Creative Writing: Special Topic
Class Information
Instructor: Corin, Lucy
Time: T 12:10-3:00
Description
This is a workshop in fiction, nonfiction, and everything between and adjacent that is still prose. The course is designed for MFA candidates in creative writing; others interested should contact me with a writing sample for admission when space allows.
This special topic workshop will focus on getting long or longer. I picked two core books. One is very short. But it is a book. A work of intimate nonfiction. One is a pretty common size for a novel not too long, not too short, and it reads fast. In my memory, it reads almost as fast as the very short book of nonfiction. The book of nonfiction is small in its focus. The work of fiction is pretty grand, thematically, though it is still anchored in one person, one perspective, a fairly discrete set of events.
What does it mean to think "long"is it the same as thinking "big"? What is big? What happens to your work if you imagine it getting big? What needs or deserves to be big, or bigger? What does it mean for a book to be its "right" length?
You will submit long works (40 pgs up to full-novel-or-cnf book draft) for workshop, or shorter works that are the results of generating material an effort to get long. So this workshop is both a place for long works that you have already made, and for those who have not yet made something long, but are ready to go for it.
Grading
grading is holistic and based on the quality of drafts, revision work, and consistent thoughtful and generous (ie, of mind) engagement with peer work and assigned texts.
Texts
Giovanni's Room, James Baldwin
Ongoingness, Sarah Manguso