Course Schedule
(Subject to Change)
Week 1: Introduction to Creative Writing: Beginnings: Generating ideas
Read:
Ross Gay, “A Small Needful Fact.”
Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird – p. 16-32
Shirley Hazard, “We Need Silence to Know What We Think.”
Introduction post due: Tuesday, 2/2, 11:59pm
Response due: Wednesday, 2/3, 11:59pm
Meetings: Thursday 2/4, 11:00am – 12:15pm
Assignment due: Assignment 1a due Thursday 2/4, 11:00am
Week 2: Beginnings: Exploring ideas: Memory and the Subconcious: Outline or Organic?
Read:
Janet Frame, “My Last Story.”
Chimamanda Adiche, “Real Food.”
Shirley Jackson, “Memory and Delusion.”
James Wood, How Fiction Works p. 3-11, p. 223-228, and p. 247-248
Watch: “Memory” The Mind Explained, Netflix
Reading post due: Tuesday, 2/9, 11:59pm
Peer response due: Wednesday, 2/10, 11:59pm
Meeting: Thursday 2/11, 11:00am – 12:15pm
Assignment due: Assignment 1b due Thursday 2/11, 11:00am
Week 3: Narration: Point of View and Perspective: Person
Read:
Ryunosuke Akutagawa, “In a Grove.”
Watch:
Rashomon
Reading post due: Tuesday, 2/16, 11:59pm
Peer response due: Wednesday, 2/17, 11:59pm
Meeting: Thursday 2/18, 11:00am – 12:15pm
Week 4: Narration: Point of View and Perspective: Context: Text and the Story Inside it
Read:
John Cheever “The Enormous Radio.”
Shirley Jackson, “The Lottery.”
Ruth Franklin, “The Lottery Letters.”
Reading post due: Tuesday, 2/23, 11:59pm
Peer response due: Wednesday, 2/24, 11:59pm
Meeting: Thursday 2/25, 11:00am – 12:15pm
Assignment due: Assignment 2 due Thursday 2/25, 11:00am
Week 5: Narration: Voice: Character
Read:
Jamaica Kincaid “Girl.”
Junot Diaz “How to Date a Brown Girl.”
Donald Barthleme “The School.”
Reading post due: Tuesday, 3/2, 11:59pm
Peer response due: Wednesday, 3/3, 11:59pm
Meeting: Thursday 3/4, 11:00am – 12:15pm
Week 6: Character: Plot: Repetition & Silence
Workshops begin!
Read:
Marguerite Duras, “The Cutter off of Water.”
Tillie Olsen Silences p. 142-151,
Anne Lamott Bird by Bird p. 44-58
Reading post due: Tuesday, 3/9, 11:59pm
Workshop responses due: Tuesday, 3/9, 11:59pm
Peer response due: Wednesday, 3/10, 11:59pm
Meeting: Thursday 3/11, 11:00am – 12:15pm
Assignment due: Assignment 3 due Thursday 3/11, 11:00am
Week 7: Style: Detail: Description: Language
Read:
Penelope Lively “The Purple Swamp Hen.”
Tim O’Brien “The Things They Carried.”
Reading post due: Tuesday, 3/16, 11:59pm
Workshop responses due: Tuesday, 3/16, 11:59pm
Peer response due: Wednesday, 3/17, 11:59pm
Meeting: Thursday 3/18, 11:00am – 12:15pm
Week 8: Structure and Form: Dialogue
Read:
Ernest Hemingway “Hills Like White Elephants.”
J.D Salinger “Franny.”
James Wood How Fiction Works p. 213-221.
Reading post due: Tuesday, 3/23, 11:59pm
Workshop responses due: Tuesday, 3/23, 11:59pm
Peer response due: Wednesday, 3/24, 11:59pm
Meeting: Thursday 3/25, 11:00am – 12:15pm
Assignment due: Assignment 4 due Thursday 3/25, 11:00am
Week 9: No Class – Spring Break!
Week 10: Structure and Form: Plays:
Read:
Oscar Wilde, “The Importance of Being Ernest.”
Rivka Galchen “Is It Harder to Write Humorously Than It Is to Write Seriously?”
Watch:
The Importance of Being Ernest, Film (TBD – 1952 or 2002)
Lauren Gunderson, “Playwriting Class: Beginnings and Endings.” https://www.facebook.com/208208095994525/videos/254433542240971
Reading post due: Tuesday, 4/6, 11:59pm
Workshop responses due: Tuesday, 4/6, 11:59pm
Peer response due: Wednesday, 4/7, 11:59pm
Meeting: Thursday 4/8, 11:00am – 12:15pm
Assignment due: Assignment 5 due Thursday 4/8, 11:00am
Week 11: Structure and Form: Poetry
Read:
Audre Lorde, “Poetry is Not a Luxury.”
Adrienne Rich, Essay TBD
Danez Smith, “dinosaurs in the hood.”
Morgan Parker, “Afro” and “Beyonce is sorry for what she won’t hear.”
Reading post due: Tuesday, 4/13, 11:59pm
Workshop responses due: Tuesday, 4/13, 11:59pm
Peer response due: Wednesday, 4/14, 11:59pm
Meeting: Thursday 4/15, 11:00am – 12:15pm
Week 12: Structure and Form: Poetry
Read:
TS Elliot, “Hamlet and His Problems.”
Collection of modern poems - TBD
Reading post due: Tuesday, 4/20, 11:59pm
Workshop responses due: Tuesday, 4/20, 11:59pm
Peer response due: Wednesday, 4/21, 11:59pm
Meeting: Thursday 4/22, 11:00am – 12:15pm
Assignment due: Assignment 6 due Thursday 4/22, 11:00am
Week 13: Structure and Form: Poetry: Prose Poems: Short Shorts
Read:
Grace Paley, “Wants.”
Tatyana Tolstoya, “Aspic.”
Steve Martin “The Demolition of The Cathedral at Chartres.”
Lydia Davis - Selected Shorts TBD.
Reading post due: Tuesday, 4/27, 11:59pm
Workshop responses due: Tuesday, 2/27, 11:59pm
Peer response due: Wednesday, 4/28, 11:59pm
Meeting: Thursday 4/29, 11:00am – 12:15pm
Week 14: Time
Read:
Edward St. Aubyn, “Mother’s Milk.” p. 440-450,
Tobias Wolf, “Bullet in the Brain.”
Reading post due: Tuesday, 5/4, 11:59pm
Workshop responses due: Tuesday, 5/4, 11:59pm
Peer response due: Wednesday, 5/5, 11:59pm
Meeting: Thursday 5/6, 11:00am – 12:15pm
Week 15: Endings: Twists, Lessons and the Afterlife of a Story
Read:
James Joyce, “Araby.”
Guy de Maupassant “The Necklace.”
Reading post due: Tuesday, 5/11, 11:59pm
Workshop responses due: Tuesday, 5/11, 11:59pm
Peer response due: Wednesday, 5/12, 11:59pm
Meeting: Thursday 5/13, 11:00am – 12:15pm
Week 16: No In-Person Class
Due: Final Story, Monday, 5/17, 5:00pm
