Writing Courses
In a workshop format with no more than 15 students, the advanced writing courses engage students in a wide variety of writing exercises and offer an opportunity to share work with fellow students and a practicing professional writer/teacher. Some of the courses focus on particular forms of writing — fiction, poetry, comedy, the journal, the personal narrative, the critical essay — while others encompass several forms and focus instead on a particular theme, such as writing about politics, writing about the arts, and writing about one’s ancestry.
Examples of courses include
Writing as Social Action
K30.1038, June Foley
In this course, students read and write nonfiction that aims to change hearts, minds, and public policy. We begin by examining exemplary essays and journalism of the past by such writers as Swift, Woolf, Orwell, and Baldwin, then move on to reading and analyzing more recent works on a variety of issues and in a variety of genres. We also find inspiration in the e-newsletter, Voices That Must Be Heard, which translates stories from about 200 NYC ethnic presses. Students choose an issue of their own to research and advocate, then write about it in a number of genres, including the Editorial, Op-Ed piece, NPR reportage, interview, and a longer work that includes research. Readings will likely include selections from works by Jamaica Kincaid, Mark Salzman, Barbara Ehrenreich, Frank Rich, Patricia J. Williams, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Amy Tan, Katha Pollitt, Alex Kotlowitz, and Nancy Mairs.
The Short Story: A Workshop on Revising
K30.1536, Carol Zoref
This workshop is dedicated to the oft-repeated observation that all writing is re-writing. Each writer will focus their efforts on only one or two short stories, rather than starting many new stories and abandoning them in favor of yet another new beginning. Students will take each of their stories through a number of drafts and revise them in response to (though not necessarily in accord with) questions and comments raised by other members of the workshop. The objective is to learn ways of staying with such challenges as maintaining the story’s voice, determining the order of experience, and arriving at an ending that satisfies the design of the story as well as the intentions of the writer. Workshop members share their stories in class throughout the semester and comment in detail on one another’s work. Participants should have some experience writing short stories.
Style and Substance: Tools for Writing
Melanie Hulse
Writing is a deliberate, conscious act. Whether it is short or long, fiction or nonfiction, the finished work is as meticulously designed and executed as a cathedral. This course examines how writers use the various elements of narrative to realize their ideas with precision and grace. Specific craft elements—plot and structure, characterization and dialogue, and point of view—are explored through close reading of exemplary writing, in-class exercises, and take-home assignments. Class discussions analyze storytelling strategies in the published work of established writers; workshopping students’ writing is scheduled in the second half of the term. The readings include personal essays, journalism, excerpted fiction, and scripts. Taped interviews with writers and other professionals are screened and discussed, and information about interacting with the publishing industry is offered.
