Creative Writing: Fiction
Class Information
Instructor: Houston, Pam
Time: W 12:10-3:00
Location: 120 Voorhies
Description
In this class we will investigate some of the essential components of fiction including (but not limited to) image, metaphor, form, structure, voice, dialogue, character, scene, beginnings, endings, narrative arc. We will enact, witness and critique what I believe to be the central mechanism of fiction: the translation of the emotional stakes of the story onto its physical landscape, the way we dip our ladles into the bottomless pot of metaphor soup that is our lived and imagined experience and pull out what we need. We will be aiming for layered stories in which every line is working at least two ways at once, stories in which the language is more than simply a flat bed trailer in which the writer hauls the content of the story around but occasionally rises into what Steve Almond calls the lyric register.
I believe it is my job as workshop leader to make and hold a space where students can take artistic, stylistic and emotional risks. Given the pandemic and the rise of fascism here and elsewhere in the world, it will be worth considering, as a group, as well as individually, if and how our work will be differently engaged going forward, now that we have been revealed to ourselves and each other as creatures, after all.
Grading
Each student will be expected to turn in three new pieces of fiction during the course of the quarter (either stories or novel chapters) and one revision at the end of the term. There will be weekly reading throughout the quarter and weekly exercises at the start of the quarter before we get into workshop proper.
Texts
Brother, Sister, Mother, Explorer , Jamie Figuroa
The Hare, Melanie Finn
There, There, Tommy Orange
Filthy Animals, Brandon Taylor
My Dear You, Rachel Khong *
The Results, Maggie Pahos *
How to Eat Well At The End Of The World, Simon Han*
The Pull , Lidia Yuknavitch *
Texts marked with * are individual short stories available for free on line, and there will be more of those.