Creative Writing (30 hours) (Program II of the English Major)
Students concentrate on developing their creative writing abilities while acquiring an overview of English literature. 30 total hours including:
116W, 117W, or 118W is required and is prerequisite to upper-division courses.
12 hours of creative writing courses from at least two different genres:
English 200: Intermediate Nonfiction Writing
English 201: Advanced Nonfiction Writing
English 204: Intermediate Fiction Workshop
English 205: Advanced Fiction Workshop
English 206: Intermediate Poetry Workshop
English 207: Advanced Poetry Workshop
Admission to 200, 201, 204, 205, 206, and 207 is by the consent of the instructor. It is strongly recommended that prospective
creative writing majors take English 122: Beginning Fiction Workshop and/or English 123: Beginning Poetry Workshop before
taking any of the upper division workshops. (English 122 and English 123 do not count toward the major.)
9 hours in literature before 1800 and 3 hours in Ethnic or non-Western literature.
3 additional hours of electives in English, chosen from the courses that count toward the major, as described under General Requirements and Advice.
Fall 2007 Upper Division Creative Writing Courses
ENGL 201-01. Advanced Nonfiction Writing
Dayan, C.
M 1:10-4:00
Limited enrollment. Admission to the workshop is by instructor's permission only. Students will be screened during the first week of class on the basis of writing samples. Registered students should contact the instructor before the first day of class.
This is an intensive course in creative nonfiction, both the reading and the practice of it. The core goal is to set a group of writers writing and talking about their work together. We shall be examining models of nonfiction, starting with the personal essay or family memoir, then moving to the essay, and, finally, to something reported and/or researched. The contexts, circumstances, or plots in the course turn on the relation between animals and humans, particularly the proximity of dogs and persons in considerations of the non-human or savage. Writers include: George Orwell, Thomas Mann, Vicki Hearne, J.M. Coetzee, Amy Hempel, Alice Kunizar, Jacques Derrida, Martha C. Nussbaum.
ENGL 204-01. Intermediate Fiction Workshop
Lopez, L.
M 3:10-6:00
Limited enrollment. Admission to the workshop is by instructor's permission only. Students will be screened during the first week of class on the basis of writing samples. Registered students should contact the instructor before the first day of class.
This section of creative writing focuses on analyzing and refining techniques of fiction writing as related to the short story. Fiction writing is a craft, as well as a discipline and a process. This course is designed to help students hone skills, such as, but not limited to developing effective characterization, using perspective judiciously and consistently, proportioning summary (exposition) appropriately to scene, developing imagery that resonates metaphorically, as well as selecting and applying significant detail to enhance scene, characterization, and tone. To better apprehend and build such techniques and others, students will write two original short stories, complete writing exercises, attend and respond to literary events, and examine published short stories to discuss structural and stylistic components that contribute to these stories’ overall success, in addition to reading text on craft on a weekly basis and critiquing work from peers
ENGL 206-01. Intermediate Poetry Workshop
Jarman, M.
T 3:10-6:00
This class is a workshop in which we study the craft of poetry writing. As such, this semester we will concentrate on traditional elements of poetry--meter, rhyme, and form. In other words, this will be a class in verse as much as poetry. Each week, using our texts, we will discuss an aspect of what is called prosody: metrical feet, rhyme schemes, stanzas, and forms like the sonnet, the villanelle, and the sestina. You will discover there is a wide latitude within the limitations of form, which is not surprising considering that most poetry in English is formal verse rather than free verse, the latter being a relatively young and largely American innovation. But we will talk about free verse, too, and if you are oppressed by the mere notion of writing in rhyme and meter, you will have the opportunity to write one poem without such restraints. Admission is by consent of instructor. Please submit three samples of your work, i.e. three poems, once you register for the class.
Spring 2008 Upper Division Creative Writing Courses
ENGL 201 - 01 : Advanced Nonfiction Writing
Guralnick, P.
W 3:10 - 6:00
Limited enrollment. Students will be screened during first week of class on the basis of writing samples. Registered students should contact the appropriate instructor before the first day of class.
This is a workshop on Creative Nonfiction, which revolves around the writing of the participants, with additional readings in work by such writers as Gay Talese, Gary Smith, Stanley Booth, Louis Menand, Jill Lepore, and Wil Haygood. It will focus in particular on issues of characterization, narrative technique, selectivity of detail, and angle of perception -- in other words, how to make a real-life story or profile come alive in the same way that fictional narrative can. This is a workshop in which we are all interdependent on each other's efforts. Three major pieces of 2500-3000 words will be required, along with the possibility of some brief additional exercises. Every student in the course will critique each of the other students' papers in writing, and the class will consist primarily of constructive discussion of the work. Class participation is the second most important element of the class (after the writing itself), so attendance is of the highest importance. Most of all, the workshop is a kind of shared enterprise in which a mutual enthusiasm for writing (irrespective of the level of achievement) should make it engaging -- and fun -- for all. The only prerequisite is a commitment to effort and honest self-expression.
ENGL 205 - 02: Advanced Fiction Workshop
Lopez, L.
T 3:10 - 6:00
Due to limited enrollment, students will be screened during first week of class on the basis of writing samples. Registered students must contact the instructor before the first day of class.
This advanced section of creative writing focuses on analyzing and refining techniques of fiction writing as related to the short story. Fiction writing is a craft, as well as a process and a product. This course is designed to help students hone skills, such as, but not limited to developing effective characterization, using perspective judiciously and consistently, proportioning summary (exposition) appropriately to scene, developing imagery that resonates metaphorically, as well as selecting and applying significant detail to enhance scene, characterization, and tone. To better apprehend and thus build such techniques and others, students will write two original short stories, complete writing exercises, and examine published short stories to discuss structural and stylistic components that contribute to these stories’ overall success, in addition to reading text on craft on a weekly basis and closely reading and critiquing work from peers.
ENGL 207 - 01: Advanced Poetry Workshop
Jarman, M.
M 2:10 - 5:00
Admission by consent of instructor. Please submit three samples of your work, i.e. three poems, once you register for the class.
Each week we will discuss poems you have written. Also, the week you have a poem under discussion, you will prepare to talk about a poem in one of our texts. (A Little Salvation: Poems Old and New by Judson Mitcham and The Vintage Book of Contemporary American Poetry edited by J. D. McClatchy) This poem can be related in some way to your own or simply be an example of a kind of poem you would like to write. This will give everybody a chance to read a good deal of contemporary poetry. Good poets are good readers. Writing and reading in this class will, I hope, be of equal interest. Eight original poems. Four class presentations.
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