English: Writing Place in Creative NF

Representative topics include Forms of Journalism and Writing for the Web. May be repeated for credit with different content. Topics vary by offering; periodic offering at intervals that may exceed four years.

Open to degree and PACE students

This creative nonfiction workshop focuses on the art of writing about place. We’ll read creative nonfiction literature that engages in themes like how place shapes individual and cultural identify, how landscapes inform imagination, and the impact of displacement on the human experience. We will consider the ways writing can map and create our own sense of place. Then we’ll write our own creative essays that connect in some way to one or more of these themes. These pieces will draw on our personal memories and experiences and may also include research that helps us further explore the intellectual and/or emotional heart of the matter. The creative writers we’ll be modeling on include: World of Wonders by Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Trace by Lauret Savoy, Borealis by Aisha Sabatini Sloan, and Madder by Marco Wilkinson. Our class will focus on process, meaning you will experiment with writing and revision techniques to learn more about how you develop your best creative writing.

Class participation is essential to this course. Students discuss and analyze texts, considering writing techniques, in small groups and as a whole. We will write 2-3 essays with revisions and a final, revised portfolio of writing. Students will participate in writing workshops and peer feedback.

2-3 creative essays, 2 revisions of essays, final portfolio of work, written peer feedback for writing workshop.