Courses

This course will introduce the fundamentals of narrative writing and the creative writing workshop. It’s a beginning, in other words, but not just for beginners. We will take a hands-on approach to our study of story and its fundamental parts—like plot, point-of-view, language, character, or persona—such as they are regularly used in fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction. Remembering that writing begins with reading, we will read closely from exemplary works, such as fiction by James Joyce and Flannery O’Connor, nonfiction by Virginia Woolf and James Agee, and poetry by James Dickey and Ellen Bryant Voigt, among others. Along with these readings, students will complete short writing prompts and exercises in fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction, which will be shared, read closely, and discussed among groups of their peers in class. In the last part of the term, students will have the opportunity to submit for workshop a piece of their choosing—a scene or a poem—and we will end the term looking ahead, with a better understanding of the next steps forward. We will strive, in all ways, to create a welcoming environment for writers—beginners or otherwise—who are engaged and supportive of one another’s work and ideas.