Spring 2008 Courses

English 120-03: Intro to Creative Writing (Shotts)

T/TH 2:45-4:15pm, Old Main 011

Poetry, creative nonfiction, and fiction each have their own set of traditions and rules, but what happens when those traditions and rules are shared, blurred, and our assumptions about literary genres become upended? This course will introduce creative writing as an ongoing investigation into lyric and narrative experimentation through encounters with writing we can't easily define at first glance.

Reading as a writer, with an eye for the details of craft, is essential to producing, evaluating, and revising your own creative writing. We will read and discuss works by contemporary authors, such as Sherman Alexie, Charles Baxter, Anne Carson, Louise Glück, Robert Hass, Terrance Hayes, Denis Johnson, Jamaica Kincaid, Claudia Rankine, and many others, to examine craft decisions these authors make to create desired effects.

While reading as a writer, we will be constantly devoted to the process of writing—the first glimmer of an idea, the practical considerations of form, experimentation with structural and craft techniques, first drafts, and revision. Each writer in the class will produce weekly writing, participate in regular workshop, and turn in a revised final portfolio of poetry, creative nonfiction, fiction, and hopefully innovative pieces that resist genre definitions to challenge, move, bewilder, repulse, and intoxicate us.

Please note that the first class for this course will be held on Tuesday, February 5.

Spring 2008 Course Listings