English: Intro to Creative Writing

Introductory course on techniques of writing poetry, short prose fiction, and creative nonfiction. Classes organized around discussion of student work; weekly writing assignments.

Open to degree and PACE students

This course approaches "creative writing" with the sense of the word "creative" that means simply "making" -- not necessarily "idiosyncratic" or "outside the box." Really, ALL writing is "creative," in that it produces a text that didn't exist before. But we will be thinking about the sorts of impulses to writing that produce poems and stories, that create not just documents but metaphors, characters, images, and worlds. What pushes us to make art out of words? Why do we appreciate these verbal artifacts even when they are not factual? If "creative" writing is meaningfully different from the sort of writing you do in other courses, is it still a method of discovery, a way of knowledge? These are some of the questions our reading and your work will address.

You'll complete exercises, nearly weekly, in verse and in prose, propelled by specific questions about why we write creatively and specific model texts that we will read with care. (One of the major goals of the course is modeling how to set assignments for yourself based on the reading that interests you.) You'll share many of your written results with your classmates, in discussions and workshops.

Class participation will be a significant factor in your grade, as will the graded assignments and a final revision.