Oct 31, 2024  
2024-25 Catalog 
    
2024-25 Catalog
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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.

Unit(s): 1
Group Distribution Requirement(s): Distribution Group I
Prerequisite(s): Sophomore standing and 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).



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