Summer School, 2008
Term One (June 2 - July 10)
English 257: Creative Writing: Fiction and Poetry (T1)(Steven Longfellow)
xxxxx Creative Writing: Fiction and Poetry will focus on the craft of writing, since such a focus provides clear criteria for evaluating our own and others' work without regard to personal taste. Further, this course is about first drafts and the revisions that follow, about process rather than product. (It is, in fact, this course's view that product is merely a residue that the creative process leaves behind.) Finally, because we have a very short time to look at and try out a lot of different things, our prose writing will focus on very short works: micro-fiction, descriptions, character sketches, brief scenes, moment of dialogue. (WRI)
Prerequisite: FYW or equivalent
Term Two (July 14 - August 20)
English 251: Creative Writing: Nonfiction (T2) (Steven Longfellow)
xxxxx Nonfiction will focus on the personal essay as a vehicle for exploring our relationships with our past selves, our present world and the mystery that are our futures. This class will therefore privilege questions over answers and discovery by way of digression over orderly defense of what we already think we know. As for style, we will focus on the craft of writing and the criteria that exist for evaluating our own and other'swork without regard to personal taste. To assist us we'll read Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek and undertake--for the length of the class--her year-long project of observation and self-revelation. (WRI)
Prerequisite: FYW or equivalent
