Creative Writing (CRWR)

CRWR 1010 The Craft of Creative Writing

The Craft of Creative Writing is designed for students who are new to creative writing or who would like to return to the fundamentals of craft. Through frequent writing assignments, assigned readings and collaborative discussions, students familiarize themselves with a variety of styles and approaches, exploring a range of literary genres including poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, memoir and journalistic prose. Students are expected to hone their skills in creative practice, to revise and take risks with their work and to cultivate their habits of close reading and peer feedback.

1 Course Unit

CRWR 1600 Modern and Contemporary US Poetry

In this fast-paced introductory course, students read and discuss a wide range of modern and contemporary American poets, beginning with Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman and ending with 21st-century avant-garde poets like Tracie Morris. Questions central to this course include "How does experimental poetry help us understand the transition between modernism and postmodernism?" and "What is the relationship between experimental poetry and experimental teaching?" The poems and poets we study challenge students to read critically and think differently about what a poem is, about what art can be and about what poetry can teach us about reading, writing and learning. Students do not need to have any prior knowledge of poetry or poetics. The course operates primarily as a discussion. Rather than attending lectures, students participate in web-based discussions of the poems, accessible in text, audio and video formats. Requirements include active participation in the online discussion forums, in addition to five short papers, quizzes, creative exercises and a comprehensive final examination.

Also Offered As: ENLT 1600

1 Course Unit

CRWR 2010 Poetry Workshop

Poetry Workshop is a course for students who are new to poetry or who would like to return to the fundamentals of poetry. This workshop uses frequent writing assignments, assigned readings and collaborative workshop discussions to explore various elements of poetic craft, including imagery, metaphor, line, stanza, music, rhythm, diction, and tone.

1 Course Unit

CRWR 2400 The Art of Editing

This course takes a critical and practical approach to the art of editing. Is the editor simply a “failed writer,” as T. S. Eliot claimed, or is good editing the key to a writer’s clarity and integrity? In addition to exploring theories and histories of the red pen—including Marianne Moore’s five-decade quest to revise a single poem and the editor who was discovered to have invented Raymond Carver’s distinctive narrative style—we immerse ourselves in the technical aspects of editing, covering such topics as the difference between developmental and line editing, the merits of MLA and Chicago style, proofreading in hard copy and digital environments, and when to wield an em dash. Students gain practical editing experience, learn about a range of different levels of editorial interventions, and investigate the politics of language usage and standards. This course is suitable for aspiring copyeditors or any writer who wants to polish up their grammar and punctuation skills.

1 Course Unit

CRWR 2500 Writing and Meditation

Writing and Meditation is a course for students interested in intersections between creativity and contemplative practice. No previous experience is necessary. Curiosity and openness to multiple traditions of mindfulness is encouraged. In each module we'll explore a different approach to present awareness and writing. Course materials and practices will include focus on: attention, movement, gazing, listening, dreaming, metacognition and healing. We'll read sacred and secular texts spanning time and place from the Spanish mystic Téresa of Avila, to current brain science on neuroplasticity and how meditation and creative practice can rewire the brain. We'll read contemporary poets such as Zen priest Norman Fischer and spiritual luminaries such as Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche and Pema Chodron. We'll also explore visionary visual artists such as Hilma af Klimt and musicians including Alice Coltrane and Laraajji. Students will write in response to written and audio prompts, receive peer and instructor feedback on their work, and compile a portfolio of writing created throughout the course.

1 Course Unit

CRWR 2600 Fiction Workshop

Fiction Workshop is a course for students who are new to fiction writing or who are new to fiction writing or who would like to return to the fundamentals of fiction. This collaborative workshop uses frequent writing assignments, assigned readings and workshop discussions to explore various elements of the craft of fiction, including character, form, description, dialogue, setting, genre, and plot.

1 Course Unit

CRWR 2800 Narrative Collage

Narrative Collage is designed for students interested in experimenting with different kinds of prose, including memoir and fiction, and is appropriate for any level of experience, from curious beginners to accomplished writers. This course will explore fiction and creative nonfiction using nontraditional techniques including nonlinear segments, multiple voices, found texts, and more. Students will dig into readings from a wide range of sources, from Sei Shōnagon’s 10th-century Pillow Book through contemporary works such as Jenny Offill’s Weather, and will write weekly responses to those readings. Every week, students will produce their own original creative work using a number of narrative collage techniques discussed in class, and will have the opportunity to revise and polish their own writing. Lively peer feedback is required in the form of discussion boards. Additionally, there will be optional live sessions for discussion and sharing creative work.

1 Course Unit

CRWR 3000 Writing About Place

This multi-genre, collaborative course is devoted to writing of and about place. Students consider place both literally—writing about the city or the landscape, for example—and figuratively—writing that engages thematically and formally with location, with displacement, and with the writing process itself as a form of mapping and belonging.

1 Course Unit

CRWR 3200 Screenwriting

Students in Screenwriting will explore key strategies for writing affecting scenes, urgent stories, and powerful visual experiences for feature films, short films, or television. In addition to learning the vernacular of visual storytelling and how to format scripts, students will explore complex narrative elements such as character, tension/conflict in scenes, urgency/escalation of story, structure, and more. Students will examine successful film and television examples to better understand the complexity of a filmed scene and will write their own individual micro-scenes. The course will culminate with each student writing a three-page scene in script format that will receive prescriptive feedback in the form of group “workshops” where students will collaboratively outline and/or write the next 2-3 pages of each scene that students present in their groups, thereby replicating the highly collaborative and cooperative environment in the screenwriting industry.

1 Course Unit

CRWR 3600 Advanced Nonfiction

Students in this course study a range of genres in creative nonfiction, including memoir, personal essay, and journalistic prose. Students use frequent writing assignments, assigned readings, and collaborative peer feedback to explore various elements of prose writing, with an emphasis on voice, description, narrative structure, and approaches to time.

1 Course Unit

CRWR 3700 Journalism Workshop

This is a course dedicated to the practice of journalistic writing. Students will learn about a range of journalistic genres, which may include interviews, profiles, reportage, features, storytelling, and criticism, as well as a range of journalistic writing tools, which may include exposition, quotation, research methodology, and fact-checking.

1 Course Unit