Creative Writing: Fiction
Class Information
Instructor: Corin, Lucy
Time: R 12:10-3:00
Location: 120 Voorhies
Description
This is a graduate level fiction writing workshop. Priority is given to graduate students in creative writing. Students from other programs are welcome, space permitting, and interested students should send a writing sample (fiction) when requesting permission to enroll.
My approach privileges intensity and awareness of language textures and narrative shape, and asks each student to make each new work press the boundaries (intellectual, emotional, formal) of previous work. Making an immaculate-feeling piece of art is the ultimate goal, and we will work toward making your stories as beautiful as they can be, but I am less interested in you crafting pieces that conform to an “ideal form” than I am in you challenging yourself artistically. Revision is essential to this challenge. You are expected, therefore, to engage in revision, not in order to be "done" with a work, but to deepen and push at a work. Consistent, thorough attention to peer fictions both in writing and in discussion is required.
This quarter we’ll compile a reader of short fictions that includes some drawn from enrolled students’ recent reading practices. We’ll also read a couple of short novels. Right now I’m thinking we’ll read Mary Robison’s /Why Did I Ever/ and Horacio Castellanos Moya’s /The Dream of My Return/. But I want to see who’s in the room on the first day of class before I decide for sure.
Grading
Assuming attendance and on time completion of all assignments, grades are based on the quality of writing submitted; the quality of revision work; the quality, usefulness, and consistency of classroom participation; and the intensity of inquiry in both collective and individual aspects of the course.