CRWR 185 A-Z - Special TopicsSemester Hours: 3
Fall, Spring
Special topics related to the creative writing genres. Subjects to be selected yearly.
Current Special Topics
CRWR 185F : Creative Non-Fiction: Life Writing
Everybody has a story, so what makes yours worth writing about? As Vivian Gornick sagely notes, “What happened to the writer is not what matters; what matters is the large sense that the writer is able to make of what happened.” Memoir is a strange animal, living somewhere between fiction and autobiography. Life doesn’t unfold in neat little plot packages, and a novelist’s toolbox is required to bring our stories to life.
Through intensive reading, writing exercises and workshop, together we will explore our personal stories and learn to illuminate a story larger than ourselves—to look out rather than in—and reach for the universal through the personal.
CRWR 185Q: Learning from Chekhov
In this class, the intention is to learn from Chekhov—to learn about writing and telling short stories; to learn about observation, detail, character; to learn about life. The class offers a chance to read (very closely) a number of Chekhov stories with an eye to craft. How does a good story work? What do you value in a story?
How does Chekhov sustain momentum? By studying Chekhov, inspiration for so many of the best short story writers of the 20thcentury, and through close attention to style and craft, we will try to understand his power. The hope is that he will instruct our own fictional efforts. We will be reading a small amount of text each week, so that our discussions will center on close line readings and study of fictional effects, rather than larger historical or thematic concerns. We are basically just reading amazing stories and trying to figure out how they work—and they happen to all be by Chekhov.
Prerequisite(s)/Course Notes:
WSC 001 and CRWR 133 . May be repeated for credit when topics vary. As individual subjects are selected, each is assigned a letter (A-Z) which is affixed to the course number. Specific titles and course descriptions for special topics courses are available in the online class schedule.
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