SPRING 2010
Graduate (MFA) Courses
*Note: for day & time information, please go to SeaNet and search for courses.
CRW 501-001: RESEARCH FOR CREATIVE WRITERS, LEE R
During the first third of this course, we’ll be reading one book of fiction, one of non-fiction, and one of poetry, looking at how various authors have used research in their work. Different books require different types of research and to that end, each writer in the class will develop their own list of resources to support their own project. That list might consist of just books, or it may involve travel, interviews, found objects, or archival documents.
Texts include : “The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression,” by Andrew Solomon, “Loving Frank,” by Nancy Horan, & “Through the Glorieta Pass,” by Lavonne Adams.
CRW 524-001: LITERARY MAGAZINE, GEORGE B
This is a practical course in the publication of our national literary journal, Ecotone. The course work will consist of reading submissions and becoming part of an editorial team that will put out an issue of the magazine. We will concern ourselves with the practical business of running a magazine, including editorial, production, and some design, as well as marketing and, to a certain extent, sales. Early in the term we will divide up into smaller teams, based on genre, but everyone will be responsible for reading a number of manuscripts per week, and for contributing to the ongoing practical business of the magazine. M.F.A. students may repeat for credit without limit.
CRW 542-001: WORKSHOP IN POETRY WRITING, COX M
Though it is essentially a craft-oriented workshop wherein poets can critique and encourage each other's work, I am also planning to make room for a number of in-class writing exercises. I will tailor these exercises in process and revision to the group’s needs. I will provide individualized reading lists. Student products will include a portfolio of nine finished poems, plus revision drafts. The journal will consist of: a) responses to reading assignments in modern and contemporary poetry and poetics; b) process exercises; and c) extensive research into a craft concept of your choosing.
CRW 542-003: POETRY WRITING WORKSHOP, MESSER S
Course will be run as a workshop with the requirement of one new poem a week, and the careful consideration of peer work and participation in class discussion. While the course will primarily focus on the workshop, we may also branch off into in-class or take-home exercises in procedural poetics and other formal constraints intended to spark innovation and new material. We will also be reading (for inspiration) new work by Sabrina Orah Mark and Joel Brouwer, and/or work by new poets Matthew and Michael Dickman.
CRW 544-001: GRADUATE WORKSHOP IN FICTION, SIEGEL R
In this course, we will read each others’ work—short stories, novel chapters, strange hybrid experiments—with an eye toward the underlying emotional forces that are trying to find expression in the piece. We will consider how to clarify, develop and direct those forces. Discussion of specific pieces will serve as a jumping off point for broader consideration of the craft of fiction—such things as voice, tone, structure and plot. In addition to workshop, we will choose and read a novel together; each make a presentation to the class on a piece of writing (by someone else) that has been influential in our personal development; and do short writing exercises. Course goals are to generate new work; build new skills; and broaden our perspective as writers.
CRW 544-002: FICTION WRITING WORKSHOP, EDGERTON C
Among class activities--in addition to the workshopping of stories, book chapters, and story plans (“story plan” will be explained in class and below)--may be a) discussions of literary theory, b) discussion of technique in fiction, c) discussions and readings of favorite authors/passages, d) translations of scenes to a dramatic performance format (to be explained in class). In general, the student in this class approaches fiction writing as writer, reader, critic, and translator from fiction to drama.
CRW 545-001: FORMS OF NARRATIVE PROSE, GESSNER D
This course focuses on the history of the essay from Montaigne to the present. We will also explore ways in which the essay has been employed outside the traditional form, and the ways in which supposedly non-traditional writers, such as Dave Eggers, are very much in keeping with the tradition, and the way that essay and memoir have become intertwined in recent years. The goal of the class is to give students a sense of the history (and possibilities) of the genre.
CRW 547-001: FORMS OF FICTION, FURIA P
A study of the major forms of fictional narrative as they developed historically: epic (The Odyssey), medieval romance (Sir Gawain and the Green Knight), fabliaux (Chaucer’s “Miller’s Tale” and “Reeve’s Tale”), the novel of manners (Pride and Prejudice), Gothic novel (Wuthering Heights), serial novel (Great Expectations), and the stream-of-consciousness novel (Mrs. Dalloway). We will also study the development of the American short story in the hands of writers such as Irving, Poe, Hawthorne, James, Crane, London, Anderson, Cather, Hemingway, Faulkner, and other writers. In the course of reading these works, we will locate early experiments with such elements of form as narrative structure, the use of flashback, point of view, dramatic scene and narrative summary, the unreliable narrator, and the formal differences between such movements as Realism and Naturalism. This is primarily a reading course; the only writing assignment will be a final essay summarizing the historical development of narrative form as represented by the works we have read.
CRW 548-002: WRITING THE NOVEL II, GERARD P
This course builds on the foundation laid by CRW 546: Writing the Novel I.* The goal is for each member of workshop to produce a solid beginning of a viable novel (fiction or nonfiction) then to exploit that beginning with several chapters of lively, original writing that advances the story and its themes– both text and subtext. Whether this particular novel ultimately succeeds or fails, the goal is to get far enough along in this course that the writer can and will finish it, thus learning how to handle the arc, scope, and scale of the long form of narrative prose. Each writer in class will hand in working drafts of the opening chapter (s) and at least one other significant passage from the novel-in-progress. There is no precise word count, but shoot for something in the neighborhood of 10,000- 15,000 words (40-50 pages) total. Attached to the first handout should be your one-sentence logline of the main focus of the novel. Each student will also turn in two copies of signed, written comments– one to the author whose work is under discussion, the other to the instructor.
*A student who has not taken 546 may enroll with instructor’s permission; please contact instructor prior to the end of Fall semester.
CRW 550-001: CREATIVE NONFICTION WORKSHOP, GESSNER D
This workshop focuses on writing creative nonfiction, a genre which includes and combines the personal essay, memoir, new journalism, nature writing, and the literature of place.
CRW 560-001: PUBLISHING PRACTICUM: ADVANCED BOOK DESIGN, SMITH E
For students interested in a career in book design or publishing—as well as for writers who want to be better informed about working with publishers—this course offers intensive hands-on training in book design, typography, and marketing. A maximum of six selected students support the work of Lookout Books, with responsibility for the design and marketing of the first title to be published in 2010. Participants are selected by permission of the instructor, based on previous participation in CRW 523 (Bookbuilding), CRW 524 (Magazine Practicum), CRW 560 (Publishing Practicum: Editing), or relevant experience. Please contact the instructor directly for permission to enroll. While some assignments may be completed at home, most students do not have access to the Adobe Creative Suite (the design software we’ll be using), so you’ll need to plan for 6–8 hours to be logged in the Pub Lab each week. Work hours are scheduled at each student’s convenience during Pub Lab open hours. May be repeated for credit without limit.
CRW 580-001: NARRATIVE METHODS IN FILM, BRENNER W
In this course we will spend the majority of our time viewing and discussing films, clips, videos, and “Making Of” documentaries from all genres, with the goal of illuminating issues of narrative, i.e. how we tell stories. We will consider elements such as image, setting, dialogue (or lack thereof), creation of tension and suspense, internal and external conflict, representation of truth and reality, plot, tone, mood, and the role of accident (luck, or chance) in the creative process. We will focus especially on what can be done in film that can’t be done in writing, and vice versa, and all the ways we writers find to break through these alleged limitations. Written assignments will include the occasional creative exercise and one longer personal essay at semester’s end. Films will likely include but not be limited to the following: Rosemary’s Baby, Moving Midway, Errol Morris’s First Person series, Private Century, Walkabout, Don’t Look Now, The King of Comedy, Altman’s Three Women, Repulsion, The Night of the Hunter, The Women (1939 version), Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer, The Eyes of Tammy Faye. Note: This course is an elective, not a writing workshop. The course does not include screenwriting.
CRW 580-002: AWARD-WINNING FIRST COLLECTIONS (POETRY), ADAMS L
This course surveys poetry collections that have won recent first book awards. The primary goal is to become acquainted with first book competitions and to discover what might cause one collection to stand out among hundreds of entries. We will consider not only subject matter, but also the poet’s narrative or lyrical stance, what form(s) are used, and how the poet organizes the work to create a cohesive collection. By the conclusion of the semester, we will put newly acquired theory into practice: each student will begin a collection of poetry inspired by one of these collections.
Tentative list of texts: Cloisters, Kristin Bock; In Praise of Falling, Cheryl Dumesnil; Awayward, Jennifer Knonovet; The Infirmary, Edward Micus; Holding Everything Down, William Notter; Piecework, Barbara Presness; How to Live on Bread and Music, Jennifer Sweeney; The Waker’s Corridor, Jonathan Thirkield; Narrative of the Life of the Brown Boy and White Man, Ronaldo Wilson.
Grades will be based on weekly responses to the collections, a critical/analytical paper, oral presentations, and a mini-portfolio of poetry with critical introduction.
