Courses

“Writing fiction,” Stephen King has said, “especially a long work of fiction, can be a difficult, lonely job; it’s like crossing the Atlantic Ocean in a bathtub.” This course will provide beginning and experienced writers with tools and provisions to support them throughout the long (but rewarding) journey that is writing a novel. With workshops, short craft lectures, and in-class writing exercises, they will hone their novel writing skills, exploring point of view, character, plot, setting, and the dynamic tension between scene and summary. In addition, students will read and discuss such authors as J.M. Coetzee, Ann Patchett, Junot Díaz, Jennifer Egan, and Kazuo Ishiguro, in order to gain a better understanding of how the various aspects of the novel work together to create a piece of art. The course aims to inspire students to consider their work and writing practice in new ways—bending, stretching, and growing as writers as well as readers. By the end, students will have the skills, confidence, and theoretical foundation to hop in that bathtub and start paddling.