Department of English

This introductory creative writing workshop offers an opportunity to hone writing skills through the framework of Nikole Hannah-Jones’s 1619 Project, an overview of our nation’s history that begins with the year kidnapped African people were first sold into slavery here. We will read work by scholars, poets, and writers (including Eve L. Ewing, Tyehimba Jess, Yusuf Komenyakaa, Jesmyn Ward, and Rita Dove) and listen to the 1619 Project podcast in order to enter into its brilliant conversation about the realities and legacies of American slavery.

In addition to discussion and in-class exercises, students will write, workshop, and revise several poems and short essays throughout the semester. Through our study of this country’s foundations, we will explore narrative registers, hone craft, and engage the fraught marriage between personal and collective histories.