication at the end of the semester; analysis and criticism of peer work and individual’s own work.

ENGLISH 13A — THE CRAFT OF WRITING POETRY: BEGINNING

Practice in writing poetry, using materials drawn from published poetry and individual’s own work for analysis and criticism, with a focus on techniques of revision.

ENGLISH 13B — THE CRAFT OF WRITING POETRY: INTERMEDIATE

Continued practice in writing poetry, using materials drawn from published poetry and individual’s own work for analysis and criticism, with a focus on techniques of revision and submission for publication.

ENGLISH 19A — JOURNAL OF ARTS, LITERATURE, AND ACADEMIC WRITING A

Creation of a literary-style student magazine. Practical training in the managing, editing, formatting, and printing of a literary magazine. Enrollment constitutes the staff of the magazine. Cross listed with MSCM 19A. A student who has successfully completed MSCM 19A cannot enroll in ENG 19A.

ENGLISH 19B — JOURNAL OF ARTS, LITERATURE, AND ACADEMIC WRITING B

Creation of a literary-style student magazine. Practical intermediate-level training in the managing, editing, formatting, and printing of a literary supplement and/or magazine with a focus on the production process, including copy editing, design, layout, proofreading, working with the printer, and digital and print distribution. Enrollment constitutes the staff of the magazine. A student who has completed MSCM 19B cannot enroll in ENG 19B.

Literature Courses

English 4 — critical thinking and writing about literature.

Develops critical thinking, reading, and writing skills as they apply to the analysis of fiction, poetry and drama; literary criticism; and related non-fiction from diverse cultural sources and perspectives. Emphasis on the techniques and principles of effective written argument as they apply to literature. Some research required. Prerequisite: English 1A with a grade of “C” or higher.

ENGLISH 20 — STUDIES IN SHAKESPEARE

3.00 units Readings of the sonnets and representative comedies, histories, tragedies, and romances of William Shakespeare, with attention to the early, middle and late phases of his art and to the Age of Elizabeth.

ENGLISH 32 — U.S. WOMEN'S LITERATURE

3.00 units Chronicles the expression of U.S. women authors through readings in a variety of genres such as fiction, poetry, drama, and the essay. Study of the works of at least three of the following groups: African Americans, Asian Americans, European Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Native Americans, with a particular focus on the 20th century.

ENGLISH 35 — MODERN AMERICAN LITERATURE

3.00 units U.S. literature from the second half of the 19th century to the present, including poetry, drama, prose fiction, and essays. Emphasizes literary analysis and the exploration each work in relation to its social, cultural and historical contexts.

ENGLISH 41 — MODERN WORLD LITERATURE

3.00 units This course is a comparative study of selected works, in translation and in English, of literature from various regions and cultures around the world, including Africa, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, the Americas, and other areas, from the mid- or late-seventeenth century to the present. Emphasis will be on literary analysis as well as providing historical, cultural, and comparative perspectives on the literature.

ENGLISH 42 — LITERATURE OF THE AFRICAN DIASPORA IN AMERICA

3.00 units Form, development, and cultural and historic insights of literature of the African diaspora in America and the United States, including some or all of the following: short fiction and novels, oral history and memoir, poetry, plays, songs, popular culture, and nonfiction; exploration of particular themes or periods as reflected in the literature of people of the African diaspora created in America.

ENG 44 — LITERATURE OF THE AMERICAN WEST

3.00 units Critical analysis of the cultural and historical experiences of diverse people of the American West as expressed in their literatures, including the novel, short story, poetry, autobiography, memoirs, as-told-to-narratives, and secondary works. Exploration of interrelationships among peoples and cultures of the West, considering place and community, gender, and ethnicity as given voice in literature. Study of the works of at least three of the following groups: African Americans, Asian Americans, European Americans, Hispanic Americans, Native Americans. Emphasis upon techniques of critical review of and response to literary works, including gaining understanding of one’s identity as a Westerner and an American.

ENGLISH 45 — STUDIES IN FICTION

3.00 units Form, development, and cultural insights of the novel and short story; exploration of particular themes or periods as reflected in works of fiction.

For more information please contact:

Richard Dry Faculty / English Program Coordinator (925) 424-1257 [email protected]

Ralitsa Ivanova-Olsson Senior Administrative Assistant (925) 424-1383 [email protected]

Creative Writing

BFA Course Descriptions

Spring 2023

CRW 201-001—010: INTRODUCTION TO CREATIVE WRITING Text: Show & Tell 6th ed. This participation-intensive course offers an introduction to the writing of fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry. Students will learn fundamental craft elements, read and discuss published works, and produce their own poems, stories, and essays to be workshopped in small groups. CRW 201 partially satisfies University Studies II: Approaches and Perspectives/Aesthetic, Interpretive, and Literary Perspectives. Sections 001-010 all meet together in an auditorium on Tuesdays at 9:30 with Melissa Crowe, then the individual sections meet on Thursdays at 9:30 in classrooms with the assigned GTA.

CRW 201-011: INTRODUCTION TO CREATIVE WRITING, KOCUREK W In this course, you will receive a broad, hands-on introduction to the world of creative writing through its three genres: poetry, creative nonfiction, and fiction. Through craft discussions, in-class exercises, and interactive workshops, we will learn how to approach language and stories not as stuffy critics, but as active writers. Our aim is to learn from each other and from the published authors we read as novice craftspeople, discovering our tastes, our weaknesses, our strengths, and, most importantly, the lifelong joy of the creative process.

CRW 201-012: INTRODUCTION TO CREATIVE WRITING, HANNIGAN R This writing-intensive course introduces students to writing in three genres: poetry, nonfiction, and fiction. Students will read and analyze contemporary texts, then apply craft and techniques to their own writing. Throughout the semester, students will submit notebook exercises, discussion posts, and drafts to be workshopped, with revision in mind, as the course will culminate in a refined, final portfolio. The course requires active participation, close reading, and engaged discussion. Through conversation and practice, students will learn the essential elements of crafting strong stories and sentences, which benefits all career paths.

CRW 201-013: INTRODUCTION TO CREATIVE WRITING, WROBEL S

CRW 201-014: INTRODUCTION TO CREATIVE WRITING, WALKER J

CRW 201-015: INTRODUCTION TO CREATIVE WRITING, CARDONA L This introductory course is designed to present students to the three primary genres of creative writing: fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry. Together, we will read and analyze texts in each genre, working to demystify the writing process by studying the fundamental elements of our craft. Students can expect to write habitually inside and outside the classroom, while striving to sharpen their powers of awareness, harness their imaginations, and mine experiences from their lives for creative inspiration. We will work together to sharpen our critical thinking skills, increase perceptual awareness, embolden self-discovery, and encourage each other through in-class discussions, workshops, and writing exercises, culminating in a final portfolio of revised, polished material.

CRW 201-016: INTRODUCTION TO CREATIVE WRITING, CROWDER L

CRW 201-017: INTRODUCTION TO CREATIVE WRITING, MILLER J This course will be, as the title implies, an introduction to the three genres of creative writing: fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Students will read texts and be exposed to multimedia pieces in each genre, as well as perform writing exercises in class. Each student will submit original short works and workshop each other's drafts with eyes toward revision for a portfolio rather than a traditional final. This is a writing and participation intensive course, meant to foster an appreciation for the written word through a small community of beginners willing to learn together. The environment of a close-knit, supportive writing community will be paramount for this class.

CRW 201-018: INTRODUCTION TO CREATIVE WRITING, JOHNSON J This class will introduce students to the elements of fiction, nonfiction and poetry and help students produce and refine their own creative work in those genres. The course requires active participation, close reading and engaged discussion. Students will learn the fundamental elements of storytelling, analysis and critique that benefit all career paths. This course partially satisfies University Studies II: Approaches and Perspectives/Aesthetic, Interpretive, and Literary Perspectives.

CRW 201-020: INTRODUCTION TO CREATIVE WRITING, KRAMER M

CRW 201-800: INTRODUCTION TO CREATIVE WRITING, SIEGEL R This course is designed to introduce students to the reading and writing of fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry. We will read and discuss examples of each genre, learning how to think about a piece of writing as writers do, in terms of craft. Short analytic and creative responses to the reading will be due each meeting, and there will be in-class writing as well, which we will share. Class discussion will also be key, which makes attendance a crucial requirement. Online, synchronous.

CRW 203-001: EVOLUTION OF CREATIVE WRITING, TYER A

CRW 203-002: EVOLUTION OF CREATIVE WRITING, LOGUE A This course will introduce students to influential past authors in the horror genre while investigating how creative writing has changed over time. These writers will cover a wide range of genre, subject, and personal voice. Students will write creative, experimental responses to this literature and attempt to find their own voice in relation to the past. Through participation in nuanced discussion and written assignments, students will evaluate the ongoing evolution of craft, theme, and genre as both readers and writers. Students should expect to read widely and write often.

CRW 204-001: RESEARCH FOR CREATIVE WRITERS, MOEZZI M In this course, students will read and learn about a variety of ways to best employ research in their own creative writing. Recognizing that research is a vital tool for all writers, this open-genre course will invite students to craft their own well-researched pieces within creative nonfiction, fiction, and/or poetry. Students will choose the topics of their work, researching relevant people, places, things, eras, processes and/or events relevant to said topics. Students will learn to better express themselves verbally and in writing, all with a focus on fostering creative capacities, as well as skills, abilities, and perspectives vital for creative writers. Students will also gain a broader understanding and appreciation for writing and literature while learning to critically evaluate diverse ideas, arguments, and perspectives. By the end of the semester, students should have written at least one short, well-researched piece of creative writing that is ready to submit for publication.

CRW 207-001: FICTION WRITING I, KOCUREK W In this course, we will dive headfirst into the life of a fiction writer. We will develop not only a survey-level understanding of the genre, through varied weekly readings of stories and craft essays, but a practical, hands-on mindset that will prepare you for a productive and enriching lifelong relationship with writing. To that end, workshop will be the jewel of this course. Every Friday, we will meet to discuss each other’s stories, exercising our inner “Kind Critic” while learning to confidently submit our work to readers with an aim for self- and group-improvement. By the end of this course, we will all have broadened our palates, sharpened our aesthetics, and gained an appreciation for our own and our classmates’ talents.

CRW 207-002: FICTION WRITING I, HANNIGAN R This writing-intensive course focuses on writing short stories. Each week, students will read, critique, and discuss work by contemporary writers. These stories will range from traditional to experimental, realism, magical realism, fairytale, surrealism, and historical fiction. Readings and discussions are intended to advance conversations about craft and technique - particularly around world-building - which can then be applied to writing. Students will submit several notebook exercises, discussion posts, and two complete stories for workshop. In the end, students will submit a final portfolio with two stories that have undergone significant revisions.

CRW 208-001: POETRY WRITING I, TYER A

CRW 208-002: POETRY WRITING I, LOGUE A In this course, students with an interest in reading, writing, and studying poetry will dive into the specifics of place-based writing. Together, we will examine the work of diverse poets, explore multiple poetic forms, while offering in-class and out of class opportunities for students to produce their own poems. The semester will include time and space for students to workshop their pieces within the classroom and engage with providing feedback for their peers. This course will focus on how to read and write poetry of place.

CRW 209-002: CREATIVE NONFICTION I, KRAMER M

CRW 209-003: CREATIVE NONFICTION I, CROOK C

CRW 306-800: FICTION—READING FOR CRAFT, SIEGEL R This class is a reading course designed to explore the diverse landscape of fiction, particularly the short story form. Students will write both short analytic and creative responses to the reading. Class discussion will also be key, which makes attendance a crucial requirement. The aim is to learn how to read like a writer. Online, synchronous.

CRW 307-001: INTERMEDIATE FICTION WRITING, DE GRAMONT In this class, students will work on developing craft through in-class and at-home writing exercises. These exercises should progress toward a completed piece of fiction, either a short story or a chapter of a longer work. Each student will have a workshop for his or her completed first draft. Prior to this workshop, each student will have two shorter workshops of a first page. Students will read, listen to, and discuss each other’s work, as well as handing in written critiques.

CRW 307-800: INTERMEDIATE FICTION WRITING, BRENNER Note: This course meets 100% online, in real time (synchronous), via Zoom . This fiction writing workshop centers student work. It is our only focus. All types of student projects are welcome: stories, excerpts of longer works, flash fiction, hybrid fiction, short writing exercises, as-yet unnamed forms. Students will read and critique each other’s work, our main text for the course, and will create their own workshop worksheets or itineraries for peers and instructor to use when responding in class. We will also read and discuss short, published work in class, illuminating specific issues of craft that arise, and expanding our understanding of what a story can do, is allowed to do. Central goals: Support and feedback for student work, with special emphasis on how to amplify and refine one’s unique voice on the page, how to find and express one’s most authentic, original content. Students will write one or two “finished” (polished) pieces of fiction and many brief exercises. Participation and Zoom attendance are mandatory. The class won’t meet in person because the instructor lives in Chicago. Students, however, are always encouraged to build community in whatever way works best for them.

CRW 308-001: INTERMEDIATE POETRY WRITING, WHITE M Why is it that certain poems can make the hair on the back of your neck stand up, can trigger your deepest memories, can sing you into a spell? In this class, we’ll read contemporary voices such as Natalie Diaz and Jericho Brown, and will also explore a variety of modes, from lyric to prose poetry to traditional forms. I’ll assign exercises based on the readings, some of which will result in complete poems to be workshopped. Grade will be based on a final portfolio of six finished poems, to be submitted at the end of class, and on participation, including exercises and journal assignments.

CRW 309-001: INTERMEDIATE CREATIVE NONFICTION WRITING, MOEZZI M In this course, students will read, write, discuss and critique a wide array of creative nonfiction (CNF). The class will include assigned readings, short writing assignments, and a final project. The aim of the course is to improve students' writing through critical reading, discussion, writing, and revision. By the end of this semester, students should have a better grasp of CNF in general, as well as a respectable portfolio of their own CNF writing.

CRW 309-001: INTERMEDIATE CREATIVE NONFICTION WRITING, WROBEL S

CRW 315-001: JOURNAL WRITING, RASMUSSEN M “Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart” – William Wordsworth. While journaling can take on different forms and tones, the one thing all journaling has in common is it is very personal. In this class, students will explore the art of journal writing, reading and analyzing examples from prolific journal writers to learn how to best convey personal thoughts or specific moments in time. Students will explore the comical and raw tones of journal writing as seen in Kitchen Confidential and Bridget Jones Diary , as well as the more traditional and informative entries of Lewis & Clark and Virginia Wolfe. The class will also explore poetic forms of journaling as demonstrated by Pablo Neruda. Throughout the semester, students will continuously cultivate their own journal writing techniques and tone through in-class exercises as well as assigned journal prompts. Workshopping and critiquing of both student and assigned text writing will be integral in class discussion.

CRW 318-001 & -002: SCREENWRITING I: INTRODUCTION, FAIRCLOTH C (FST 318) Prerequisite or co-requisite: FST 201; or prerequisite: PCRW, CRW and CRW 207, CRW 208 or CRW 209; or permission of instructor. Theory and practice of screenwriting with an emphasis on the fundamentals of narrative structure. Students write original scripts, including a short screenplay for possible use in FST 495.

CRW 321-001 & -002: INTRO TO BOOK PUBLISHING, RAMOS M An introduction to the culture and commerce of books, this course examines the life cycle of a book; the people and processes involved in book publishing; and the history, business, economics, and ethics of the publishing industry. The class will be broken into formal lectures, given by the professor and invited industry professionals, each Tuesday morning, and smaller, discussion-based sections on Thursdays. Readings, research assignments, and a book auction will help students discover how publishing decisions are made. [Note: This course counts toward the BFA degree and the 12-hour Certificate in Publishing .

CRW 322-001: EDITING FOR PUBLICATION, BASS T Required texts: The New Well-Tempered Sentence, by Karen Elizabeth Gordon, and Polishing Your Prose , by Steven M. and Victor L. Cahn. [Recommended but not required: On Writing Well, by William Zinsser.] CRW and PCRW majors only. Prerequisite: CRW 207, 208, or 209. This course will focus on student strategies for editing their own creative writing for precision and clarity. It is not a traditional copyediting course. We will emphasize developing and applying skills in self-editing for grammar, mechanics, spelling, manuscript formatting, style, and other fundamentals crucial to effective, polished writing in the creative writing profession. Students will complete exercises and write/edit work using a series of prompts and assignments. Several exams and homework assignments will make up the grade. An attendance policy will be enforced. [Note: This course is required for the BFA degree and the Certificate in Publishing .]

CRW 323-001: BOOKBUILDING, RHATIGAN L This course offers hands-on training in the basics of effective graphic design and typography for book publishing. Students will become familiar with the Adobe Creative Suite, in particular InDesign and Photoshop, while completing a progressively complex series of projects, culminating in a finished chapbook of their own work, which will be designed, printed, and bound by the student. The course also incorporates a survey history of design and publishing, with a focus on current trends and the future of the book. Students should be prepared for a rigorous, fast-paced course that requires work in the Publishing Laboratory outside of class hours. [Note: Bookbuilding counts toward the BFA degree and the 12-hour Certificate in Publishing .]

CRW 324-001: PUBLISHING SPECULATIVE FICTION, DONAHUE M In The Parable of the Sower , Octavia Butler writes: “The world is full of painful stories. Sometimes it seems as though there aren't any other kind and yet I found myself thinking how beautiful that glint of water was through the trees.” During this time of numerous crises, it can be easy to see only pain and disaster, yet Butler reminds us there is necessary beauty in that glint of water through the trees. This course will explore the modern publishing landscape for the increasingly popular genre of speculative fiction, with a special emphasis on environmental speculative work. This class will explore the ways good speculative stories bring to life both trauma and wonder, beauty and pain. Through workshops and lectures, students will think about speculative fiction from a publisher’s and writer’s perspective. Students will create their own works of speculative fiction while analyzing trends of popular novels in the genre. We’ll explore the ways writers integrate scientific research in fiction and the best approaches to crafting and editing ethical, successful speculative work.

CRW 325-001: LITERARY MAGAZINE: Chautauqua , GERARD J This course is designed to give students a practical magazine publishing experience. The class is a practicum not a lecture. As such, students will read and respond to submissions, work on editing projects, search for possible cover art, and assist with design work. Most of our work is done in teams. Undergraduate students work with a graduate team leader on a variety of projects. For the academic year 2022-2023, Chautauqua will be publishing two online issues. Students may repeat for credit.

CRW 418-001: SCREENWRITING II: FEATURE FILM, BARROW J (FST 418) Prerequisites: FST 318 (CRW 318) or consent of instructor. The craft of screenwriting applied to the feature form. Students plan a feature-length screenplay, and write, workshop, and complete the first act.

CRW 418-002: SCREENWRITING II: FEATURE FILM, HACKLER C (FST 418) Prerequisites: FST 318 (CRW 318) or consent of instructor. The craft of screenwriting applied to the feature form. Students plan a feature-length screenplay, and write, workshop, and complete the first act.

CRW 420-001: HORROR IN CREATIVE NONFICTION, DASGUPTA S In her extraordinary TED Talk, What Fear Can Teach Us , Karen Walker, the author of The Age of Miracles , says that when you are a child, the link between fear and imagination is easy to see (and experience). As you grow older, you leave most of your fears behind. And yet some of the most creative minds in literature (and art in general) have lived with “strange” fears and channeled that to create incredible work. Walker encourages us to think of our fears as stories, because fears have characters, plots, suspense, and strong imagery, and because they make us grapple with the question, what happens next. This will be our primary goal this semester: to channel our fears into stories, to see them as “gifts” and not burdens. In this rigorous course, students will read a variety of subgenres that fall under the broad category of “horror” and write essays of their own.

CRW 420-002: INTERNATIONAL WRITING & TRANSLATION, M ÖRLING M Octavio Paz said: “Translation is an art of analogy, the art of finding correspondences. An art of shadows and echoes…” Charles Baudelaire said that poetry is essentially analogy. The idea of universal correspondence comes from the idea that language is a micro cosmos, a double of the universe. Between the language of the universe and the universe of language, there is a bridge, a link: poetry. The poet, says Baudelaire, is the translator.” In this class we will study multiple translations of single poems, examine the choices and strategies of translation. In addition, each student in the class will also provide weekly contributions of their own translation of given poems. These translations will serve as focal points for the larger subject of translation, that of the poet and writer as translator. Finally, there will be an optional Spring Break, Study Abroad trip to Rennes, France to pursue in person translation collaborations with students at University of Rennes II, in Rennes, France. For this class, knowledge of a second language is welcome but not necessary.

CRW 420-003: WRITING FROM HISTORY, FINSEL J In this workshop, students may work in any genre to incorporate history into their original creative work. We’ll investigate the role of history as public memory and address both how to conduct reliable research that produces an accurate record of the past and how to incorporate it seamlessly and ethically into essays, short stories, poems, novels, and long nonfiction narratives. The instructor will incorporate his experience in helping to create a physical and digital history archive and invite students to contribute to that effort, but students are free to pursue whatever area of history most interests them.

CRW 425-001: EXPERIMENTAL BOOKS FORMS, FLEMING K Every work of fiction, one could argue, is a unique expression of its writer's singular imagination. But even the most complex literary works tend to have at least one basic thing in common—pages of text formatted into the familiar chapters and paragraphs we've come to expect in a book. Every now and then though, a book comes along that’s unlike any other. A novel so unique in form or approach, that it defies norms and conventions and stretches the boundaries of genre. In this advanced special topics course, we will examine several alternative literary texts (see: House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski) and explore the question "What is experimental literature?" Are alternatively formatted books extraordinary works of literature? Works of art? Both? Are they gimmicks intended to entice literary consumers? Does an experimental structure obscure a book's plot or enhance it? Students will analyze works of fiction that use packaging, text formatting, or narrative convention in unusual ways and consider their paths to publication and critical reception. As a final project, students will create their own experimental text (no art experience required).

CRW 460-001: PUBLISHING PRACTICUM, SMITH E [Students must have been accepted into the Certificate in Publishing program and must have completed CRW 321, 322, and 323. To apply to the Lookout practicum, please reach out to the instructor by email in advance of registration.] Want to gain experience working for an independent publishing house? A select group of undergraduate students works alongside the graduate-student team to support the work of the department's award-winning literary imprint, Lookout Books ( lookout.org ). This practical course functions as an internship and provides hands-on experience in our daily operations. Interns research marketing and publicity; ship review copies and press kits; design, produce, and mail books and promotional materials; and write copy for social media. Practicum students work approximately 9 hours weekly in the Publishing Lab, including a 2.45-hour staff meeting. Participants are selected by permission of instructor on the basis of excellent performance in previous publishing courses and demonstrated interest in the field. What students get out of the course--in advancement of their own understanding of the publishing enterprise, or in marketable skills to take with them--will be directly proportionate to their leadership, teamwork, and dedication. May be repeated once for credit. [Note: This course counts toward the BFA degree and the capstone requirement in the 12-hour Certificate in Publishing .]

CRW 460-002: PUBLISHING PRACTICUM, DONAHUE M Students must have been accepted into the Certificate in Publishing program in order to receive permission to enroll in the Publishing Practicum. Prerequisites: CRW 321, 322, 323. Up to five interns support the work of The Publishing Laboratory , with responsibility for editing, designing, producing, and promoting the senior BFA anthology in conjunction with CRW 496, the senior seminar. Practicum students work 9 hours weekly in the Lab (including a staff meeting), under faculty supervision. Participants are selected by permission of instructor ; a brief application is required. Working hours are scheduled at each student's convenience during standard Pub Lab hours. May be repeated once for credit. [Note: This course counts toward the BFA degree and the 12-hour Certificate in Publishing .]

CRW 496-001: SENIOR SEMINAR IN WRITING, BASS T Seminar addressing issues of the profession, including preparing a manuscript for submission to publishers, publishing, advanced study, the writing life, ethics, and employment. Senior thesis, chapbook created in conjunction with the UNCW Publishing Laboratory, and public oral presentation of creative work required.

CRW 496-002: SENIOR SEMINAR IN WRITING, GESSNER D In Senior Seminar, students consolidate and polish a selection of work from the past three semesters into a cohesive manuscript representing the best of their writing, and then use that manuscript as the basis of two other audience-focused projects. The first of these is a public reading given with other members of the seminar; the second is the creation of a class anthology to be edited and published by The Publishing Laboratory. The Seminar also considers issues facing writers post-graduation, such as how to stay motivated and how to create a supportive writing community.

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School of Writing, Literature, and Film

Creative Writing Course Descriptions

Winter 2021, wr 224, introduction to fiction writing.

See the Course Catalog for available sections.

WR 224 is an introduction to the writing of fiction. Our approach in this fiction writing workshop will be to develop your skills as a creative writer through several means: careful reading and analysis of our own work; careful reading and analysis of established writers’ work; the execution of several meaningful fiction exercises; and a constant commitment to revision. Assessment methods include creative writing exercises, quizzes and reading checks on textbook craft sections, peer review, and the evolution of a short story from first to final, polished draft by the end of the term. Successful completion of Writing 121 is a prerequisite for this course.

Bacc Core, Skills – Writing II (CSW2)

Liberal Arts Fine Arts Core (LACF)

WR 224 is an introduction to the writing of fiction. Our approach in this online fiction writing workshop will be to develop your skills as a creative writer through several means: careful reading and analysis of our own work; careful reading and analysis of established writers’ work; the execution of several meaningful fiction exercises; and a constant commitment to revision. Assessment methods include creative writing exercises, quizzes and reading checks on textbook craft sections, peer review, and the evolution of a short story from first to final, polished draft by the end of the term. Successful completion of Writing 121 is a prerequisite for this course

WR 240, INTRODUCTION TO NONFICTION WRITING

Creative nonfiction is the genre of creative writing that bridges the act of making literary prose--the crafting of vivid scenes, a thoughtful narrative voice, and meaningful formats--with the kinds of practical personal writing often required in our academic and professional lives. In this course, we will discuss several published pieces from the creative nonfiction genre, including personal essays, memoir, and lyric essay. More importantly, we will also write, edit, workshop, and revise several pieces of our own creative nonfiction. Expect a lively class with lots of imaginative prompts, free-writes, and hardy discussion.

Bacc Core Requirement(s) Fulfilled: Core, Skills, WR II

WR 241, INTRODUCTION TO POETRY WRITING

“The art of poetry is ultimately an art of attention—Michael Blumenthal.” Throughout this course, we will consider the tools necessary to approach poetry more attentively as both readers and writers. This course will provide a firm grounding in the rudiments of poetic craft such as word choice, line breaks, imagery, structure, and other devices, as well as an introduction to different forms available to poets. We will consistently work through writing exercises and read/ discuss the work of various poets in order to aid us in the generation of our own poems.

WR 324, SHORT STORY WRITING

Kristin Griffin

Prerequisite: WR 224. This class is a workshop for writers experienced in writing fiction. Students learn techniques of the form by discussing their work, as well as the assigned readings, in a group setting. We’ll be reading work by current writers, some of whom will Skype in with advice, and learning the features of today’s literary landscape. The course assumes familiarity with major fiction writers and fundamental craft concepts such as point of view, characterization, dialogue, and theme. If you’re hoping to take your short story writing skills to the next level, this course is for you!

WR 424, ADVANCED FICTION WRITING

In this workshop we will read and write fiction. Using published stories as models, we’ll discuss methods of characterization, plotting, scene-setting, dialogue, and so on. Much of our work together will involve close reading and analysis of the texts in question. Our emphasis will be on writing more complicated and sophisticated stories with concision and economy.

WR 440, ADVANCED CREATIVE NONFICTION

Justin St. Germain

In WR 466/566, Professional Writing, we’ll study texts, contexts and concepts important to the practice of professional writing and produce documents for both paper and digital distribution. As future professional writers, students will be expected to analyze organizations and institutions in order to develop effective communicative practices. Therefore, the class is organized with an eye towards future action: you will be reading what others have done and we will be developing strategies for your own future writing activities. The fundamental question addressed in this class is: what do professional writers do? Through the course, students will read definitions of professional and technical writing from academic and professional perspectives. Students will also research and report on a variety of documents in genres common in professional and technical writing as they develop an awareness of genre. Class reading and writing assignments have been designed to help students gain greater insight into the issues and challenges of professional writing in a variety of workplace contexts.

Click here for a full list of Winter 2021 course descriptions in Applied Journalism, English, Film, and Writing.

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Email: [email protected].edu

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Creative Writing, The University of Chicago

Creative Writing Courses

Arts Core courses and Beginning Workshops are open to all College students via the standard pre-registration process. Other courses require consent and prioritize students enrolled in Creative Writing degree programs. Students can submit their course application via the program's application form. Note: Students who have not formally declared the major will not receive priority in consent-based courses. Those interested in the major should meet with the program's Director of Undergraduate Studies before the end of Autumn Quarter of their third year.

Arts Core Courses

These multi-genre courses are introductions to topics in creative writing and satisfy the College's general arts education requirement. Arts Core courses are generally taught under two headings—"Reading as a Writer" and "Intro to Genres"—and feature class critiques of students’ creative work. Open to all undergraduate students during pre-registration, these courses do not count towards the Creative Writing major. However, majors may use these courses to satisfy their general education requirement in the arts.

Beginning Workshops

These courses are intended for students who may or may not have previous writing experience, but are interested in gaining experience in a particular genre. Beginning Workshops focus on foundational elements of craft (such as scene-building, different forms of the essay, etc.) and feature workshops of student writing. They are open to all undergraduate students during pre-registration and are cross-listed with a graduate number.

Fundamentals in Creative Writing

The Fundamentals in Creative Writing course is an introductory multi-genre seminar to be taken by all students in the major and minor. Each section of the course focuses on a theme that is relevant to all forms of literary practice and introduces students to a group of core texts from the genres of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.

Courses may center around a range of topics—such as truth, literary empathy, or creative research—meant to draw attention to relationships across genres and to establish a deeper understanding of fundamental issues and questions in contemporary writing. Further aims of the course are to develop cohort solidarity, promote a culture of articulate exchange, and to foster a reflection on practice that will serve students’ artistic and professional development.

Fundamentals in Creative Writing is restricted to undergraduate students who have declared the major or minor. The course is taught in a seminar format and requires a final paper that analyzes one or more contemporary works in the context of a question or problem discussed in the class. Students should plan to take the course as early as possible after declaring the major or minor, ideally during their first or second quarter in the Program.

Technical Seminars

Technical Seminars are designed to give students a deep grounding in core technical elements of their primary genre. In these courses, students examine works of contemporary literature to deepen their understanding of a particular literary technique central to the genre. A Technical Seminar in Fiction might concentrate on point of view in several novels and short stories; a Technical Seminar in Poetry might look closely at the line in a range of poems.

Technical Seminars act as a “bridge” between the literature courses included in the major and the creative writing workshops. While literature courses offered through other departments may take a distinctly scholarly approach to literature from a range of time periods, Technical Seminars ask students to approach contemporary literature as critics and, crucially, as practitioners.

These courses prepare students for the writing and critiquing they will do in workshops, but with a focus on published work and critical texts rather than original student material. Instructors may include creative exercises in the syllabus, but core writing assignments focus on analysis of assigned readings with a specific technical element in mind.

These courses give priority to students in the major and are cross-listed with a graduate number. Students in the minor may take Technical Seminars as electives (meaning they can count towards the minor but not towards the workshop requirement).

Advanced Workshops

These courses are intended for students with substantive writing experience in a particular genre. As such, all students are strongly discouraged from taking an Advanced Workshop as their first course from the Program. Advanced Workshops focus on class critiques of student writing with accompanying readings from exemplary literary texts. Priority is given to students in the major, minor, or the MAPH Creative Writing Option. All students may apply to take the course by submitting the creative writing application form. These courses are cross-listed with a graduate number. Specific submission requirements appear in the course descriptions.

Thesis/Major Projects Workshops

The Thesis/Major Projects Workshop is only offered during Winter Quarter and centers on workshops of Creative Writing major, minor, and MAPH Creative Writing Option student work. The Thesis/Major Projects Workshop is a required capstone course for all Creative Writing degree paths. Priority is given to students in the major, minor, or the MAPH Creative Writing Option. These courses are cross-listed with a graduate number. Specific application requirements appear in the course descriptions.

2022-2023 Catalog

Contacts | Major in Creative Writing | Program Requirements | BA Thesis and Workshop | Program Honors | Summary of Requirements | Advising | Courses Outside the Department Taken for Program Credit | Double Majors in English Language and Literature and Creative Writing | Grading | Sample Plan of Study for the Major | Minor in English and Creative Writing | Summary of Requirements for the Minor Program in English and Creative Writing | Minor to Major and Major to Minor | Sample Plan of Study for the Minor | Enrolling in Creative Writing Courses | Faculty and Visiting Lecturers | Creative Writing Courses

Department Website: http://creativewriting.uchicago.edu

The Program in Creative Writing takes a comprehensive approach to the study of contemporary literature, criticism, and theory from a writer’s perspective. In our courses, students work with established poets and prose writers to explore the fundamental practices of creative writing. The program is committed to interdisciplinary inquiry, academic rigor, and study of the elements of creative writing that underlie all genres.

The Program in Creative Writing offers workshops and seminars in poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, as well as a number of translation workshops. The major seminars—including technical seminars and fundamentals in creative writing—are designed to build a critical and aesthetic foundation for students working in each genre. Students can pursue their creative writing interests within the formal requirements of the major or through a minor in English and Creative Writing, which is open to undergraduate students outside those two major programs. Students who do not wish to pursue a formal degree plan in creative writing will have access to courses that satisfy the general education requirement in the arts and open-entry "beginning" workshops. Our workshops and technical seminars are cross-listed with graduate numbers and are open to students in the graduate and professional schools.

Major in Creative Writing

Students who graduate with a bachelor of arts in creative writing will be skilled writers in a major literary genre and have a theoretically informed understanding of the aesthetic, historical, social, and political context of a range of contemporary writing. Students in the major will focus their studies in fiction, poetry, or nonfiction.

The organization of the major recognizes the value of workshop courses but incorporates that model into a comprehensive educational architecture. The creative writing major furthers students’ knowledge of historical and contemporary literary practice, introduces them to aesthetic and literary theory, sharpens their critical attention, and fosters their creative enthusiasm. Students are prepared to succeed in a range of fields within the public and private sectors through a multi-faceted, forward-thinking pedagogy centered on peer critique and craft.

Program Requirements

The Program in Creative Writing requires a total of 13 courses and the completion of a BA thesis, as described below. Students planning to complete the major must meet with the director of undergraduate studies or the student affairs administrator to file a major worksheet by the end of Autumn Quarter of their third year.

Students contemplating a major or minor in creative writing may choose to take one or two creative writing courses toward the general education requirement in the arts. These courses will not count toward major requirements, but they offer an opportunity for students to consider the program while satisfying a general education requirement. See Enrolling in Creative Writing Courses for additional details.

One (1) Fundamentals in Creative Writing Course CRWR 17000 to CRWR 17999

Fundamentals in Creative Writing is a cross-genre, one-quarter seminar taken by all students in the major. Every section of the course focuses on a current debate relevant to all forms of literary practice, such as mimesis, empathy, and testimony. This course introduces students to a group of core texts from each major literary genre. Fundamentals courses are restricted to students who have declared the major, as they aim to develop cohort solidarity, promote a culture of articulate exchange, and induct students into a reflection on practice that will serve their artistic and professional development. Majors should take either a fundamentals or technical seminar course before applying to advanced workshops. This prerequisite does not apply to minors applying to workshops.

Two (2) Technical Seminars Fiction: CRWR 20200 to CRWR 20299; Poetry: CRWR 20301 to CRWR 20399; Nonfiction: CRWR 20400 to CRWR 20499; Hybrid: CRWR 20701 to CRWR 20799

Students in the major must take two technical seminars in their primary genre (fiction, poetry, or nonfiction); during some quarters, the program may also offer hybrid technical seminars. Majors may petition to substitute one technical seminar in their primary genre with a technical seminar in a different genre, or with a hybrid technical seminar. Students should reach out to the director of undergraduate studies or student affairs administrator with questions on this petition process or hybrid technical seminars.

The aim of technical seminars is to expand students’ technical resources through analysis of contemporary literature and practice-based training in elements of craft. Students submit papers that address technical questions, chiefly with reference to contemporary texts. For example, poetry students may write on “the line,” where fiction students write on “point of view.” Technical seminars may also count as electives in the minor. Majors should take either a fundamentals or technical seminar course before applying to advanced workshops. This prerequisite does not apply to minors applying to workshops.

Three (3) Advanced Workshops Fiction: CRWR 22100 to CRWR 22299; Poetry: CRWR 23100 to CRWR 23299; Nonfiction: CRWR 24001 to CRWR 24199; Hybrid: CRWR 27300 to 27499

Students in the major must complete three advanced workshops, at least two of which must be in the student’s primary genre. Majors may petition to substitute one advanced workshop in their primary genre with a hybrid advanced workshop when applicable. Students should reach out to the director of undergraduate studies or student affairs administrator with questions on this petition process or hybrid advanced workshops.

The advanced workshop is a critical pedagogical instrument of creative writing as an academic discipline. Workshop practice relies on a mutual exchange and understanding dedicated to improving students’ writing, rather than unconditional approval. Critique is the core value and activity of the workshop, and students will practice it under the guidance of the workshop instructor. Although advanced workshops begin with attention to exemplary texts, they typically focus on original student work.

Credit for a Beginning Workshop: Students who have completed a beginning workshop in their primary genre with a grade of B+ or above may count this course as one of the required advanced workshops. Because students must take at least two advanced workshops in their primary genre, those students choosing to count a beginning workshop towards the major will not be able to count an advanced workshop from a non-primary genre towards the degree. Beginning workshops offered by other institutions will not count towards the major.

Four (4) Literature Requirements

Creative writing majors are required to take four literature courses offered by other departments. These courses can be focused on the literature of any language, but one must focus on the student’s primary genre; one must center on literary theory; one must involve the study of literature written before the twentieth century; and the final one can be any general literature course.

The literary genre course should serve as an introduction to key texts and debates in the history of the student’s chosen genre. This requirement can be met by an English language and literature course or a comparable course in another department. Courses such as ENGL 10403 Genre Fundamentals: Poetry: Rhythm and Myth, CMST 27207 Film Criticism , or ENGL 11004 History of the Novel may be eligible.

The director of undergraduate studies will offer guidance and approve all qualifying courses. Specific courses that satisfy the distribution element of this requirement will be listed at creativewriting.uchicago.edu . A literature course can potentially satisfy more than one requirement, e.g., both theory and literary genre, but a student can only use the course to fulfill one of the requirements.

Two (2) Research Background Electives

Students should take two courses outside of the Program in Creative Writing to support their thesis projects. Depending on a student's interests, elective courses can be offered by programs ranging from cinema and media studies to biological sciences. In cases where a creative writing translation workshop relates to a student's thesis, one of these workshops may also be approved as a research background elective. The student affairs administrator provides majors the program’s research background elective petition form. Students must send completed petition forms to the director of undergraduate studies for approval. Completed petition forms include the name and description of the course under consideration and a brief statement from the student on how said course informs their thesis work. Once petitions are approved by the director of undergraduate studies, majors must provide documentation of this degree progress to their academic advisors. Students may not use the same course to fulfill a research background elective and a literature requirement at the same time.

BA Thesis and Workshop

Students work on their BA theses/projects throughout their fourth year. In Spring Quarter of the third year, students will be assigned a writing and research advisor who will mentor student reading and research throughout the completion of the creative writing thesis. Students, in conversation with the writing and research advisors, will complete a preliminary project proposal during the Spring Quarter of their third year. The preliminary proposal will then be submitted to the student affairs administrator.

Over the Summer Quarter students will craft a reading journal centered on a field list of readings; chosen texts will be based upon work, conversations, etc., students will have begun with their writing and research advisors. In Autumn Quarter, students and writing and research advisors will work together to adapt the reading journal into an annotated bibliography, a focus reading list, and a précis/project plan (summary of student writing plan and goals for the BA thesis/project).

In Winter Quarter, students will continue meeting with their writing and research advisor and must also enroll in the appropriate thesis/major projects workshop in their primary genre ( CRWR 29200 Thesis/Major Projects: Fiction , CRWR 29300 Thesis/Major Projects: Poetry , CRWR 29400 Thesis/Major Projects: Nonfiction , or CRWR 29500 Thesis/Major Projects: Fiction/Nonfiction ). The thesis/major projects workshop is mandatory and only offered during Winter Quarter.

Students are not automatically enrolled in a workshop; they must apply for a spot by the course application deadline set by the program. The instructor for the thesis/major projects workshop will also serve as the faculty advisor for the BA thesis. Students should be aware that because of the high number of students writing fiction for their BA thesis, students will not necessarily get their first choice of faculty advisor.

Students will work closely with their faculty advisor and peers in their thesis/major projects workshop and will receive course credit as well as a final grade for the course. In consultation with their faculty advisor and writing and research advisor, students will revise and submit a near-final draft of the BA thesis by the end of the second week of Spring Quarter. Students will submit the final version of their BA thesis to their writing and research advisor, faculty advisor, student affairs administrator, and the director of undergraduate studies by the beginning of the fifth week of Spring Quarter.

Students graduating in other quarters must consult with the director of undergraduate studies about an appropriate timeline before the end of Autumn Quarter of their third year.

Program Honors

The faculty in the program will award program honors based on their assessment of BA theses and the assessment of writing and research advisors. Students must complete all assignments set by writing and research advisors to be considered for honors. To be eligible, students must have a major GPA of at least 3.6 and overall GPA of 3.25. Honors will be awarded only to exceptional projects from a given cohort.

Summary of Requirements

Students considering the major should meet with the director of undergraduate studies or student affairs administrator as early as possible to discuss program requirements and individual plans of study. To declare the major and receive priority in application-based CRWR courses, students must meet with the director of undergraduate studies or student affairs administrator to file a major worksheet with the Program in Creative Writing. Declaration of the major will then be formalized through my.uchicago.edu . To join the major, students must officially declare via a worksheet on file with the program before the end of Autumn Quarter of the third year of study. Students will need to regularly provide documentation of any approvals for the major to their academic advisors.

Courses Outside the Department Taken for Program Credit

Students double majoring in creative writing and another major (with the exception of English language and literature) can count a maximum of three courses towards both majors (pending approval from both departments). Ordinarily, two of these courses will be research background electives. Substitutions for a further course will be subject to approval, but students may not substitute non-literature courses to meet a literature requirement.

Double Majors in English Language and Literature and Creative Writing

Students who pursue a double major in creative writing and English language and literature, may count up to four courses towards both majors. These four courses typically include the four literature requirements, but in some cases one of the slots might be filled by a creative writing course (with director of undergraduate studies approval). However, the two required research background electives should be taken outside of the Department of English Language and Literature.

English language and literature majors may count up to four creative writing courses towards the major in English as electives without a petition. However, when students are pursuing a double major in English language and literature and creative writing, they must observe the shared four-course maximum. Double majors must then count any eligible creative writing courses beyond the four-course cap towards their English language and literature major.

Students in the program must receive quality grades (not pass/fail) in all courses counting toward the major or minor. Non-majors and non-minors may take creative writing courses for pass/fail grading with consent of the instructor. Students must request this consent by the end of week three of the quarter; otherwise pass/fail must be approved by the program director.

Sample Plan of Study for the Major

Minor in english and creative writing.

Students who are not English language and literature or creative writing majors may complete a minor in English and Creative Writing. The minor requires six courses plus a portfolio of creative work. At least two of the required courses must be creative writing workshop courses, with at least one being an advanced workshop. Three of the remaining required courses may be taken in either the Department of English Language and Literature or the Program in Creative Writing; these courses may include technical seminars or arts general education courses. General education courses cannot be used for the minor if they are already counted toward the general education requirement in the arts. In some cases, literature courses outside of English language and literature and creative writing may count towards the minor, subject to the director of undergraduate studies’ approval.

Students who elect the minor program in English and Creative Writing must meet with the student affairs administrator for creative writing before the end of Spring Quarter of their third year to declare their intention to complete the minor. Students choose courses in consultation with the administrator. The administrator's approval for the minor program should be submitted to a student's academic advisor on the Consent to Complete a Minor Program form, available from the College adviser or online, by the deadline above.

In addition, students must enroll in one of the following workshops offered during the Winter Quarter: CRWR 29200 Thesis/Major Projects: Fiction ; CRWR 29300 Thesis/Major Projects: Poetry ; CRWR 29400 Thesis/Major Projects: Nonfiction ; CRWR 29500 Thesis/Major Projects: Fiction/Nonfiction .

Finally, students must submit a portfolio of their work (e.g., a selection of poems, one or two short stories or chapters from a novel, two or three nonfiction pieces) to the student affairs administrator by the end of fifth week in their graduating quarter.

Students completing the minor will be given enrollment preference for advanced workshops and thesis/major projects workshops, and some priority for technical seminars. They must follow all relevant admission procedures described at the Creative Writing website. For details, see Enrolling in Creative Writing Courses .

Courses in the minor (1) may not be double counted with the student's major(s) or with other minors and (2) may not be counted toward general education requirements. Courses in the minor must be taken for quality grades (not pass/fail) and bear University of Chicago course numbers.

Summary of Requirements for the Minor Program in English and Creative Writing

Minor to major and major to minor.

Student circumstances change, and a transfer between the major and minor programs may be desirable to students who begin a course of study in either program. Workshop courses (including beginning workshops) and one technical seminar may count towards the minor, and in exceptional circumstances a fundamentals course may count as well. The thesis/major projects workshop is mandatory for both minors and majors. Students should consult with their academic advisor if considering such a transfer and must update their planned program of study with the student affairs administrator or director of undergraduate studies in creative writing.

Sample Plan of Study for the Minor

Enrolling in creative writing courses.

General education courses and beginning workshops are open to all students via the standard pre-registration process. Other courses require consent, and some may require submission of work for evaluation. Our consent-based courses prioritize students in the major, the minor, and the Creative Writing Option of the Master of Arts Program in the Humanities (MAPH). Note: Students who have not yet met with the director of undergraduate studies or student affairs administrator to begin a worksheet are not considered formally declared and therefore are not guaranteed priority in course enrollment.

With the exception of Autumn Quarter, applications for consent-only courses must be received by the Friday of seventh week of each quarter. Below are the dates for the 2022–2023 academic year:

Applications for Autumn Quarter: September 2, 2022

Winter Quarter: November 11, 2022

Spring Quarter: February 17, 2023

For more information on creative writing courses and opportunities, visit the Creative Writing website.

Creative writing courses for the general education requirement in the arts

These multi-genre courses are introductions to topics in creative writing and satisfy the general education requirement in the arts in the College. General education courses are generally taught under two headings—"Reading as a Writer" and "Intro to Genres"—and will feature class critiques of students’ creative work. They are open to all undergraduate students during pre-registration. These courses do not count towards the major in creative writing, but students may use these courses to satisfy the creative writing minor’s elective requirements if they are not already counted toward the students' general education requirement in the arts.

Beginning workshops

These courses are intended for students who may or may not have writing experience, but are interested in gaining experience in a particular genre. Courses will focus on the fundamentals of craft and feature workshops of student writing. Open to all undergraduate students during pre-registration.

Fundamentals of creative writing courses

These courses focus on a current debate relevant to all forms of literary practice and aim to develop cohort solidarity, promote a culture of exchange, and induct students into a reflection on practice that will service their artistic and professional development. They are open to declared majors only, except in circumstances approved by the director of undergraduate studies. Majors should take either a fundamentals course or a technical seminar before applying to advanced workshops. Students apply to take the course by submitting a course application form, found at creativewriting.uchicago.edu .

Technical seminars

The aim of the technical seminars is to expand students’ technical resources through analysis of contemporary literature and practice-based training in elements of craft. Priority is given to declared majors first, then minors and students in the MAPH creative writing option. Majors should take either a fundamentals course or a technical seminar course before applying to advanced workshops. Students apply to take the course by submitting a course application form, found at creativewriting.uchicago.edu .

Advanced workshops

These workshops are intended for students with substantive writing experience in a particular genre. Advanced workshops will focus on class critiques of student writing with accompanying readings from exemplary literary texts. Priority is given to students in the major, minor, or the MAPH creative writing option. Students apply to take the course by submitting a course application form, found at creativewriting.uchicago.edu . A writing sample in the genre of the relevant course may be required for faculty review. Specific submission requirements appear in the course descriptions.

Thesis/major projects

This course will revolve around workshops of student writing and concentrate on the larger form students have chosen for their creative thesis. Priority is given to students in the major, minor, or the MAPH creative writing option. Students apply to take the course by submitting a course application form, found at creativewriting.uchicago.edu . A writing sample in the genre of the relevant course may be required for faculty review. Specific submission requirements appear in the course descriptions.

Faculty and Visiting Lecturers

For a current listing of Creative Writing faculty, visit the Creative Writing website.

Creative Writing Courses

CRWR 10206. Beginning Fiction Workshop. 100 Units.

Beginning Workshops are intended for students who may or may not have previous writing experience, but are interested in gaining experience in a particular genre. These workshops focus on the fundamentals of craft and feature workshops of student writing. See the course description for this particular workshop section in the notes below.

Instructor(s): Staff Terms Offered: Autumn Spring Winter Prerequisite(s): Attendance on the first day is mandatory. Equivalent Course(s): CRWR 30206

CRWR 10306. Beginning Poetry Workshop. 100 Units.

Instructor(s): Staff Terms Offered: Autumn Spring Winter Prerequisite(s): Open bid through my.uchicago.edu. Attendance on the first day is necessary. Equivalent Course(s): CRWR 30306

CRWR 10406. Beginning Nonfiction Workshop. 100 Units.

Instructor(s): Staff Terms Offered: Autumn Spring Winter Prerequisite(s): Open bid through my.uchicago.edu. Attendance on the first day is mandatory. Equivalent Course(s): CRWR 30406

CRWR 10606. Beginning Translation Workshop. 100 Units.

Beginning Workshops are intended for students who may or may not have previous experience, but are interested in gaining experience in translation. See the course description for this particular workshop section in the notes below.

Instructor(s): Jason Grunebaum Terms Offered: Spring Prerequisite(s): Open bid through my.uchicago.edu. Attendance on the first day is mandatory. To participate in this class, students should have intermediate proficiency in a foreign language. Equivalent Course(s): GRMN 10606, SALC 10606, GRMN 30606, SALC 30706, CRWR 30606

CRWR 12112. Reading as a Writer: Chicago "City on the Remake" 100 Units.

This course invites writers to reconsider the influence of Chicago's public spaces on genre and artistic form, but in a city reimagined within the force of climate change. How does one tell a "Twenty-Second Century Chicago story?" Where does one reimagine the boundaries between water and wetland in this redrawn city? Is there a "Chicago epic?" Working through these questions, students will analyze and explore Chicago writers' work in fiction, poetry, and journalism. To these ends, we will examine work by writers including Saul Bellow, Dan Egan, Eric Klinenberg, Nnedi Okorafor, Ed Roberson, Tariq Shah, and Lois Wille. Working from adopted critical approaches, participants will develop their own individual and collaborative creative responses to this "prairied Paris."

Instructor(s): Garin Cycholl Terms Offered: Spring Prerequisite(s): Open bid through classes.uchicago.edu. Attendance on the first day is mandatory.This course meets the general education requirement in the arts.

CRWR 12125. Reading as a Writer: From Page to Film. 100 Units.

We often say of film adaptations: it's not as good as the book. But what can we, as readers and writers, learn from that unsuccessful transition to the screen? And more intriguingly, what can we learn from the successful ones, the films that are just as good if not better than the original written work-or so vastly different that they become their own entity? In this class, we will be reading works of short fiction and also "reading" their film adaptations, focusing on this relationship between storytelling on the page and storytelling on the screen and what is both lost and gained in that transition. If filmmaking requires a different language than fiction writing, a different approach to things like character, plot, atmosphere, even thematic development, what can we learn from that approach that we can apply to our own fiction, even if we have no interest in making films? We'll investigate this question in the work of writers like James Joyce, Andre Dubus, and Stephen King, and filmmakers like Hitchcock, Huston, and Wilder.

Instructor(s): Vu Tran Terms Offered: Spring Prerequisite(s): Open bid through my.uchicago.edu. Attendance on the first day is mandatory. Contact the instructor for a spot on the waiting list. Course requires consent after add/drop begins; contact the instructor for a spot in the class or on the waiting list.

CRWR 12141. Intro to Genres: Drawing on Graphic Novels. 100 Units.

Like film, comics are a language, and there's much to be learned from studying them, even if we have no intention of 'writing' them. Comics tell two or more stories simultaneously, one via image, the other via text, and these parallel stories can not only complement but also contradict one another, creating subtexts and effects that words alone can't. Or can they? Our goal will be to draw, both literally and metaphorically, on the structures and techniques of the form. While it's aimed at the aspiring graphic novelist (or graphic essayist, or poet), it's equally appropriate for those of us who work strictly with words. What comics techniques can any artist emulate, approximate, or otherwise aspire to, and how can these lead us to a deeper understanding of the possibilities of point of view, tone, structure and style? We'll learn the basics of the medium via Ivan Brunetti's book Cartooning: Philosophy and Practice, as well as Syllabus, by Lynda Barry. Readings include the scholar David Kunzle on the origins of the form, the first avant-garde of George Herriman, Frank King, and Lyonel Feininger, finishing with contemporaries like Joe Sacco, Chris Ware, and Alison Bechdel. Assignments include weekly creative and critical assignments, culminating in a final portfolio and paper.

Instructor(s): Dan Raeburn Terms Offered: Spring Prerequisite(s): Open bid through my.uchicago.edu. Attendance on the first day is mandatory. Course requires consent after add/drop begins; contact the instructor for a spot in the class or on the waiting list.

CRWR 12143. Reading as a Writer: Embodied Language. 100 Units.

This course studies how writers engage the senses to shape language into something actually felt and not just comprehended. We'll track the sensual life of words-what they do to the mouth, to the ear, their musical kinships with one another-and learn how these qualities combine to generate mood and atmosphere. Alongside writing that renders embodiment and the physical world, we'll read writing that makes abstraction feel concrete. Our reading will guide our ongoing inquiry into questions such as: what constitutes an image? How does writing enact feeling? How do the sensory elements of a piece intensify or erode or expand its subject, and to what end? Case studies may include poetry and prose by Bashō, Sei Shōnagon, Homer, John Keats, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Jean Toomer, D. H. Lawrence, Lorine Niedecker, Gwendolyn Brooks, James Baldwin, Sylvia Plath, Ai, Elaine Scarry, Wanda Coleman, Toni Morrison, Hai-Dang Phan, Nathaniel Mackey, Durga Chew-Bose, Justin Torres, and Jenny Zhang. These writers will provide inspiration for your own creative experiments on the page. Students will be asked to lead one presentation during the quarter and to write short weekly pieces to extend the group discussion.

Instructor(s): Margaret Ross Terms Offered: Autumn Spring Prerequisite(s): Open bid through my.uchicago.edu. Attendance on the first day is mandatory. Contact the instructor for a spot on the waiting list. Course requires consent after add/drop begins; contact the instructor for a spot in the class or on the waiting list.

CRWR 12144. Intro to Genres: Elegy. 100 Units.

How does language perform and represent mourning? How should writing commemorate the dead? Can an elegy address the full complexity of a person, resisting hagiography? We'll begin our investigation of elegy by looking briefly at its Classical origins, reading examples by Catullus, Sappho, and Ovid, among others, and considering the early life of elegy as a poetic form not necessarily related to death and lament. We'll then turn our attention toward a range of modern and contemporary interpretations of the elegy, spanning fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Readings may include works by Virginia Woolf, Paul Celan, Jamaica Kincaid, Raúl Zurita, Samuel Delany, Federico García Lorca, Allen Ginsberg, Brandon Shimoda, Alice Oswald, Isaac Babel, and Solmaz Sharif. As we read, we'll pay particular attention to literary structures and devices writers use to manifest absence and incarnate the dead in the body of a text. Students will be asked to lead one presentation and to write weekly creative and/or critical responses for group discussion.

Instructor(s): Margaret Ross Terms Offered: Winter Prerequisite(s): Open bid through my.uchicago.edu. Attendance on the first day is mandatory. Contact the instructor for a spot on the waiting list. Course requires consent after add/drop begins; contact the instructor for a spot in the class or on the waiting list.

CRWR 12145. Reading as a Writer: Re-Vision. 100 Units.

To revise a piece of writing isn't merely to polish it. Revision is transformation and yields an alternate reality. A new view, a re-vision. This course will examine the radical potential of revision, drawing case studies from a range of writers such as Marguerite Duras, Jorge Luis Borges, Elizabeth Bishop, Dionne Brand, Li-Young Lee, Janet Malcolm, Lydia Davis, Terrance Hayes, Yiyun Li, francine j. harris, Bhanu Kapil, Shane McCrae, and Chase Berggrun. We'll start by tracking compositional process, looking at brilliant and disastrous drafts to compare the aesthetic and political consequences of different choices on the page. We'll then study poems, essays, and stories that refute themselves and self-revise as they unfold, dramatizing mixed feelings and changing minds. We'll end by considering erasure poetry as a form of critical revision. Our conversations will inspire weekly writing exercises and invite you to experiment with various creative revision strategies. Students will be asked to lead one presentation and to share their writing for group discussion.

CRWR 12146. London vs. Nature: Writing Utopia and Dystopia in the Urban Landscape [Creative Writing Arts Core: R. 100 Units.

In this Arts Core course, students will be introduced to a range of the utopian and dystopian fantasies that writers have produced in response to the metropolis of London as the imperial epicenter of manufactured ecologies, from the late nineteenth century through the present day. They will study early responses to modernism and modernization in the city by figures like William Blake, Frederick Engels, Henry James, Ezra Pound, and Virginia Woolf before moving on to contemporary writers such as R. Murray Schafer, who apprehends the city through "earwitnessing" of noise pollution, and Bhanu Kapil, who recalls the race riots of the 1970s against the backdrop of the Nestle factory on the site of King Henry VIII's hunting grounds. Students will be exposed first-hand to how London is read by writers confronting planetary and political crisis through meetings with living publishers, authors, and art collectives like the Museum of Walking, grappling with the continual metamorphosis of the landscape-and through a sequence of on-site visits and psychogeographical experiments, they will have the opportunity to respond to the city in their own writing across a range of genres. (Arts Core)

Instructor(s): Jennifer Scappettone Terms Offered: Autumn Prerequisite(s): Acceptance to the London Study Abroad Program. Equivalent Course(s): ARCH 14146

CRWR 12148. Intro to Genres: Speculative Women. 100 Units.

Despite common misconceptions women have been at the forefront of the speculative genre from its earliest inceptions. Not merely defying the limitations and restraints of literature as defined by their contemporary society', but inventing whole worlds and genres which continue to influence writers and writing as a whole today. Mary Shelley's 1818 publication of Frankenstein, to Virginia Woolf's 1928's publication of Orlando, and even Margaret Cavendish's 1666's novel, "The Description of a New World, Called The Blazing-World. This course will be a brief foray into the strange and yet familiar worlds of various women across the history of speculative writing. From Mary Shelley to Ursula K. Leguin, from Lady Cavendish to Margaret Atwood, from Alice Walker to Octavia E. Blutler.

Instructor(s): Lina Ferreira Cabeza-Vanegas Terms Offered: Autumn Prerequisite(s): Open bid through my.uchicago.edu. Attendance on the first day is mandatory. Contact the instructor for a spot on the waiting list. Course requires consent after add/drop begins; contact the instructor for a spot in the class or on the waiting list. Note(s): Satisfies the College Arts/Music/Drama Core requirement. Equivalent Course(s): GNSE 22148

CRWR 12149. Intro to Genres: False Chicagos. 100 Units.

Beginning with a notation of a "false Chicago" on Marquette's map, this course works with texts as maps (and maps as texts) to explore the imagined, walked, and disappearing city. In particular, we'll explore fictionalized versions of the city (i.e., Frank Baum's Oz, the "White City" of the 1893 World's Fair, the city as one stop along Sun Ra's space of cosmic flight, etc.). Participants will examine area maps (i.e., Marquette's mapping of Lake Michigan, CTA maps, Richard J. Daley's proposed Aquaport, etc.), then build parallels within work by writers including Baum, Daniel Borzutzky, Alexai Galaviz-Budziszewski, Kenneth Rexroth, Salima Rivera, Mike Royko, Carl Sandburg, and William Sites. What serious geographic play echoes in Chicago's architecture and urban blues? What points of transit mark the fictive Chicagos that emerge in the course's maps and texts? How are poems, stories, and autobiography also markers of (dis)placement? In exploration of these questions, participants will develop their own individual and collaborative creative responses to "the Paris of the Midwest."

Instructor(s): Garin Cycholl Terms Offered: Winter Prerequisite(s): Open bid through classes.uchicago.edu. Attendance on the first day is mandatory.This course meets the general education requirement in the arts.

CRWR 12150. Intro to Genres: Writing for TV: The Writers' Room. 100 Units.

In this course, you'll learn the craft of writing for television by collaboratively developing a pilot script for an original television series set in the South Side of Chicago. Modeled on the "writers' room," we'll research and develop the concept, characters, the outline, and create a plan for the series. In addition to being introduced to the fundamentals of storytelling through lectures, discussions, screenings, and script analysis, you'll also learn to work collaboratively with a team, constructing a daily agenda, brainstorming, researching, pitching, discussing ideas, and composing in screenwriting format. By the end of this hands-on course, you will be armed with a set of techniques and skills that will support your professional development as a writer.

Instructor(s): Julie Iromuanya Terms Offered: Summer TBD. September Term 2022

CRWR 12151. Intro to Genres: The Gothic Lens. 100 Units.

This course will examine what is transfigured-tonally and imagistically, but also thematically and philosophically-when one approaches writing fiction through a Gothic lens. We'll treat the Gothic not merely as a pastiche or set of genre tropes, but as a specific mode of seeing and translating the world-of more accurately capturing the cultural, aesthetic, and personal vision of the author. Our readings will include some familiar classical texts as well as more contemporary and lesser-known works centered around London and its environs. We'll get a foundation in Romantic notions of the Gothic and follow these literary roots to how writers are employing it now, and then we will write and workshop our own "Gothic" scenes and narratives.

Instructor(s): Vu Tran Terms Offered: Autumn Prerequisite(s): Acceptance to the London Study Abroad Program

CRWR 12152. Intro to Genres: The Immigrant Experience Through Literature. 100 Units.

In this course, we'll study the subgenre of immigrant literature, and through the examination of novel excerpts, short stories, poetry, plays, biographies, and memoirs, we'll discuss the politics and aesthetics of canonized writers such as Amy Tan, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and Emma Lazarus, as well as lesser-known writers. From the outset, we'll discern the characteristics that define immigrants, refugees, exiles, expatriates, and how they, therefore, might show up differently on the page. We'll consider how authors create engaging characters, by articulating their characters' evolving sense of identity in the face of conflicting notions of "otherness," assimilation, and acculturation. To gain a better understanding of how authors shape compelling, and moreover, believable plots, we'll examine the push and pull factors that situate immigrants differently in the new land, and how their host societies regard them. In short critical papers, we'll analyze the trends, features, and conventions of the subgenre, and in short exercises, you'll write a story, poem, essay, or play about immigrants, informed by research, that utilizes the catalogue of questions, techniques, and practices that we identify.

Instructor(s): Julie Iromuanya Terms Offered: Autumn Prerequisite(s): Open bid through my.uchicago.edu. Attendance on the first day is mandatory. Contact the instructor for a spot on the waiting list. Course requires consent after add/drop begins; contact the instructor for a spot in the class or on the waiting list.

CRWR 12153. Reading as a Writer: The Walker in the City. 100 Units.

Flâneur: from French, "to stroll, loaf, saunter"; probably from Old Norse flana, "to wander aimlessly"; Norwegian flana, "to gad about. The image of the poet as flâneur -- a metropolitan artist in motion -- emerged as an archetype of romantic and modernist literature. We will consider the walking poet in interaction with race, mobility and disability, gender and queerness, class, migration, ecology, and other embodied experiences. Texts will include work by Kathy Ferguson, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Walter Benjamin, William Blake, Judith Butler, Sunaura Taylor, June Jordan, Walt Whitman, and others. Students will lead one presentation during the quarter and keep a notebook/sketchbook.

Instructor(s): Anna Torres Terms Offered: Autumn Prerequisite(s): Acceptance to the London Study Abroad Program

CRWR 12154. Reading as a Writer: Brevity. 100 Units.

This course will consider brevity as an artistic mode curiously capable of articulating the unspeakable, the abyssal, the endless. Reading very brief works from a long list of writers, we will ask: when is less more? When is less less? What is minimalism? What is the impact of the fragment? Can a sentence be a narrative? Can a word comprise a poem? Our readings will include short poems, short essays, and short short stories by Yannis Ritsos, francine j. harris, Aram Saroyan, Richard Wright, Cecilia Vicuña, Kobayashi Issa, Gwendolyn Brooks, Robert Creeley, Lucille Clifton, Lydia Davis, Jamaica Kincaid, Franz Kafka, Joy Williams, Jenny Xie, Venita Blackburn, Jorge Luis Borges, Jean Valentine, Samuel Beckett, and others. Students will be asked to lead one presentation and to write critical and creative responses for group discussion.

Instructor(s): Margaret Ross Terms Offered: Autumn Prerequisite(s): Open bid through my.uchicago.edu. Attendance on the first day is mandatory. Contact the instructor for a spot on the waiting list. Course requires consent after add/drop begins; contact the instructor for a spot in the class or on the waiting list.

CRWR 12157. Intro to Genres: Childhood. 100 Units.

Flannery O'Connor said that anyone who survives childhood has enough material to last a lifetime; 2020 Nobel Prize Winner Louise Glück wrote, "We look at the world once, in childhood. The rest is memory." In this course we will study portrayals of childhood in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and film. We will read work from Justin Torres, Barry Lopez, Mavis Gallant, ZZ Packer, Sandra Cisneros, James Agee, Tobias Wolff, and others, seeking to explore how these artists push past common tropes and oversimplified representations to convey the actual subtlety, pain, wonder, and intelligence of childhood perception. Through this framework we will consider narrative and cultural conceptions of innocence, agency, epiphany, and perspective. We will interrogate what artists mean to say when they write about childhood, what meanings are found or created-about childhood but also about adulthood, and about what has-or has not-been left behind. Finally we will consider the enmeshed roles of memory, imagination, and experience in the creation of art. Students will be responsible for short creative and critical writing exercises, a presentation, and a final project, and will be expected to participate vigorously in class.

Instructor(s): Ben Hoffman Terms Offered: Spring Prerequisite(s): Open bid through my.uchicago.edu. Attendance on the first day is mandatory. Contact the instructor for a spot on the waiting list. Course requires consent after add/drop begins; contact the instructor for a spot in the class or on the waiting list.

CRWR 12158. Reading as a Writer: Literature of Inoculation. 100 Units.

These days, the words inoculation and vaccination are used interchangeably, despite the fact that the English word inoculation predates Western vaccination practices by nearly a century. In this class, students will explore the concept of inoculation as a kind of alchemy, a melding of science and zeitgeist. We will study the perspectives of writers across various cultures, genres, and academic specialties as we examine the ideological roots and ever-shifting cultural significance of inoculation. We'll look closely at selections from Darwin's On the Origin of Species, Statius's The Achilleid, Mary Wollstonecraft's Maria, Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night, Richard Rodriguez's Darling, Jamaica Kinkaid's My Brother, and Eula Biss's On Immunity, among others. Through class discussion, reading responses, academic papers, and creative writing assignments, we will discuss the relationship between concepts of protection and concepts of vulnerability, alongside the ways inoculation-of various sorts-has served as a hallmark of self-governance, a shoring up of community, and, of course, a medical mandate.

Instructor(s): Victoria Flanagan Terms Offered: Autumn Prerequisite(s): Open bid through my.uchicago.edu. Attendance on the first day is mandatory. Contact the instructor for a spot on the waiting list. Course requires consent after add/drop begins; contact the instructor for a spot in the class or on the waiting list.

CRWR 17000. Fundamentals in Creative Writing: Literary Empathy. 100 Units.

In this fundamentals course, students will investigate the complicated relationship between writers, fictional characters, and readers, toward determining what place literary empathy has in our conversation about contemporary literature. James Baldwin once observed that, "You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who had ever been alive." We will use weekly reading assignments including fiction, poetry, and creative non-fiction to ask questions about what Virginia Woolf described as the "elimination of the ego" and "perpetual union with another mind" that take place when we read. Students will write critical responses, creative exercises, and a final paper on a topic to be approved by the instructor. Readings include Baldwin, Bishop, Beard, Carson, Walcott, and Woolf.

Instructor(s): Rachel DeWoskin Terms Offered: Winter Prerequisite(s): Students must be a declared Creative Writing major to enroll. Apply via creativewriting.uchicago.edu. Attendance on the first day is mandatory.

CRWR 17003. Fundamentals in Creative Writing: Truth. 100 Units.

In this class we'll study how writers define and make use of truth--whatever that is. In some cases it's the truth, singular; in others a truth, only one among many. Some writers tell it straight, others slant. Some, like Tim O'Brien, advocate story-truth, the idea that fiction tells deeper truths than facts. To get at the heart of these and other unanswerable questions we'll read writers who've written about one event in two or more modes. Nick Flynn's poems about his father, for example, which he's also set down as comic strips as well as in prose. Jeanette Winterson's first novel as well as her memoir, sixteen years later, about what she'd been too afraid to say in it. Karl Marlantes' novel about the Vietnam war, then his essays about the events he'd fictionalized. Through weekly responses, creative exercises, and longer analytic essays you'll begin to figure out your own writerly truths, as well as the differences-and intersections-between them.

Instructor(s): Dan Raeburn Terms Offered: Spring Prerequisite(s): This is class is restricted to students who have declared a major in Creative Writing. Instructor consent required. Apply via creativewriting.uchicago.edu. Attendance on the first day is mandatory.

CRWR 17004. Fundamentals in Creative Writing: High School Reading. 100 Units.

We all know them-The Great Gatsby, The Lord of the Flies, The Bell Jar, and other books that seem to have been taught or read in every high school in the country since the dawn of time. In this cross-genre Fundamentals course, we'll re-examine these and works by the likes of Henry Miller, Sandra Cisneros, Allen Ginsberg, and Zora Neale Hurston. We'll think about the cultural history of what makes a classic high school read, about coming-of-age stories, and what it means to be educated, enlightened, and/or entertained. We'll think, too, about how we learn to read, write, and speak back to texts as adults (whatever that means). You'll write creative exercises, critical responses, and a final paper on a work of your choosing.

Instructor(s): Will Boast Terms Offered: Autumn Prerequisite(s): Students must be a declared Creative Writing major to enroll. Apply via creativewriting.uchicago.edu. Attendance on the first day is mandatory.

CRWR 17012. Fundamentals in Creative Writing: Creative Research/The Numinous Particulars. 100 Units.

According to Philip Gerard, "Creative research is both a process and a habit of mind, an alertness to the human story as it lurks in unlikely places." Creative writers may lean on research to sharpen the authenticity of their work; to liberate themselves from the confines of their personal experience; to mine existing stories and histories for details, plot, settings, characters; to generate new ideas and approaches to language, theme and story. The creative writer/researcher is on the hunt for the numinous particulars, the mysteries and human stories lurking in the finest grains of detail. In this course, we will explore the research methods used by creative writers and consider questions that range from the logistical (eg. How do I find what I need in an archive?) to the ethical (eg. How do I conscientiously write from a point of view outside my own experience?) to the aesthetic (eg. How do I incorporate all these researched details without waterlogging the poem/story/essay?). We will read poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction that relies heavily on research and hear from established writers about the challenges of conducting and writing from research. Assignments will include reading responses, creative writing and research exercises, short essays and presentations.

Instructor(s): Stephanie Soileau Terms Offered: Autumn Prerequisite(s): Students must be a declared Creative Writing major to enroll. Apply via creativewriting.uchicago.edu. Attendance on the first day is mandatory.

CRWR 17013. Fundamentals in Creative Writing: Touchstones. 100 Units.

Most passionate readers and writers have literary touchstones --those texts we return to again and again for personal or aesthetic influence and inspiration. When we are asked what book we would want with us if we were stranded on a desert isle, our touchstones are the ones that leap immediately to mind. Some texts are fairly ubiquitous touchstones: The Great Gatsby, Harry Potter and the [take your pick], The Bell Jar, Little Women, Letters to a Young Poet, Leaves of Grass. Others are quirkier, more idiosyncratic. What -- if any -- qualities do these touchstones share, within and across genres? What lessons about writing craft can be drawn from them? In this course, we'll read texts that are commonly cited as touchstones, along with fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction that students bring to the table -- their own literary touchstones. In that sense, our reading list will be collaborative, and students will be expected to contribute content as well as an analytical presentation on the craft issues raised by their selections. Our assignments will include reading responses, creative writing exercises, short essays and presentations.

CRWR 20211. Technical Seminar in Fiction: The Dilemna. 100 Units.

Some of the most compelling works of fiction are built around moral, social, and psychological dilemmas. Characters are set loose in a dark woods of ambiguity and conflicting values, where they reveal themselves (and their/our humanity) through the decisions they make, the actions they undertake. Such stories present a dramatized prism of arguments and resist easy "lessons." Rather, they end with a question mark that invites conversation between reader and narrative long after the story has ended. The challenge for writers, of course, is to avoid polemic, instead exploring this moral, social, and psychological terrain in a way that is even-handed and flows organically out of character. In this technical seminar, we will read fiction (by writers like James Alan McPherson, Graham Greene, Tayari Jones, and Cynthia Ozick, among others) that centers on an uneasy choice between moral positions. We will examine how the dilemma shapes conflict and plot, and, perhaps most important, how the writer invites the reader to get lost in a dark woods alongside the story's characters. The emphasis of this course will be on critical writing, but students will also have opportunities to write creative responses to the readings and experiment with the craft techniques we discuss.

Instructor(s): Stephanie Soileau Terms Offered: Spring Prerequisite(s): Instructor consent required. Apply via creativewriting.uchicago.edu. Attendance on the first day is mandatory. Equivalent Course(s): CRWR 40211

CRWR 20220. Technical Seminar in Fiction: Sentences. 100 Units.

Accuracy," according to Mexican novelist Yuri Herrera, "does not mean hitting something on the wall. Rather, one creates the target as the dart is thrown." Style, writers know, does not adorn stories; it builds them. In workshop, we may find it easier to discuss other things-we rightly speak of scenes, point of view, or plot-yet everything that happens in fiction still happens in sentences. In this seminar, we will explore the difficulties both of discussing sentence style and of developing it. After an introduction to some useful concepts in the history and description of sentences, we'll turn to reading and imitating noted stylists such as William Faulkner and Jamaica Kincaid, finding in each writer's sentences the grain of their politics, epistemology, and approach to story. And in the last part of the course students will submit their own exploration of sentence style, whether creative or analytic, to sharpen our knowledge of style's powers.

Instructor(s): Benjamin Lytal Terms Offered: Spring Prerequisite(s): Instructor consent required. Apply via creativewriting.uchicago.edu. Attendance on the first day is mandatory. Equivalent Course(s): CRWR 40220

CRWR 20221. Technical Seminar in Fiction: Detail. 100 Units.

John Gardner said that the writer's task is to create "a vivid and continuous fictional dream." This technical seminar will focus on the role of detail in maintaining this dream. In this course we will deconstruct and rebuild our understanding of concepts like simile, showing vs. telling, and symbolism, asking what these tools do and what purpose they serve. Drawing from fiction and essays from Ottessa Moshfegh, Barbara Comyns, Zadie Smith, and others, students will practice noticing, seeing anew, and finding fresh and unexpected ways of describing. We will also examine what is worthy of detail in the first place, how detail functions outside of traditional scene, and the merits and limits of specificity, mimesis, and verisimilitude. Finally we will consider what it means to travel across a landscape of vagueness and euphemism as we search for the quality of "thisness" that James Wood claims all great details possess. In addition to assigned readings, students will be responsible for reading responses, short craft analyses, vigorous class participation, and several creativeexercises and peer critiques applying these lessons.

Instructor(s): Benjamin Hoffman Terms Offered: Winter Prerequisite(s): Instructor consent required. Apply via creativewriting.uchicago.edu. Attendance on the first day is mandatory. Equivalent Course(s): CRWR 40221

CRWR 20222. Technical Seminar in Fiction: Temporality. 100 Units.

Time is a created thing," according to Lao Tzu. In this course, we will look at how fiction writers "create" the sense of time in their stories, and how they grapple with temporality as an organizing narrative force. To that end, we will study how and why writers implement flashbacks, flash forwards, memories, jump cuts, and repeating scenerios, among other techniques. We will look at both straightforwardly chronological and intuitively nonchronological timelines, and discuss how different temporal approaches create different stories. Readings may include works by Roberto Bolaño, Lauren Groff, and William Maxwell. In addition, please come to class prepared to engage with creative exercises.

Instructor(s): Ling Ma Terms Offered: Spring Prerequisite(s): Instructor consent required. Apply via creativewriting.uchicago.edu. Attendance on the first day is mandatory. Equivalent Course(s): CRWR 40222

CRWR 20223. Technical Seminar in Fiction: Narration & POV. 100 Units.

The question of which point of view to use is central to any fiction writer beginning a story or a novel, but what does it mean to choose one point of view over another? Who is narrating the story and how does she present herself? Is the narrator speaking directly to the reader, as a character in the story itself? Is she hiding in the shadows, trying to be as invisible as possible? Does she have a god-like omniscience, narrating from on high? Or does she exist in a liminal state, narrating through both a character and herself simultaneously through "free indirect discourse"? How does a writer's choice of POV and narrative distance affect such things as voice, rate of revelation, and even worldbuilding? How does it affect the reader's experience? And how can a writer maximize their choice of POV to best serve the story they want to tell? Students will read various works of long and short fiction in different POVs to study their effects, as well as critical and craft texts. They will write weekly reading responses as well as creative exercises. Each student will also be expected to give a presentation and write a final creative / analytical paper for the class.

Instructor(s): Augustus Rose Terms Offered: Winter Prerequisite(s): Instructor consent required. Apply via creativewriting.uchicago.edu. Attendance on the first day is mandatory. Equivalent Course(s): CRWR 40223

CRWR 20224. Technical Seminar in Fiction: Narrative Tempo. 100 Units.

At certain moments," writes Italo Calvino of his early literary efforts, "I felt that the entire world was turning into stone." Slowness and speed govern not just the experience of writing but also the texture of our fictional worlds. And this is something we can control. Sublimely slow writers like Sebald or Duras can make time melt; spritely magicians like Bulgakov and Rushdie seem to shuffle planes of reality with a snap of their fingers. This seminar gathers fictions that pulse on eclectic wavelengths, asking in each case how narrative tempo embodies a fiction's character. Our exercises will play with the dial of compositional speed, testing writing quick and slow; alternately, we'll try to recreate the effects of signature texts. Weekly creative and critical responses will culminate in a final project.

Instructor(s): Benjamin Lytal Terms Offered: Winter Prerequisite(s): Instructor consent required. Apply via creativewriting.uchicago.edu. Attendance on the first day is mandatory. Equivalent Course(s): CRWR 40224

CRWR 20226. Technical Seminar in Fiction: Beginnings. 100 Units.

This technical seminar will investigate the purposes and possibilities of beginnings in fiction. Students will read opening lines, paragraphs, pages, and occasionally chapters, from Aimee Bender, Miranda July, Dorthe Nors, Kobe Abe, and others, asking: what work do these beginnings do-and why, to what end? Of course, this means we will also read the stories that follow, to analyze these introductions in the framework of their narratives. How do openings guide-or mislead-the reader? How should they balance introduction and momentum? How do they orient us, not only to character, setting, and conflict, but also to elements like tone and sensibility, to a story's own sense of itself? What archetypes or common "moves" can we identify and use? What are the implications and meanings of beginnings-of starting in a particular place and way, when a story might very well start in any number of places? And how do such authorial decisions ripple through the story? Students will be responsible for reading responses, short craft analyses, vigorous class participation, and several creative exercises putting what they learn into practice.

Instructor(s): Ben Hoffman Terms Offered: Autumn Prerequisite(s): Instructor consent required. Apply via creativewriting.uchicago.edu. Attendance on the first day is mandatory. Equivalent Course(s): CRWR 40226

CRWR 20227. Technical Seminar in Fiction: Reading and Writing the Body. 100 Units.

In her seminal essay "On Being Ill," Virginia Woolf writes, "Literature does its best to maintain that its concern is with the mind; that the body is a sheet of plain glass through which the soul looks straight and clear. […] On the contrary, the very opposite is true. All day, all night the body intervenes." This seminar will actively examine these bodily interventions in writing, and explore the merits of engaging deeply and precisely with the taboo subjects of sex, aging, illness, bodily change, and bodily difference. We will also discuss the concept of embodied writing-and the embodiment of physical experience through writing-using the body-centered prose of Bruno Schulz, Annie Ernaux, Rebecca Brown, Yasunari Kawabata, Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore, and other writers. Assignments will include short critical and creative responses, a presentation, and a critical essay.

Instructor(s): Meghan Lamb Terms Offered: Winter Prerequisite(s): Instructor consent required. Apply via creativewriting.uchicago.edu. Attendance on the first day is mandatory. Equivalent Course(s): CRWR 40227

CRWR 20228. Technical Seminar in Fiction: Historical Fiction. 100 Units.

Rightly dismissed, sometimes, as the home of costume dramas and simplistic crowd-pleasers, historical fiction was once the forge of European realism, honing priorities of detail, scene, and character development that could bring the bare historical record to life. Today, some historical fiction remains a site of pressing experiment, and in this seminar we'll read such work to unlock the arguments of craft that spur fiction to distinguish itself from non-fiction in ways that still feel fresh. Analytical and creative responses will follow readings in historical magical realism (Alejo Carpentier, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, or Toni Morrison), counterfactual historical fiction (John Keene or Laurent Binet), imagined biography (Fleur Jaeggy, Marcel Schwob, or Virginia Woolf), and in scholarship that itself borrows the tools of fiction (John Demos or Saidiya Hartman). Along the way we'll discuss illuminating critical polemics, and at the quarter's end students will prepare an essay or experiment that uses historiography to throw the techniques of fiction into a new light.

Instructor(s): Benjamin Lytal Terms Offered: Winter Note(s): Instructor consent required. Apply via creativewriting.uchicago.edu. Attendance on the first day is mandatory. Equivalent Course(s): CRWR 40228

CRWR 20229. Technical Seminar in Fiction: 3-D Character Builder. 100 Units.

This reading and writing course will acquaint students with one of the essential tools of fiction writers, characterization. We will read works by authors including Baldwin, Guo, Nabokov, Munro, Sharma and Wharton, toward exploring how some of literatures most famous characters are rendered. How do writers of fiction create contexts in which characters must struggle, and how does each character's conflicts, choices, and use of language reveal his or her nature? How do we make characters whose behaviors are complicated enough to feel real, and why are some of the worst characters the most compelling? Students in this technical seminar will complete both creative and analytical writing exercises, reading responses, and a critical paper that focuses on characterization in a work of fiction.

Instructor(s): Rachel DeWoskin Terms Offered: Autumn Prerequisite(s): Instructor consent required. Apply via creativewriting.uchicago.edu. Attendance on the first day is mandatory. Equivalent Course(s): CRWR 40229

CRWR 20232. Technical Seminar in Fiction: Narrative Influence. 100 Units.

Technical Seminar in Fiction: Narrative Influence

Instructor(s): Sharon Pomerantz Terms Offered: Spring Prerequisite(s): Instructor consent required. Apply via creativewriting.uchicago.edu. Attendance on the first day is mandatory. Equivalent Course(s): CRWR 40232

CRWR 20233. Technical Seminar in Fiction: Who Sees and Who Speaks? 100 Units.

Who Sees and Who Speaks? What is the nature of the encounter between a narrator and a character, and how do elements of character and plot play out in narrative points of view? Drawing on the narratological work of theorists such as Gérard Genette and Monika Fludernik and of critics such as James Wood, this technical seminar considers questions of point of view, perspective, and focalization. Readings may include stories by Jamil Jan Kochai, Lorrie Moore, Jamaica Kincaid, William Faulkner, Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, and Edith Wharton, among others, and will introduce instances of first-person-plural and second-person narrative, as well as modes of representing speech and thought such as free indirect discourse. Over the course of the quarter, students will write short analyses and creative exercises, culminating in a final project.

Instructor(s): Sophia Veltfort Terms Offered: Spring Prerequisite(s): Instructor consent required. Apply via creativewriting.uchicago.edu. Attendance on the first day is mandatory. Equivalent Course(s): CRWR 40233

CRWR 20234. Technical Seminar in Fiction: Unlikeable Characters. 100 Units.

From "unreliable" to "unlikeable," certain characters--and character qualities--are often measured against popular understandings of who is "good," who is "relatable," and who gets to decide. As Ottessa Moshfegh quips in a Guardian interview, "We live in a world in which mass murderers are re-elected, yet it's an unlikeable female character that is found to be offensive." In this technical seminar, we will critically investigate cultural dialogues around "unlikeability," and discuss the shared qualities and compelling narrative capabilities of "unlikeable" characters. Assignments will include reading responses, short craft analyses, and a presentation.

Instructor(s): Meghan Lamb Terms Offered: Spring Prerequisite(s): Instructor consent required. Apply via creativewriting.uchicago.edu. Attendance on the first day is mandatory. Equivalent Course(s): CRWR 40234

CRWR 20305. Technical Seminar in Poetry: Imagery and Description. 100 Units.

This technical seminar explores different theoretical and practical approaches to imagery and description in poetry. To begin with, we'll try to distinguish between the two terms, to the extent necessary and possible. Then we will examine and practice writing radically different approaches to image making and description (e.g. synesthetic, collaged, surrealist, eco-poetic, abstract, juxtapositional, haiku, etc.). Along the way, we'll consider theories about the rhetorical functions of imagery and description in the poetic text. Although this course focuses on poetry, it is certainly relevant to prose writers interested in the role of descriptive detail in literary writing, and for comparison we will examine famous examples of description in works of fiction. Students should plan to submit a weekly exercises, write a critical essay, and give a class presentation.

Instructor(s): Nathan Hoks Terms Offered: Spring Prerequisite(s): Instructor consent required. Apply via creativewriting.uchicago.edu. Attendance on the first day is mandatory. Equivalent Course(s): CRWR 40305

CRWR 20309. Technical Seminar in Poetry: Generative Genres. 100 Units.

Poets often turn to the constraints and conventions of lyric forms (sonnets, sestinas, pantoums, etc.) as a way to generate material and experiment within a poetic tradition. The history of poetry, however, is as rich in genres as it is in forms. How is genre different from form? How do the two intersect? How have different genres evolved over time and how do new ones arise? In this course we will study modern variations on traditional genres (the elegy, the epistle, the dramatic monologue, the pastoral) alongside experiments in such "non-poetic" genres as the listicle, the blog entry, the obituary, and the tweet, in the hopes of expanding and regenerating our encounter with the art.

Instructor(s): Suzanne Buffam Terms Offered: Winter Prerequisite(s): Instructor consent required. Apply via creativewriting.uchicago.edu. Attendance on the first day is mandatory. Equivalent Course(s): CRWR 40309

CRWR 20311. Technical Seminar in Poetry: Urban Image and Poetic Play. 100 Units.

This technical seminar focuses on poems' development of image through the work of urban writers. We will explore the lineage of urban lyric within the nineteenth century, then reflect on its development in the contemporary city. What impulse defines an "urban poetics?" What is urban lyric's relationship with painting and photography? Do all city poems reflect one "city" in the end or is a more local impulse at work in cities as foci for writing? This course seeks to establish a solid, working basis in examining "image" and its lyric development through critical reflection and field work. To this end, we will work with a range of urban writers, including Paul Blackburn, Andrew Colarusso, Wanda Coleman, Kevin Killian, Frank O'Hara, Salima Rivera, Ed Roberson, and David Ulin.

Instructor(s): Garin Cycholl Terms Offered: Winter Prerequisite(s): Instructor consent required. Apply via creativewriting.uchicago.edu. Attendance on the first day is mandatory. Equivalent Course(s): CRWR 40311

CRWR 20410. Technical Seminar in Nonfiction: Epistolary Form. 100 Units.

This reading and writing seminar will focus on works of literature that have found shape and substance via documents such as letters, diary entries, newspaper clippings, legal documents, medical records, and more. Students will analyze the causes and effects of the archival impulse on various craft elements, including: dramatic pacing, narrative persona, structure, and theme. Students will conduct independent research according to the genre of their choosing (from memoirs to novels and poems) and write short critical reading reports throughout the quarter. All the while, students will compose and/or compile their own archival materials for creative experiments that test the limits and possibilities of the craft.

Instructor(s): Dina Peone Terms Offered: Autumn Prerequisite(s): Instructor consent required. Apply via creativewriting.uchicago.edu. Attendance on the first day is mandatory. Equivalent Course(s): CRWR 40410

CRWR 20411. Technical Seminar in Nonfiction: Revision. 100 Units.

What happens after you've completed an early draft of a nonfiction essay? With the genre's commitment to lived experience and fact, what possibilities are yet available for revising nonfiction? This seminar will focus on approaches to revision that specifically address the challenges of rewriting and polishing literary essays. We will explore what possibilities yet remain even after "what happened" has been accounted for. Students will have the opportunity to bring in work from other nonfiction workshops and work towards its fruition. A slate of prompts will invite students to approach their written pieces anew, to explore aspects they've been waiting to address, and to implement feedback yet to be integrated. Revision is an important element of the writing craft; our readings will focus on elements of rewriting that unearth truer truths and consider how revising might become part of the story itself. Course readings will include works by Peter Ho Davies, Mary Karr, Ursula Le Guinn, and Brenda Miller. We will also draw on archives that show multiple drafts of published work, including that of Elizabeth Bishop and Barry Lopez.

Instructor(s): Kathleen Blackburn Terms Offered: Spring Prerequisite(s): Instructor consent required. Apply via creativewriting.uchicago.edu. Attendance on the first day is mandatory. Equivalent Course(s): CRWR 40411

CRWR 21502. Advanced Translation Workshop. 100 Units.

All writing is revision, and this holds true for the practice of literary translation as well. We will critique each other's longer manuscripts-in-progress of prose, poetry, or drama, and examine various revision techniques-from the line-by-line approach of Lydia Davis, to the "driving-in-the-dark" model of Peter Constantine, and several approaches in between. We will consider questions of different reading audiences while preparing manuscripts for submission for publication, along with the contextualization of the work with a translator's preface or afterword. Our efforts will culminate in not only an advanced-stage manuscript, but also with various strategies in hand to use for future projects. We will also have the opportunity to have conversations via Zoom with some of the translators we'll be reading. Students who wish to take this workshop should have at least an intermediate proficiency in a foreign language and already be working on a longer translation project.

Instructor(s): Jason Grunebaum Terms Offered: Spring Prerequisite(s): Instructor consent required. Apply via creativewriting.uchicago.edu (include writing sample). Attendance on the first day is mandatory. Students who wish to take this workshop should have at least an intermediate proficiency in a foreign language and already be working on a longer translation project. Equivalent Course(s): CRWR 41502

CRWR 21504. Advanced Translation Workshop: Scales of Reading. 100 Units.

Peer review of translations-in-progress can often take the form of line edits: we discuss word choices that call attention to themselves rather than talking through the larger compositional units in which those choices are made. While a fine-grained reading is vital to revision, it can also run the risk of minimizing our critical engagement with translated texts merely on the basis of "awkward" or " stilted" language. This workshop will explore the different scales of reading employed in reviewing drafts: Yes, those instances that make us pause or take us out of the text are worth marking for the translator, but ultimately, they're only useful to the translator if we can synthesize them into a larger, coherent reading of the work as a whole. By treating translations-in-progress as literary works deserving of close readings (rather than merely manuscript pages to be edited), we'll seek to provide our peers with a critical account of our experience as the primary readers of their translations. Specifically, we'll practice grounding our accounts in aspects of craft and structure, form and content, in order to move beyond our subjectivities as readers and our idiolects as writers - and better understand how a translated work's larger concerns are enacted in the language itself. Students with translations-in-progress, as well as students who will be starting new projects, are welcome to participate in this workshop.

Instructor(s): Annie Janusch Prerequisite(s): Instructor consent required. Apply via creativewriting.uchicago.edu (include writing sample). Attendance on the first day is mandatory. Students who wish to take this workshop should have at least an intermediate proficiency in a foreign language and already be working on a longer translation project. Equivalent Course(s): CRWR 41504

CRWR 21505. Advanced Translation Workshop: Prose Style. 100 Units.

Purple, lean, evocative, muscular, lucid, poetic, stilted, elliptical, economical. These are all labels that critics and reviewers have used to characterize prose styles that call attention to themselves in distinct ways. Of course, what constitutes style not only changes over time, but also means different things in different literary traditions. How, then, do translators carry style over from one language and cultural milieu to another? And to what extent does style structure storytelling? We will explore these questions by reading a variety of modern and contemporary stylists who either write in English or translate into English, paying special attention to what stylistic devices are at work and what their implications are for narration, characterization, and world building. Further, we'll examine the range of choices that each writer and translator makes when constituting and reconstituting style, on a lexical, tonal, and syntactic scale. By pairing readings with generative exercises in stylistics and constrained writing, we will build toward the translation of a short work of contemporary fiction into English. To participate in this workshop, students should be able to comfortably read a literary text in a foreign language.

Instructor(s): Annie Janusch Terms Offered: Winter Prerequisite(s): Instructor consent required. Apply via creativewriting.uchicago.edu. Attendance on the first day is mandatory. Equivalent Course(s): CRWR 41505

CRWR 22110. Advanced Fiction Workshop: Exploring Your Boundaries. 100 Units.

What natural and artificial boundaries do we impose on ourselves as writers? Are those boundaries clarifying or limiting? How might we push beyond them to more effectively tell the stories we need to tell? This workshop-based course will focus on these questions and ask you to expand the formal and also emotional, thematic, and aesthetic possibilities in your fiction. To that end, we'll read the work of writers who offer distinct visions of the world through innovative storytelling approaches, and we'll examine how their risk-taking might be as personal as it is literary-an encouragement for you not necessarily to be "experimental" writers, but to explore more meaningful, honest, and expansive ways of telling your own stories. For the course, you will do writing exercises and weekly reading responses, as well as workshop one full-length story that attempts an approach in form or content that you have not tried before in your fiction.

Instructor(s): Vu Tran Terms Offered: Autumn Note(s): Instructor consent required. Apply via creativewriting.uchicago.edu. Attendance on the first day is mandatory. Equivalent Course(s): CRWR 42110

CRWR 22128. Advanced Fiction Workshop: Novel Writing, The First Chapters. 100 Units.

In this workshop-focused class we will focus on the early stages of both developing and writing a novel: choosing the POV, establishing the setting, developing the main characters and the dynamics between them, setting up the conflicts and seeding the themes of book, etc. As a class we will read, break down and discuss the architecture of the openings of several published novels as you work on your own opening chapters, which will be workshopped during the course.

Instructor(s): Augustus Rose Terms Offered: Autumn Prerequisite(s): Instructor consent required. Apply via creativewriting.uchicago.edu (include writing sample). Attendance on the first day is mandatory. Equivalent Course(s): CRWR 42128

CRWR 22130. Advanced Fiction Workshop: Inner Logic. 100 Units.

In this advanced workshop, we will explore the range of strategies and techniques that fiction writers employ to make readers suspend their disbelief. We will consider how imagined worlds are made to feel real and how invented characters can seem so human. We will contemplate how themes, motifs, and symbols are deployed in such a way that a story can feel curated without seeming inorganic. We will consider how hints are dropped with subtlety, how the 'rules' for what is possible in a story are developed, and how writers can sometimes defy their own established expectations in ways that delight rather than frustrate. From character consistency to twist endings, we'll investigate how published authors lend a sense of realism and plausibility to even the most far-fetched concepts. Through regular workshops, we will also interrogate all students' fiction through this lens, discussing the ways in which your narratives-in-progress create their own inner logic. Students will submit two stories to workshop (one to be submitted early in the term) and will be asked to write critiques of all peer work.

Instructor(s): Baird Harper Terms Offered: Spring Prerequisite(s): Instructor consent required. Apply via creativewriting.uchicago.edu. Attendance on the first day is mandatory. Equivalent Course(s): CRWR 42130

CRWR 22132. Advanced Fiction Workshop: Strange Magic in Short Fiction. 100 Units.

In this workshop based course we'll investigate how strangeness and magic function in short fiction. We'll read stories by authors like Kelly Link, Carmen Maria Machado, and Alice Sola Kim, examining how these writers portray the fantastical and impossible. We'll explore concepts like defamiliarization, versimilitude, and the uncanny. We will contemplate how magical realism and surrealism differ from sci-fi and fantasy genre writing, and ask how we, as writers, can make the quotidian seem extraordinary and the improbable seem inevitable, and to what end? Students will complete several short creative exercises and workshop one story that utilizes magic or strange effects. Students will also be expected to write thoughtful, constructive critiques of peer work. Throughout the course, we'll consider how the expectations of literary fiction might constrain such narratives, and we can engage with and transcend these archetypes.

Instructor(s): Benjamin Hoffman Terms Offered: Winter Prerequisite(s): Instructor consent required. Apply via creativewriting.uchicago.edu. Attendance on the first day is mandatory. Equivalent Course(s): CRWR 42132

CRWR 22133. Advanced Fiction Workshop: Writing the Uncanny. 100 Units.

Sigmund Freud defines "the uncanny" ("unheimlich") as something that unnerves us because it is both familiar and alien at the same time, the result of hidden anxieties and desires coming to the surface. In this advanced fiction workshop, we will explore how fiction writers use the uncanny to create suspense, lend their characters psychological depth, thrill and terrify their readers, and lay bare the darkest and most difficult human impulses. We will read and discuss fiction by writers like Shirley Jackson, Jamaica Kincaid, Octavia Butler, Kelly Link, Ben Okri, Haruki Murakami, and Victor Lavalle, drawing craft lessons from these writers to guide our own attempts at writing the uncanny. Much of our class time will be dedicated to evaluating student work and honing our skills of composition and critique. In addition to shorter writing exercises and "mini-workshops" throughout the quarter, every student will complete a full-length "uncanny" short story for workshop and compose critique letters for each of their peers. Students will be required to significantly revise their full-length short story by the end of the quarter.

Instructor(s): Stephanie Soileau Terms Offered: Autumn Prerequisite(s): Instructor consent required. Apply via creativewriting.uchicago.edu. Attendance on the first day is mandatory. Equivalent Course(s): CRWR 42133

CRWR 22134. Advanced Fiction Workshop: Cultivating Trouble and Conflict. 100 Units.

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 advanced workshop we'll explore the complex ways writers create conflict in their stories, be it internal or external, spiritual or physical, romantic, financial or familial. We'll read masters of the form like Edward P. Jones, George Saunders, ZZ Packer, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Yiyun Li, and discuss how they generate conflict that feels organic, character-driven, and inevitable. Weekly writing exercises will encourage you to take creative risks and hone new skills. Each student will workshop two stories, with strong emphasis on focused and productive peer critique and in-class commentary.

Instructor(s): Sharon Pomerantz Terms Offered: Spring Prerequisite(s): Instructor consent required. Apply via creativewriting.uchicago.edu. Attendance on the first day is mandatory. Equivalent Course(s): CRWR 42134

CRWR 22135. Advanced Fiction Workshop: Narrative Time. 100 Units.

A story's end point determines its meaning. The history of a life can be covered in a sentence, a few pages, or seven volumes. How do writers make these choices? In this advanced workshop, we'll look at different ways to handle narrative time, paying special attention to building blocks like direct and summary scene, flashback, compression, slowed time and fabulist time. We'll examine work by writers whose long stories have the sweep of novels, like Alice Munro and Edward P. Jones, alongside those who say everything in short single scenes of a page or two, like Grace Paley and Justin Torres. Students will be encouraged to experiment with time in both writing exercises and story revisions. Each student will workshop two stories, with strong emphasis on focused and productive peer critique and in-class commentary.

Instructor(s): Sharon Pomerantz Terms Offered: Spring Prerequisite(s): Instructor consent required. Apply via creativewriting.uchicago.edu. Attendance on the first day is mandatory. Equivalent Course(s): CRWR 42135

CRWR 22137. Advanced Fiction Workshop: The College Novel (& Story) 100 Units.

In this advanced fiction workshop, we will examine and write narratives set at college, the so-called campus and varsity novels (and, in our case, short stories). We will try to capture the attendant promise and uncertainty of life on the cusp of adulthood, asking what it means to come of age, to age, to experiment, and possibly, to regress. We'll attempt to veer away from cultural cliché and caricature to portray the truth of life on campus and come to grips with the way you live right now, as we consider what it means-to borrow the title of one novel-to make our home among strangers. Students will read published works and submit two stories or novel excerpts for workshops. Please expect a rigorous but constructive workshop environment where being a critic and an editor is essential.

Instructor(s): Ben Hoffman Terms Offered: Winter Prerequisite(s): Instructor consent required. Apply via creativewriting.uchicago.edu. Attendance on the first day is mandatory. Equivalent Course(s): CRWR 42137

CRWR 22142. Advanced Fiction Workshop: The Fantastical. 100 Units.

From the short stories of George Saunders to the TV show Atlanta, speculative fiction often introduces the fantastical into narratives seemingly set in everyday reality. This workshop will focus on the fantastical in contemporary literature, and the logistical issues and questions that commonly arise around it. We will look at the role of fantastical in puncturing the veil of "realism." What is the fantastical doing that can't be done through other narrative modes? How does the narrative metabolize this disruption? How should the fantastical be tempered by the mundane? Students for this course should not only have an interest in speculative fiction, but should have already made some efforts within this mode. Note that this course does not focus exclusively on fantasy or science fiction, though there may be some genre overlap. Readings will include works by Rachel Ingalls, Ted Chiang, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, and more.

Instructor(s): Ling Ma Terms Offered: Spring Prerequisite(s): Instructor consent required. Apply via creativewriting.uchicago.edu. Attendance on the first day is mandatory. Equivalent Course(s): CRWR 42142

CRWR 22146. Advanced Fiction Workshop: Disruption and Disorder. 100 Units.

This workshop-based course proceeds from the premise that disorder and disruption are fruitful aesthetics that might be applied to numerous elements of fiction to unlock new possibilities in our work. Students will seek to identify typical narrative conventions and lyrical patterns and then write away from them-or write over them, toward subversion, surprise, and perhaps even a productive anarchy. In the first half of the course, students will search for hidden structures in work by Mary Gaitskill, Dennis Johnson, Taeko Kono, A.M. Homes, Lydia Davis, and Diane Williams, examining the methods these writers use to lead readers to unexpected, original, and transgressive places. Students will complete several short creative exercises in which they practice disruption and disorder in plot, pace, dialogue, and syntax. In the second half of the course, students will workshop one story or excerpt and write thoughtful, constructive critiques of peer work. Revision is also a crucial component of this class, as it is an opportunity to radically warp and deviate from our prior visions. Throughout the quarter, we will attempt to interrupt and shake up our own inclinations as artists.

Instructor(s): Benjamin Hoffman Terms Offered: Autumn Prerequisite(s): Instructor consent required. Apply via creativewriting.uchicago.edu. Attendance on the first day is mandatory. Equivalent Course(s): CRWR 42146

CRWR 22147. Advanced Fiction Workshop: Dangerous Historical Fiction. 100 Units.

In this advanced fiction workshop, students will read and research "dangerous" and/or banned literature, and work to write short stories or chapters from longer works of fiction that address complex social, personal, and/or historical moments. What makes art dangerous? Banned books from Baldwin's Go Tell it on the Mountain to Chopin's The Awakening and Morrison's Beloved will guide our conversation as we consider the crucial relationship between literature and context, writer and interlocutor, research and imagination. We will attend UChicago's American premiere of the banned, never-before produced opera, Korngold's opera Die Kathrin in April 2022.*

Instructor(s): Rachel DeWoskin Terms Offered: Spring Prerequisite(s): Instructor consent required. Apply via creativewriting.uchicago.edu. Attendance on the first day is mandatory. Equivalent Course(s): CRWR 42147

CRWR 22148. Advanced Fiction Workshop: Learning from Literature in Translation. 100 Units.

This class workshops original student fiction in the context of stimulating new work from outside English. Each week we will read a different author in translation and seek to define those technical qualities that make their fiction at once strange and instructive: jagged compression in Fleur Jaeggy, personae performance in Can Xue, improvisational procedure in César Aira. We'll touch on different models of world literature-as markets, as centers and peripheries, as national traditions-and discuss questions of translation. Once during the quarter students will be asked to either translate a short passage from recent fiction in a language of their choice or to write a direct imitation of one of the translated authors we've read. While reading these authors and pondering the nature of cross-linguistic influence, you will write and workshop two original stories or novel chapters.

Instructor(s): Benjamin Lytal Terms Offered: Winter Prerequisite(s): Instructor consent required. Apply via creativewriting.uchicago.edu. Attendance on the first day is mandatory. Equivalent Course(s): CRWR 42148

CRWR 22149. Advanced Fiction Workshop: Long Stories. 100 Units.

The advantage, the luxury, as well as the torment and responsibility of the novelist," writes Henry James, "is that there is no limit to what he may attempt." Writers interested in these torments and responsibilities can begin to experiment with long form in this workshop. Each student will compose a single long story of about forty pages. We'll attend to the freshness of beginnings, the satisfactions (and compromises) of endings and, most acutely, to the crises of middles. A scaffolding of workshops, outlines, and conferences will support and structure your efforts. Along the way we'll catalog the classic problems of long-form composition with examples from the likes of Alice Munro, Katherine Anne Porter, Franz Kafka, or John Keene.

Instructor(s): Benjamin Lytal Terms Offered: Spring Prerequisite(s): Instructor consent required. Apply via creativewriting.uchicago.edu. Attendance on the first day is mandatory. Equivalent Course(s): CRWR 42149

CRWR 22150. Advanced Fiction Workshop: Radical Revision. 100 Units.

Like so many essential and life-sustaining processes-relationship maintenance, money management, digestion-revision is something we often talk about without "really" talking about it (to use the words of writer Matthew Salesses). Yet by refusing (or failing) to "really" talk about revision, writers deny themselves the opportunity to actively engage with the potentialities of their work: the different shapes, forms, and shifts it might take. In this class, we will demystify the revision process by analyzing the works of writers-such as Anna Kavan, Edwidge Danticat, and Suzanne Scanlon-who have pursued radical revisions to their projects, including expansions (short stories developed into novels), compressions (longer works condensed into shorter pieces), point of view changes, and dramatic stylistic transformations. With a combination of creative exercises and workshops, we will also work toward our own radical revisions.

Instructor(s): Meghan Lamb Terms Offered: Winter Prerequisite(s): Instructor consent required. Apply via creativewriting.uchicago.edu. Attendance on the first day is mandatory. Equivalent Course(s): CRWR 42150

CRWR 22151. Advanced Fiction Workshop: First Person Narration. 100 Units.

In some ways, writing a first-person narrator seems like the most straightforward and natural kind of storytelling in the world. But as any writer who has made the attempt knows, that simple little "I" comes with an array of pitfalls - and possibilities. In this advanced fiction workshop, we will look at the many styles and approaches to first-person point of view: central narrators who are at the heart of the plot, peripheral narrators who witness and stand a little apart, the singular "I" vs. the plural "We," direct address (often mislabeled as second-person narration), and the spectrum of unreliability. We will read and discuss fiction by writers like Jamaica Kincaid, Haruki Murakami, Kazuo Ishiguro, Charles Portis, Alice Munro, Raven Leilani, Russell Banks, Evan S. Connell and others, drawing craft lessons from these writers to guide our own attempts at writing in first person. Much of our class time will be dedicated to evaluating student work and honing our skills of composition and critique. In addition to shorter writing exercises throughout the quarter, every student will complete a full-length first-person short story for workshop and compose critique letters for each of their peers. Students will be required to significantly revise their full-length story by the end of the quarter.

Instructor(s): Stephanie Soileau Terms Offered: Autumn Prerequisite(s): Instructor consent required. Apply via creativewriting.uchicago.edu. Attendance on the first day is mandatory. Equivalent Course(s): CRWR 42151

CRWR 22152. Advanced Fiction Workshop: Finding and Refining Voice. 100 Units.

As writers, your "voice" is essentially you imposing who you are on the believability of your sentences. It's the process of constantly asking yourself-whether your words are describing a character, an idea, or an image-Do I absolutely believe this?; then rewriting and rewriting your sentences until you absolutely do believe it; and then refining all the technical aspects you brought to bear to assure that level of personal truth. In this workshop, we will examine this process as a crucial step in your development of your own aesthetic: not just a writing style, but more importantly a personal perspective on the world that necessarily informs and is informed by that style. We will read a selection of writers with distinctive literary voices (Paul Bowles, Toni Morrison, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Lorrie Moore, Ottessa Moshfegh, Ocean Vuong, Garth Greenwell, etc.) and complement those readings with writing exercises and workshops of your own fiction, where you will actively seek, cultivate, and refine your emerging voice. For the quarter, everyone will workshop one full-length piece of fiction as well as a significant revision of that piece.

Instructor(s): Vu Tran Terms Offered: Spring Prerequisite(s): Instructor consent required. Apply via creativewriting.uchicago.edu. Attendance on the first day is mandatory. Equivalent Course(s): CRWR 42152

CRWR 22153. Advanced Fiction Workshop: Rants and Rambles. 100 Units.

The unshackled narrators that dominate many of our most exciting novels-from Dostoevsky's underground man to the uber-relatable mother of 2019's Ducks, Newburyport-take their bearings not from the scenic method of theater or the omniscient narration of history but from the essay form and from oral storytelling. This workshop plumbs those resources to better understand this alternative tradition, studying the craft that can make unruly narrative both highly entertaining and intellectually satisfying, exploring rhetoric, repetition, leitwortstil, logical nesting, suspense, digression, irony, and humor. While executing creative exercises in voice, we'll read books of furious energy by Thomas Bernhard and Jamaica Kincaid alongside cooler, essayistic meanders by W. G. Sebald and Claire-Louise Bennett. Students will compose and workshop a substantial work that takes its cues from these examples.

Instructor(s): Benjamin Lytal Terms Offered: Spring Prerequisite(s): Instructor consent required. Apply via creativewriting.uchicago.edu. Attendance on the first day is mandatory. Equivalent Course(s): CRWR 42153

CRWR 22154. Advanced Fiction Workshop: Unlikeable Characters. 100 Units.

Instructor(s): Meghan Lamb Terms Offered: Spring Prerequisite(s): Instructor consent required. Apply via creativewriting.uchicago.edu. Attendance on the first day is mandatory. Equivalent Course(s): CRWR 42154

CRWR 22155. Advanced Fiction Workshop: Writing About Work. 100 Units.

Writing about work, jobs, and vocational experiences may seem contradictory- or even antithetical-to our goals in fiction. After all, if we aim to inspire, to invigorate, to otherwise wield a narrative "axe for the frozen sea within us" (as Kafka wrote), why write about the very day-to-day tasks so often charged with numbing and blurring our sensation of life? In this workshop, we will explore and answer this question with our own work-focused fictions, developing strategies for defamiliarizing the mundane, and using routines to build dramatic tension. Utilizing a combination of creative workshops and exercises-and drawing upon models from the job-focused fiction of Eugene Martin, Dorothy Allison, Lucia Berlin, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Edwidge Danticat, and other writers-we will also deepen and develop our characters through precise depictions of their work environments.

Instructor(s): Meghan Lamb Terms Offered: Winter Prerequisite(s): Instructor consent required. Apply via creativewriting.uchicago.edu. Attendance on the first day is mandatory. Equivalent Course(s): CRWR 42155

CRWR 23113. Advanced Poetry Workshop: Waste, Surplus, Reuse. 100 Units.

What do writers and artists do with surplus, with extras, leftovers, and other excesses of production? Is there a creative use to put them to? When viewed in the context of ecology and economy, what are the ethical dimensions of working with surplus? Are there also ethics and aesthetics of the "useless"? With these guiding questions, this course will explore creative approaches to waste, and develop revision practices that draw on the reuse of material surplus. We will consider forms of excess, and we'll examine diverse types of waste and things that "waste", including literal trash, ruins, the body, time, the dream, and everyday texts (such as emails, text messages, rough drafts, conversations, and ephemeral media). Readings and media may include work by Georges Perec, Harryette Mullen, Nikki Wallschlaeger, T. S. Eliot, Kurt Schwitters, and Agnes Varda. Students should plan to complete various prompts, lead discussion on readings, and complete a final project.

Instructor(s): Nate Hoks Terms Offered: Winter Prerequisite(s): Instructor consent required. Apply via creativewriting.uchicago.edu. Attendance on the first day is mandatory. Equivalent Course(s): CRWR 43113

CRWR 23123. Advanced Poetry Workshop: Form & Formlessness. 100 Units.

Wallace Stevens suggests that "The essential thing in form is to be free in whatever form is used." How does form provide a kind of freedom for a poet? How does it manifest itself in a poem? Does it mean we have to follow prescribed rules, or is there a more intuitive approach? This course will give students a chance to try out a range of traditional and experimental forms, both as an attempt to improve as writers and in order to interrogate form and its other, what Bataille called the formless, or "unformed" (l'informe). We'll explore traditional and contemporary takes on a variety of forms and modes, such as sonnets, odes, aphorisms, serial poems, and poetic collage. Readings may include a mixt of poems and prose by Will Alexander, Joyelle McSweeney, Mark Leidner, Robert Hass, Aimé Césaire, Wallace Stevens, Dean Young, Yusef Komunyakaa, and Thylias Moss. Students should expect to write exercises, submit new poems, contribute feedback on peer work, write short response papers, and submit a final portfolio.

Instructor(s): Nathan Hoks Terms Offered: Autumn Prerequisite(s): Instructor consent required. Apply via creativewriting.uchicago.edu (include writing sample). Attendance on the first day is mandatory. Equivalent Course(s): CRWR 43123

CRWR 23126. Advanced Poetry Workshop: Poetry and the Present Moment. 100 Units.

In this workshop we will tackle the problem of writing poetry in the present moment at a range of scales, thinking critically about our world's obsession with the "contemporary." At the grandest scale, we will ask what it means to write into the contemporary moment, one in which we seem to feel time fading with every status update and tweet, and one that demands embodied engagement-reading works that have been written recently, in dialogue with living authors. At the most intimate scale, we will consider how poetry can cultivate critical awareness of the present moment amidst forces that pull us with dopamine-induced promises and regrets into the future and past. How does poetry, with its odd ability to punctuate, syncopate, fragment, and suspend time, intervene in daily life and in the historical record? Authors for consideration will include Issa, Basho, Gertrude Stein, F.T. Marinetti, David Harvey, Cecilia Vicuna, Bernadette Mayer, Etel Adnan, Leslie Scalapino, Lyn Hejinian, Julie Patton, CA Conrad, Julian T. Brolaski, and Bhanu Kapil. Students will have the chance to experiment with different forms of attunement to the present, and will produce a daybook in tandem with a final "book" project that may take a range of forms.

Instructor(s): Jennifer Scappettone Terms Offered: Winter Prerequisite(s): Instructor consent required. Apply via creativewriting.uchicago.edu. Attendance on the first day is mandatory. Equivalent Course(s): CRWR 43126

CRWR 23132. Advanced Poetry Workshop: Poets' Prose. 100 Units.

Which one of us, in his moments of ambition, has not dreamed of the miracle of a poetic prose," wrote Charles Baudelaire in Paris Spleen,"... supple enough and rugged enough to adapt itself to the lyrical impulses of the soul, the undulations of reverie, the jibes of conscience?" This genre-blurring workshop will explore elements of the history and practice of the prose poem, and other poems and texts that combine strategies, forms and gestures of prose (fiction, nonfiction, etc.) with those of poetry. We will also read texts that are difficult to classify in terms of genre. "Flash Fiction," "Short Shorts," the fable, the letter, the mini-essay, and the lyric essay will be examined, among others. We will discuss the literary usefulness (or lack of it) of genre and form labels. The class will be taught as a workshop: students will try their hand at writing in their choices of hybrid forms, and will be encouraged to experiment. Writers from all genres are welcome, as what we will be studying, discussing, and writing will involve the fruitful collision of literary genres.

Instructor(s): Suzanne Buffam Terms Offered: Spring Prerequisite(s): Instructor consent required. Apply via creativewriting.uchicago.edu. Attendance on the first day is mandatory. Equivalent Course(s): CRWR 43132

CRWR 23133. Advanced Poetry Workshop: Poets in Archives. 100 Units.

This course will examine how the historical archive can be a source for poetry writing, seeking to develop frameworks for interpreting the experiences that poets enact through archives. Deeper questions to be examined involve the relation between poetic form and historical knowledge; the relation between imagination and memory; between material histories and their inscription; between poets and their historical and biographical pasts; and between the critical and creative, the historical and biographical, and the exteriors and interiors of literature, history, myth, and politics. Because this is an advanced workshop, we will rely on mutual exchange dedicated to improving writing. Critique will therefore be our core activity, guided by our readings and professor instruction, but driven primarily by original student work and discussion.

Instructor(s): Edgar Garcia Terms Offered: Spring Prerequisite(s): Instructor consent required. Apply via creativewriting.uchicago.edu. Attendance on the first day is mandatory. Equivalent Course(s): CRWR 43133

CRWR 23134. Advanced Poetry Workshop: The Book as Form. 100 Units.

What is a book? This supposedly obsolete medium has undergone vital metamorphosis over the course of the past century, migrating from text into the visual and performing arts, as well as online. As contemporary writers we will consider what it means to contribute to its evolution, thinking about new forms that the "poetry collection" can take, as well as more emergent forms of the book as project-or process. Authors to be studied include Sappho, Basho, Mina Loy, Bruno Munari, Bread and Puppet Theater, Susan Howe, Anne Carson, Ann Hamilton, Buzz Spector, Bhanu Kapil, Don Mee Choi, Jen Bervin, Mei-Mei Burssenbrugge, Stephanie Strickland, Tan Lin, Edwin Torres, Nanni Balestrini, Douglas Kearney, and Amaranth Borsuk. Be prepared to think about poetry from the scale of the syllable to the scale of the entire bound (or unbound) work.

Instructor(s): Jennifer Scappettone Terms Offered: Autumn Prerequisite(s): Instructor consent required. Apply via creativewriting.uchicago.edu. Attendance on the first day is mandatory. Equivalent Course(s): CRWR 43134

CRWR 23135. Advanced Poetry Workshop: Weird Science. 100 Units.

This class invites students to explore various relationships between science and poetry, two domains that, perhaps counter-intuitively, often draw from each other to revitalize themselves. As poets, we'll use, misuse, and borrow from science in our poems. We'll approach poems like science experiments and aim to enter an "experimental attitude." From a practical point of view, we'll try to write poems that incorporate the language of science to freshen their own language or to expand the realm of poetic diction. Furthermore, we'll work with tropes and procedural experiments that may result in revelation, discovery, and surprise. Readings may include work by Aimé Césaire, Kimiko Hahn, Ed Roberson, Dean Young, Joyelle Mcsweeney, and Will Alexander. Students can expect to write several poems, participate in discussion forums with both initial response papers and follow-up comments, critique peers' work, and submit a final portfolio. A substantial amount of class time will be spent workshopping student work.

Instructor(s): Nathan Hoks Terms Offered: Winter Prerequisite(s): Instructor consent required. Apply via creativewriting.uchicago.edu. Attendance on the first day is mandatory. Equivalent Course(s): CRWR 43135

CRWR 23136. Advanced Poetry Workshop: Poetry as Parasite. 100 Units.

Might there be a kind of poem that acts like a parasite latched on to a host body? A poem whose very life is the fusion of various sources, voices, discourses? This poetry workshop invites students to read and write poetry that, either overtly or subtly, engages with other texts. We'll examine ways that poems create intertextual relationships (e.g. quoting, voicing, alluding, echoing, stealing, sampling, imitating, translating…) and test out these methods in our own writing. Students should expect to engage with the basic question of how their work relates to other poets and poems. Expect to read a substantial amount of work by modern and contemporary poets, submit new original poems for workshop, complete intertextual writing exercises, participate in discussion forums with both initial response papers and follow-up comments, critique peers' work, and submit a final portfolio. A substantial amount of class time will be spent workshopping student work.

Instructor(s): Nathan Hoks Terms Offered: Winter Prerequisite(s): Instructor consent required. Apply via creativewriting.uchicago.edu. Attendance on the first day is mandatory. Equivalent Course(s): CRWR 43136

CRWR 24002. Advanced Nonfiction Workshop: Writing About the Arts. 100 Units.

This workshop will support students in developing useful practices and experimenting boldly. Working with recent technological transformations in the visual arts world, we'll be keeping art notebooks in different forms (by hand, photographs, blog, instagram, collage). We'll begin with Walter Benjamin's classic essay about art and mechanical reproduction, and then work with some examples: 1. Virtually seen. Jennie C. Jones's show Constant Structure, hung at the Arts Club of Chicago via face time, with pamphlet-catalogue by poet and critic Fred Moten; 2. Unseen. Lori Waxman, long the art critic of the Chicago Tribune, and her pandemic 60 word / min art critic project in Newcity of art reviews for artists with canceled shows; 3. Explained / packaged. The instagram feeds of museums; 4. Technological diary / memory methods. Looking back to T.J. Clarke's book of 2006 The Sight of Death: An Experiment in Art Writing, and to Teju Cole's Blind Spot, which uses his own photographs, and looking now at instagram feeds of Cole and other art writers; 5. Collaborations. Artists working as collaborator-curators and self-interpreters, with reference to a recent Dawoud Bey show at the Art Institute and a Venice installation by iris Kensmil and Remy Jungerman. Each class will begin with student-led observation. Students will visit, in-person or on-line, five installations / exhibitions / events, and be workshopped twice. Final work, revised essay and looking notebook.

Instructor(s): Rachel Cohen Terms Offered: Winter Prerequisite(s): Instructor consent required. Apply via creativewriting.uchicago.edu (writing sample required). Attendance on the first day is mandatory. Equivalent Course(s): ARTH 24002, CRWR 44002, ARTH 34002

CRWR 24009. Advanced Nonfiction Workshop: Writing Lives. 100 Units.

Certain lives catch and keep our attention - they seem magnetic, illustrative, confusing, broken off, revelatory. Sometimes we suspect that through studying a life we will be able to understand a scientific discovery, an artistic creation, a political issue or an historical period; sometimes we are drawn by the drama of the life the subject lived, or by the person's introspection or testimony. This is a course for students interested in writing lives - and might be of particular interest to a variety of students: creative writers from nonfiction, fiction, and playwriting with an interest in profiles, group portraits, documentary work, or historical meditation; graduate and undergraduate students of history, art, politics, medicine, or law who imagine one day writing a biography, or who are interested in oral history, portraits, medical narrative writing, testimony, case histories, or writing for general / magazine audiences. We'll work to learn methods and techniques of interviewing, quotation, portrayal and documentation from historians and journalists, and also from playwrights, psychoanalysts, documentary photographers and archivists. Students will write weekly exercises in a variety of forms, and will complete one longer essay to be workshopped in class and revised.

Instructor(s): Rachel Cohen Terms Offered: Autumn Prerequisite(s): Instructor consent required. Apply via creativewriting.uchicago.edu. Attendance on the first day is mandatory. Note(s): Full description at creativewriting.uchicago.edu Equivalent Course(s): CRWR 44009

CRWR 24012. Advanced Nonfiction Workshop: Writing the Narrative Nonfiction Feature. 100 Units.

In this writing workshop, students will go through all the stages of composing a narrative nonfiction feature story. After generating a few ideas that seem original, surprising in their approach, and appropriate in scope, we will write and re-write pitches, learning how to highlight the potential story in these ideas. After the class agrees to "assign" one of these features, each student will report, research and write a draft. The features will be workshopped in class, and students will go through an editorial process, polishing their stories through drafts and experimenting with style and form for a final assignment. Along the way, we will consider the mechanics, ethics and craft of this work as we read published nonfiction and talk to writers/reporters about their process. In the end, we should be able to put together a publication that contains all of these feature stories.

Instructor(s): Ben Austen Terms Offered: Spring Prerequisite(s): Instructor consent required. Apply via creativewriting.uchicago.edu. Attendance on the first day is mandatory. Equivalent Course(s): CRWR 44012

CRWR 24019. Advanced Nonfiction Workshop: Experimental Essay. 100 Units.

Most introductions to creative nonfiction include one sections devoted to the strange and unwieldy-Ander Monson's "I've Been Thinking About Snow" or a page or two of Anne Carson's Nox. A brief foray into the metaphysical essay, the interactive essay, the performance essay and then back into the mainstream of creative nonfiction. This course, however, will be ignoring the mainstream entirely and, rather, will be devoted to the fringe, the strange and almost undefinable. From the performance essay to the video game essay, from the illustrated essay to the found essay and everything in between. This course will consist of experimental readings with accompanying writing prompts and in-class discussions, as well as dedicated workshops to each student's own experimental creative nonfiction project.

Instructor(s): Lina Ferreira Cabeza-Vanegas Terms Offered: Winter Prerequisite(s): Instructor consent required. Apply via creativewriting.uchicago.edu. Attendance on the first day is mandatory. Equivalent Course(s): CRWR 44019

CRWR 24020. Advanced Nonfiction Workshop: Writing the Eco-memoir. 100 Units.

We live in an era marked by human-driven environmental change, an epoch distinguished not only by the reality of anthropogenic impacts, but of human witness. Never before, writes Elizabeth Rush, have humans been here to tell the story of collapse, extinction, adaptation, and memory. In this workshop, we will read and write eco-memoir, a hybrid form of literary nonfiction that blends the work of ecology, history, and personal narrative to understand more fully how memory is bound to ecosystems. Some might simply call this memoir, following J. Drew Lanham's view that the writing of memoir is also the writing of environment. This course will ask how the memoirist looks at place, taking up W.G. Sebald's thinking that places seem to "have some kind of memory, in that they activate memory in those who look at them." Students will practice using the tenets of literary memoir-writing to engage with the theoretical frameworks of such environmental thinkers as Donna Haraway and Jedidiah Purdy. We will ask: to what extent is remembering a collective act? How might the eco-memoir represent the uneven consequences of ecological disruption? What narrative structures does the story of an ecosystem take? Students will write two-full length essays or memoir chapters. Readings will include texts by Kendra Atleework, Elizabeth Bush, Linda Hogan, J. Drew Lanham, W.G. Sebald, and visiting writers.

Instructor(s): Kathleen Blackburn Terms Offered: Spring Prerequisite(s): Instructor consent required. Apply via creativewriting.uchicago.edu. Attendance on the first day is mandatory. Equivalent Course(s): CRWR 44020

CRWR 24021. Advanced Nonfiction Workshop: The Trouble with Trauma. 100 Units.

In "The Body Keeps the Score" Bessel van der Kolk writes, "The greatest sources of our suffering are the lies we tell ourselves." Many trauma survivors begin writing reluctantly, even repulsed by the impulse to query their woundedness. The process is inhibited by stigma surrounding the notion of victimhood, entities that would prefer a survivor's silence, plus our tendency to dismiss and devalue ones suffering in relation to others. Students in this class will shed some of these constricting patterns of thinking about trauma so they may freely explore their stories with confidence, compassion, curiosity, and intention. We'll read authors who have found surprise, nuance, and yes, healing through art, honoring the heart-work that happens behind the scenes. Half of class-time will include student-led workshops of original works in progress. Paramount to our success will be an atmosphere of safety, supportiveness, respect, and confidentiality. By the quarters end each student will leave with a piece of writing that feels both true to their experience and imbued with possibility.

Instructor(s): Dina Peone Terms Offered: Autumn Prerequisite(s): Instructor consent required. Apply via creativewriting.uchicago.edu. Attendance on the first day is mandatory. Equivalent Course(s): CRWR 44021

CRWR 24022. Advanced Nonfiction Workshop: Writing Beyond the Event. 100 Units.

Much of the tradition of Western storytelling relies on scene-driven narratives propelled by rising action toward an inevitable apex. Often natural disasters are illustrated the same way: hurricanes, invasion of new species, infectious disease, and oil spills are cast as singular events with a beginning, middle and end. This advanced workshop will explore how to push beyond the event. We will examine how forms of nonfiction, from investigative journalism to lyric essays, push against the hegemony of the "event" to tell a longer, slower story of disruption across the nexus of time and space. Following Rob Nixon's concept of slow violence, readings will focus on places and communities whose narratives do not fit tidily into beginning-middle-end story structures. Workshop will ask students to consider how their work might recognize the contexts of extraction, commodity flow, climate change, and borders surrounding the "events" driving our stories.

Instructor(s): Kathleen Blackburn Terms Offered: Autumn Prerequisite(s): Instructor consent required. Apply via creativewriting.uchicago.edu. Attendance on the first day is mandatory. Equivalent Course(s): CRWR 44022

CRWR 24023. Advanced Nonfiction Workshop: Coming of Age Memoir. 100 Units.

Where does childhood end and adulthood begin? For Wordsworth growth happens in reverse. "The Child is the father of the Man," he wrote in 1802, yearning to recall the fundamental joy of a rainbow. Proust was eager to forget his schooldays: "We are not provided with wisdom, we must discover it for ourselves, after a journey through the wilderness which no one else can take for us." In this class, students will search their lives for events and lessons which they may consider formative, together evaluating the standards they use to qualify rites of passage, in order to isolate unique patterns of growth that students can call their own. Half the quarter will be dedicated to discussing original student work. A multitude of possibilities will be offered by readings of contemporary memoirists from all walks of life. By quarters end, each student will have laid down the groundwork for a dexterous memoir about surviving the challenges of their youth, and in doing so perhaps even imagine a future that is less prescribed and more personally fulfilling.

Instructor(s): Dina Peone Terms Offered: Spring Prerequisite(s): Instructor consent required. Submit writing sample via www.creativewriting.uchicago.edu. Attendance on the first day is mandatory. Equivalent Course(s): CRWR 42023

CRWR 24024. Advanced Nonfiction Workshop: Writing Reading. 100 Units.

The incisive review, the long-form reading memoir, the biographical sketch of a writer in history, the interview podcast, documentation of translation, diaristic response fragments - serious readers know and love the myriad forms for writing reading, but don't always have the chance to practice them. In this course, we'll try many forms, working to develop individual approaches and styles and regular practices. We'll make use of both creative (and traditional) research, analysis, and criticism, and explore the wide terrain available to creative writers - imitation, imagination, metaphor, voice, changes in perspective, conversational modes. We'll go back to foundational essayists including Virginia Woolf and Toni Morrison, and study contemporary writers of reading like Jazmina Berrera, Claire Messud, Niela Orr, Ruth Franklin, Hanif Abdurraqib, and Parul Sehgal. Students will keep a reading/writing notebook, conduct an interview, and write and revise a longer essay for workshop.

Instructor(s): Rachel Cohen Terms Offered: Spring Prerequisite(s): Instructor consent required. Submit writing sample via www.creativewriting.uchicago.edu. Attendance on the first day is mandatory. Equivalent Course(s): CRWR 42022

CRWR 24025. Advanced Nonfiction Workshop: Queering the Essay. 100 Units.

In Advanced Nonfiction Workshop: Queering the Essay, we'll approach the essay as a vehicle for queer narratives, as a marker of both individual and collective memory, and as a necessary compliment to the journalism and scholarship that have shaped queer writing. Through readings and in-class exercises, we'll explore tenets of the personal essay, like narrative structure and pacing, alongside considerations of voice and vulnerability. After a brief historical survey, we'll look to contemporary essayists as our guides--writers like Billy-Ray Belcourt, Melissa Faliveno, Saeed Jones, Richard Rodriguez, and T. Fleischmann-- alongside more familiar writers like Alison Bechdel and Maggie Nelson. And through student-led workshops, we'll wrestle with concerns that often trouble narratives of otherness: What does it mean to write a personal narrative that has a potential social impact? How can we write trauma without playing into harmful stereotypes? How can our writing work as--or make demands toward--advocacy, rather than voyeurism?

Instructor(s): Victoria Flanagan Terms Offered: Winter Note(s): Instructor consent required. Apply via creativewriting.uchicago.edu. Attendance on the first day is mandatory. Equivalent Course(s): GNSE 24205, GNSE 44205, CRWR 44025

CRWR 24026. Advanced Nonfiction Workshop: Feminist Biography. 100 Units.

The personal is political - that slogan of Women's Liberation - has long been understood, among other things, as a call for new forms of storytelling. One of those forms, feminist biography, has flourished in publishing since the 1970s, and it continues to evolve today, even as the terms of feminism and of biography are continually re-negotiated by writers and critics. In this workshop, we read some of those writers and critics. And we read illustrative examples of contemporary feminist biography (and anti-biography) in various nonfiction genres, including magazine profile, trade book, Wiki article, audio performance, personal essay, cult pamphlet, avant-garde art piece. Mostly, we try out the form for ourselves, in our own writing. Each workshop writer will choose a biographical subject (single, collective, or otherwise), and work up a series of sketches around that subject. By the end of the quarter, workshop writers will build these sketches into a single piece of longform life-writing. The workshop will focus equally on story-craft and method (e.g. interview and research techniques, cultivating sources); indeed we consider the ways that method and story are inevitably connected. This workshop might also include a week with an invited guest, a practicing critic or biographer.

Instructor(s): Avi Steinberg Terms Offered: Spring Prerequisite(s): Instructor consent required. Submit writing sample via www.creativewriting.uchicago.edu. Attendance on the first day is mandatory.

CRWR 29200. Thesis/Major Projects: Fiction. 100 Units.

This thesis workshop is for students writing a creative BA or MA thesis in fiction, as well as creative writing minors completing the portfolio. It is primarily a workshop, so please come to our first class with your project in progress (a story collection, a novel, or a novella), ready for you to discuss and to submit some part of for critique. As in any writing workshop, we will stress the fundamentals of craft like language, voice, and plot and character development, with an eye also on how to shape your work for the longer form you have chosen. And as a supplement to our workshops, we will have brief student presentations on the writing life: our literary influences, potential avenues towards publication, etc.

Terms Offered: Winter Prerequisite(s): Instructor consent required. Apply via creativewriting.uchicago.edu. Attendance on the first day is mandatory. Note(s): Required for CW majors and MAPH CW Option students completing creative BA and MA theses in fiction and CW minors completing minor portfolios in fiction. Equivalent Course(s): CRWR 49200

CRWR 29300. Thesis/Major Projects: Poetry. 100 Units.

This thesis workshop is for students writing a creative BA or MA thesis in poetry, as well as creative writing minors completing the portfolio. Because it is a thesis seminar, the course will focus on various ways of organizing larger poetic "projects." We will consider the poetic sequence, the chapbook, and the poetry collection as ways of extending the practice of poetry beyond the individual lyric text. We will also problematize the notion of broad poetic "projects," considering the consequences of imposing a predetermined conceptual framework on the elusive, spontaneous, and subversive act of lyric writing. Because this class is designed as a poetry workshop, your fellow students' work will be the primary text over the course of the quarter.

Terms Offered: Winter Prerequisite(s): Instructor consent required. Apply via creativewriting.uchicago.edu. Attendance on the first day is mandatory. Note(s): Required for CW majors and MAPH CW Option students completing creative BA and MA theses in poetry and CW minors completing minor portfolios in poetry. Equivalent Course(s): CRWR 49300

CRWR 29400. Thesis/Major Projects: Nonfiction. 100 Units.

This thesis workshop is for students writing a creative BA or MA thesis in nonfiction, as well as creative writing minors completing the portfolio. Student work can be an extended essay, memoir, travelogue, literary journalism, or an interrelated collection thereof. It's a workshop, so come to the first day of class with your work underway and ready to submit. You'll edit your classmates' writing as diligently as you edit your own. I focus on editing because writing is, in essence, rewriting. Only by learning to edit other people's work will you gradually acquire the objectivity you need to skillfully edit your own. You'll profit not only from the advice you receive, but from the advice you learn to give. I will teach you to teach each other and thus yourselves, preparing you for the real life of the writer outside the academy.

Instructor(s): Dan Raeburn; Lina Ferreira Cabeza-Vanegas Terms Offered: Winter Prerequisite(s): Instructor consent required. Apply via creativewriting.uchicago.edu. Attendance on the first day is mandatory. Note(s): Required for CW majors and MAPH CW Option students completing creative BA and MA theses in nonfiction and CW minors completing minor portfolios in nonfiction. Equivalent Course(s): CRWR 49400

CRWR 29500. Thesis/Major Projects: Fiction/Nonfiction. 100 Units.

This thesis workshop is for students writing a creative BA or MA thesis or minor portfolio in either fiction or nonfiction--or both. In other words, your project may take a number of forms: fiction only, nonfiction only, a short story and an essay, a novel chapter and a piece of narrative journalism, and so on. This course might be of special interest to those working on highly autobiographical pieces or incorporating substantial research into their creative process--fiction that hews close to fact, say, or nonfiction that leans heavily into storytelling. And/or it might be useful for those who want to pursue hybrid or between-genres projects or simply want to continue working in more than one form. We'll be open to many possibilities. It's not a prerequisite that you've taken both a fiction and creative nonfiction course previously, but it will nonetheless be quite helpful to have done so. Note, too, that this is the cumulative course in Creative Writing. There will still be room to explore and rethink (sometimes radically) the pieces you've drafted in previous classes, but please do come to our first session with a clear sense of what you want to work on over the quarter. Required for CW majors and MAPH CW Option students completing creative BA and MA theses in fiction or nonfiction and CW minors completing minor portfolios in fiction or nonfiction.

Instructor(s): Staff Terms Offered: Winter Prerequisite(s): Instructor consent required. Apply via creativewriting.uchicago.edu (in application please indicate experience in fiction & nonfiction and how this thesis workshop informs your own writing practice). Attendance on the first day is mandatory. Equivalent Course(s): CRWR 49500

Faculty Director

Director, Creative Writing & Poetics John Wilkinson Taft House 301 Email

Undergraduate Primary Contact

Director of Undergraduate Studies Julie Iromuanya 1155 E. 60th St., Room 327 Email

Administrative Contacts

Program Manager Michael Fischer Taft House 103 773.834.8524 Email

Student Affairs Administrator Denise Dooley Taft House 104 773.702.0355 Email

[email protected]

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University Registrar 1427 East 60th Street Chicago, IL 60637 United States Ph: 773-702-7891 Fax: 773-702-3562

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ENG 231. Intro to Creative Writing

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Creative Writing Course Descriptions

Whether you want to try something for the first time, or dive deep into your area of study, our courses offer you the opportunity to shine a light on what interests you.

Please note: The Course Catalog should be used for all official planning.

Explore a sample of Creative Writing courses offered by the Department of English:

ENG 180: Introduction to Creative Writing

A survey of prominent literary works through the lens of creative writing. Students will analyze works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry and will have the opportunity to respond creatively to the assigned readings-- i.e., by composing original stories, creative essays, and poems. Assigned texts will seek to expose students to various writing styles, and provide examples of the successes and strategies of other writers. In addition to learning various aspects of reading and discussing texts as writers, students will learn how to respond to writing in different genres. Units: 6

ENG 350: Creative Writing: Non-Fiction

Practice in the writing of non-fictional prose. Units: 6 Prerequisite: ENG 180. Sophomore standing or consent of instructor

ENG 360: Creative Writing: Fiction

Practice in the writing of short fiction. Units: 6 Prerequisite: ENG 180. Sophomore standing or consent of instructor

ENG 370: Creative Writing: Poetry

Practice in the writing of poetry. Units: 6 Prerequisite: ENG 180.

ENG 560: Advanced Creative Writing: Fiction

A workshop for students with previous fiction writing experience. Units: 6 Prerequisite: ENG 360 or consent of instructor

ENG 562: Advanced Creative Writing: Novel Writing

Course for students composing creative, book-length works of prose. Units: 6 Prerequisite: ENG 350 or ENG 360, and ENG 550 or ENG 560

ENG 565: Advanced Creative Writing: Poetry

A workshop for students with previous poetry writing experience. Units: 6 Prerequisite: ENG 370 or consent of instructor

ENG 601: Senior Seminar in Creative Writing

A seminar involving analysis of theoretical, critical, literary, and practical (i.e.,craft-related) readings at an advanced level in conjunction with students' writing of an original, substantial creative work, in either poetry or prose. Students working in different genres will have the opportunity to read one another's work and discuss, as a group, both the challenges and possibilities associated with composing lengthy creative projects. Each section of the seminar will focus on a theme that can accommodate variety in students' individual research projects. Units: 6 Prerequisite: Majors only; junior standing for spring term, otherwise, senior standing; at least two English courses numbered 400 or above, and two workshops numbered 500 or above.

Essentials in Writing

Where learning to write well has never been so easy

ONLINE CREATIVE WRITING

Enrollment for fall semester opens 4/1/23, about this class.

Class Times: Students do not meet at regularly scheduled class times. However, posts are made by the instructor every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to teach the material and explain assignments. Assignments are due once or twice a week.

Class Dates: Spring Semester (CLOSED)

Fall Semester (September 6 – December 15)

Student Placement: Any high school student (9th-12th grade, or 14-19 years old) may register for this course; however, it is best suited for students who have completed Level 9, Level 10, or Level 11 of Essentials in Writing or other fundamental composition curriculum. *Students in 8th grade or lower, or 13 years old or younger, are not permitted to take this class.

Course Description: A course in creative writing that provides instruction and practice in short fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry. Course requirements include critically analyzing published works of creative writing, weekly participation in class discussions, critiquing the work of fellow classmates, and submitting original creative works.

Compositions: At least 5 poems, 2 works of creative nonfiction, and 1 fully developed short story (with 5 optional compositions)

Class Itinerary: This course requires online interaction between the student, their peers, and the teacher through Canvas. In an online classroom, students will view/read instruction, submit assignments, and interact with their classmates through discussion. Students will learn the foundational concepts of fiction and apply them in a semester project: a five- to ten-thousand-word original short story. Students will be required to turn in multiple drafts of their original short story throughout the semester for feedback and guidance. Additionally, students will write at least five original poems, compose two works of creative nonfiction, and identify creative writing concepts in published works of fiction and poetry. Extra credit assignments will give students additional writing opportunities. The instructor will be available through email and Canvas Monday-Friday. Learn more about using Canvas here .

Technology Requirements

HOW DOES THE COURSE WORK?

The goals of this course are to expose students to great works of creative writing, to equip them with the tools they need to create their own works, and to encourage them to be confident in their own creative writing abilities.

WHAT IS UNIQUE ABOUT THIS COURSE?

REFUND/CANCELLATION POLICY:

PayPal or credit card accepted. Refunds for the Online Classes are granted based on the following criteria: Refunds for the Registration Fee and for the First Month’s Tuition are granted if requests are received within 14 days of the first class of the season. The Registration Fee can only be refunded during this initial 14-day window, beginning on the class start date. After this 14-day period, refunds for the current month’s tuition are granted only if the request is received within 10 days of each subsequent billing cycle. Any previous month’s tuition cannot be refunded.

Creative Writing Class

Registration Fee: $107 (charged at the time of enrollment)

Monthly Tuition: $44 per month (September 15 – December 15)

or, order by phone Call (417) 256-4191

VIEW THE SYLLABUS HERE

Meet the Instructor

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Ms. Athena Lester

I just wanted to say that I have thoroughly enjoyed your creative writing class this semester and I have learned so much from you! I have enjoyed the processes, hard work, and encouragement from you to push through to the end. I most definitely have grown as a writer in many ways, and I will take the knowledge from this class and use it towards my future writing efforts. You really were an absolutely amazing teacher! Thank you so much!

Thank you so much for teaching Allysa the Creative Writing class. She absolutely LOVED the class and was sad when it was over. I really appreciate all your feedback to her; I know she learned quite a bit this past semester.

What an experience this has been! I have learned so much from you; tips and tricks I will carry with me for the rest of my writing journey. […] Thank you for EVERYTHING you instilled in us... not just “how to become a great creative writer”, but also to write what we love, take the time to perfect it, and NEVER GIVE UP.

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2023-24 Catalog

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The Gordon Rule

State Board of Education Rule 6A-10.030, the Gordon Rule, requires that students complete with grades of C or better 12 credits in designated courses in which the student is required to demonstrate college-level writing skills through multiple assignments and six credits of mathematics course work at the level of college algebra or higher. These courses must be completed successfully (grades of C or better) prior to the receipt of an A.A. degree and prior to entry into the upper division of a Florida public university.

General Education

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Why take a tutored online creative writing course with NCW? Former students speak

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Creative Writing Course Syllabus
I will be available for extra help after school on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Course Content: Students in Creative Writing will write poems, short stories, plays
Creative Writing and Literature Course Descriptions
Develops critical thinking, reading, and writing skills as they apply to the analysis of fiction, poetry and drama; literary criticism; and related non-fiction
Course Description for Creative Writing
Colton Joint Unified School District. Course Description for Creative Writing. Secondary Curriculum Council approved April 10, 2012. Board approved: May 3
BFA Course Descriptions: Creative Writing
This introductory course is designed to present students to the three primary genres of creative writing: fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry. Together, we
Creative Writing Course Descriptions
Creative nonfiction is the genre of creative writing that bridges the act of making literary prose--the crafting of vivid scenes, a thoughtful narrative voice
Creative Writing Courses
Courses may center around a range of topics—such as truth, literary empathy, or creative research—meant to draw attention to relationships across genres and to
Creative Writing
The Program in Creative Writing takes a comprehensive approach to the study of contemporary literature, criticism, and theory from a writer's perspective. In
ENG 231 Intro to Creative Writing Syllabus
Creative writing, emphasis on composing creative nonfiction, fiction, and poetry. In other words, we will study the main genres of creative writing to prepare
Creative Writing Course Descriptions
ENG 180: Introduction to Creative Writing · ENG 350: Creative Writing: Non-Fiction · ENG 360: Creative Writing: Fiction · ENG 370: Creative Writing: Poetry · ENG
Creative Writing Class
The goals of this course are to expose students to great works of creative writing, to equip them with the tools they need to create their own works, and to
CRW:Creative Writing
CREATIVE WRTING AND ADVANCED COMPOSITION Prerequisite: ENC 1101 or ENC 1101H or IDH 1110 An interactive writing course in which students develop creative