Department of English

In this introduction to creative writing, we’ll focus on two genres—creative nonfiction and poetry—that are more akin than it might seem. We’ll see how certain ways of generating and/or discovering material work for both genres. We’ll also see how structures that may seem unliterary or even anti-literary help us discover and organize memories and observations. In the nonfiction part of the course, you’ll do many short pieces, each with a particular structure, then organize some of them into a substantial nonlinear essay. When we move to poetry, you’ll use nontraditional and experimental techniques to uncover and embody what you want to say, but may not have been able to approach. You’ll read a selection of essays and poems, respond to them in writing and in conversation, then use aspects of them to develop your own work. Much of the class will be in roundtable workshop format, where you will respond to each other’s work and learn from those responses. The final project will be a portfolio of your best work.