Advanced Reading and Writing Creative Nonfiction II (308-B-15)
Instructors
Sarah Fay
Dr. Fay’s writing appears in The New York Times, TIME, The New Republic, The Atlantic, Bookforum, The American Scholar, BOMB, The Iowa Review, The Rumpus, McSweeney’s, The Believer, and The Paris Review, where she served as an advisory editor. She is the recipient of the Hopwood Award for Literature, as well as grants and fellowships from Yaddo, the Mellon Foundation, the Center for Book Arts, the Poetry Center of Chicago, the Puffin Foundation, the Vermont Studio Center, the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, and the MacDowell Colony, among others. She has an M.F.A. in Creative Writing, an M.A. in English, and a Ph.D. in nineteenth- and twentieth-century American Literature. She currently teaches in the English departments at DePaul University and Northwestern University.
Meeting Info
Wieboldt Hall 512: Wed 6:15PM - 9:15PM
Overview of class
The goal of this Advanced Creative Nonfiction course is to help you embark on a new level of professionalism in your writing. The emphasis will be on structure, technique, and style. It will also be on getting your work out there, i.e., published. We'll revisit the macro elements of writing creative nonfiction via close readings and discussions of published works. Readings will include short forms—personal essays, narrative essays, food writing, reviews, longform journalism, and interviews and profiles. We'll also examine the potential that book-length forms offer, e.g., memoirs. You'll complete weekly assignments, continue or embark on a work-in-progress, and submit a final piece of writing that's been revised, edited, and proofread. We'll discuss publishing opportunities and go over the submission process, including how to choose websites and journals to submit to, write email queries and cover letters, and pitch reviews and features.
Registration Requirements
ENGLISH 208 or 308-A, or comparable courses in creative writing with permission of instructor. Students who have not completed ENGLISH 208 or 308-A should obtain instructor's consent and confirmation of appropriate writing experience. Please send an email to the professor with your writing background to request a permission number once registration for the quarter has opened.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this course, you will be able to:
identify, contrast, and draw connections among subgenres of creative nonfiction;
analyze texts via close reading;
write and submit examples of creative nonfiction;
evaluate other students' writing and provide feedback;
present on the assigned reading and facilitate class discussion;
demonstrate a working knowledge of the processes of drafting, revising, editing, and proofreading; and
think critically about Internet content.
Teaching Method
Discussion, lecture, readings, presentations, seminar, class participation, writing assignments, workshop/critique of writing assignments
Evaluation Method
Weekly submissions, midterm essay, final work of creative nonfiction, presentations, attendance, participation in all class critiques and discussions
Class Materials (Required)
Materials may include the following. Confirm with instructor or through course Canvas site.
Nellie Bly, Ten Days in a Mad-House (978-1519649263—Kindle version is free).
Roxane Gay, Hunger: A Memoir (978-0062420712).
Joan Didion, Blue Nights (978-0307387387).