CRWR 201 - Introduction to Creative Writing

Making Fiction
In this course, students will learn about and experiment with the tools of fiction writing. Students will complete numerous generative, exploratory forays into the world of fiction, honing their craft as well as considering the ethical, political, and personal implications that arise when one transmits language to the page. Our reading list will be comprised of work by contemporary writers who represent the range of what gets classified as fiction today, such as Carmen Maria Machado, Percival Everett, Stephen Graham Jones, Claire-Louise Bennett, N.K. Jemisin, and Poupeh Missaghi. Class sessions will be used primarily for discussion of assigned readings and student work.

The Short Story
In this course students will write short stories, and read the work of their classmates as well as that of published authors. Close attention will be paid to the narrative strategies (e.g. variations in narration, temporal manipulation, and point of view) used by writers such as Alice Munro, Jamaica Kincaid, Lydia Davis, George Saunders, and Ted Chiang to help the students in writing their own fiction. We will consider and employ various strategies when reading and responding to the work of peers. Class sessions will be used for discussion of assigned readings and student work in progress, along with exercises and broader discussions.

Writing Fiction
This course will serve as an introduction to the writing of original fiction. We will read and discuss published works in order to familiarize ourselves with works of publishable merit and practice workshop techniques in approaching this material as well as our own. We will read works by contemporary writers such as Rebecca Roanhoarse, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Amy Bonnaffons, NoViolet Bulawayo, Isle McElroy, Kehan Orhan, and Carmen Maria Machado. Students will write short stories and submit these to the workshop for discussion, where we will learn to offer serious and constructive criticism. By the end of this course students will have a deeper understanding of fiction and the craft of writing, a growing sense of their own voices and aesthetic interests, and a small body of their very own creative work.

Unit(s): 1
Group Distribution Requirement(s): Distribution Group I
Prerequisite(s): A writing sample of three to five pages, and instructor approval.
Instructional Method: Conference
Grading Mode: Letter grading (A-F)
Notes: Enrollment limited to 15. Not all topics offered every year. Review schedule of classes for availability.
Group Distribution Learning Outcome(s):

Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).