Creative Writing Course Descriptions
Creative Writing 201
- Introduction to Creative Writing
Full course for one semester. This workshop will introduce students
to some basic techniques and structures of short fiction, and
provide some experience in writing it. Special emphasis will be
given to understanding the demands and possibilities of the short
story form, with focus on preparation, criticism, and revision.
Class sessions will be used for the discussion of assigned
readings, technique assignments, and work in progress. Enrollment
limited to 15. Prerequisites: a prose sample of three to five pages
and consent of the instructor. Conference.
Introduction to Creative Writing
Full course for one semester. This genre-free creative writing
course is generative in nature and will focus on stimulating the
creative muse. Students will do intensive in-class writing each
week but very little "workshopping" in the traditional sense. We
will focus on image; storytelling; writing powerful, compelling and
tight metaphors; rhythm; sound; and orality. We will also strive to
find new ways of "seeing" the world around us. To that end,
students enrolling in this class must be willing to travel off
campus at least two Saturdays during the semester. Prerequisites: a
writing sample, either prose or poems, and/or consent of
instructor. Conference. Not offered in 2005-06.
Creative Writing 207
- Introduction to Creative Nonfiction: The Personal Essay
Creative Writing 221
- Fiction Studio I: Questions of Narrative
Creative Writing 224
- Poetry Studio I: Image, Shape and Sound
Creative Writing 274
- Poetry Studio II: Forms: Closed, Received and Open
Creative Writing 321
- Special Topics Studio
Full course for one semester. This workshop is designed for
students with considerable experience and ability in writing the
personal essay and creative nonfiction. Each week, students will
read selections by one published author (such as Didion, Baldwin,
Sedaris, and Ondaatje). Special emphasis will be given to
individual voices, critical response to others’ work, and the
revision of one’s own stories. Class sessions will be used for
discussion of assigned readings and work in progress. Enrollment
limited to 15. Prerequisites: a writing sample of three to five
pages, one 200-level creative writing course, at least sophomore
standing, and consent of the instructor. May be repeated for
credit. Conference.
Economy
Full course for one semester. This workshop is designed for
students with considerable experience in writing short fiction.
Students will read stories by published authors (such as Lydia
Davis, Crace, Lightman, and Kawabata) in order to learn how to
manage effects economically, and to write with maximum efficiency
and suggestion. Students will write one story per week; emphasis
will also be placed on critically responding to others’ work and on
revising one’s own stories. Class sessions will be used for
discussion of assigned readings and work in progress. Enrollment
limited to 15. Prerequisites: a writing sample of three to five
pages, one 200-level creative writing course, at least sophomore
standing, and consent of the instructor. May be repeated for
credit. Conference. Not offered 2005-06.
321 Special Topics Studio: Mentors
Full course for one semester. This workshop is designed for
students with considerable experience in writing short fiction.
Students will read several stories by one published author, such as
O’Connor, Hemingway, Cheever or Gaitskill, in order to learn from
these writers by investigating their range. Special emphasis will
be given to individual voices, critical response to others’ work,
and the revision of one’s own stories. Class sessions will be used
for discussion of assigned readings and work in progress.
Enrollment limited to 15. Prerequisites: a writing sample of three
to five pages, one 200-level creative writing course, at least
sophomore standing, and consent of the instructor. May be repeated
for credit. Conference.
The Novella
Full course for one semester. This workshop is designed for
students with considerable experience in writing short fiction.
Students will read novellas by published authors such as
Millhauser, Parvin, DeLillo, and Messud in order to learn from
these writers how narratives are expanded and with the hope of
coming to some definition of what a novella is. Special emphasis
will be given to individual voices, critical response to others’
writing, and the gradual development of one’s own novella-length
work. Class sessions will be used for discussion of assigned
readings and work in progress. Enrollment limited to 15.
Prerequisites: a writing sample of three to five pages, one
200-level creative writing course, at least sophomore standing, and
consent of the instructor. May be repeated for credit. Conference.
Not offered 2005-06.
Adaptation to Screenwriting
Full course for one semester. This course will investigate the
similarities and differences in storytelling between the media of
fiction and screen. We will read works of fiction, discuss
potential issues in translating them to screen, and then view the
films that have been made. Adaptations of Denis Johnson’s Jesus’
Son, Julio Cortazar’s "Blow Up," Mary Gaitskill’s "Secretary,"
Ernest Hemingway’s "The Killers," James Joyce’s "The Dead," Sherman
Alexie’s Smoke Signals, and others will be treated. Students
will also write adaptations--singly, and in collaboration with
their peers--of their own and published fiction. Class meetings
will be used to discuss reading and to workshop student writing;
additional class sessions, for viewing films, will also be
required. Prerequisites: a writing sample, a 200-level creative
writing course, and permission of the instructor. Conference. Not
offered 2005-06.
Creative Writing 331
- Special Topics
Full course for one semester. In this workshop, students will
investigate the subtle (and not so subtle) natural world by taking
advantage of Oregon’s natural resources. We will also delve into
the relationship between the natural world and human behavior.
After all, is the poem written about two people in a wood about the
people or about the wood? Perhaps the answer is both. To that end,
we will work largely out of doors, walking, "re-seeing," and
writing about the relationship nature plays in our daily lives.
Further, we will read representative work by well-known poets.
Prerequisite: Creative Writing 224, a writing sample, and consent
of the instructor. Conference. Not offered 2005-06.
The Family
Full course for one semester. The family is perhaps the most common
(and challenging) topic for creative writers. The family is common
and is everywhere: in art, in novels, next door, upstairs. And yet,
the family is often the root of our most complex social
interactions. This poetry studio will focus on the family as an
entity against which the writer writes, from which the writer
emerges, and through which the writer comes to a better contextual
understanding of her or his world. To that end, we will do some
work in poetic forms that complement this topic. Most of our time
will be spent assessing student work. Prerequisites: a writing
sample of three to five poems and/or consent of the instructor.
Conference. Not offered 2005-06.
Myth and Magic
Full course for one semester. This course is designed for students
with considerable experience in writing poetry who want to more
effectively use mythological and magical symbolism to illuminate
their work. How does one write a myth-based poem that is both
accessible and relevant to contemporary audiences? How might a
Nordic myth illuminate the Vietnam conflict? In tarot, the Death
card can represent rebirth--how might this inspire or inform a
poem? Our goal in this workshop is to find ways of employing these
stories and symbols in order to write stronger, clearer, more
relevant poems. To gain perspective and literary context we will
read a great deal of contemporary poetry. While this is primarily a
workshop, we will engage in the occasional writing exercise.
Prerequisite: Creative Writing 224, a writing sample, at least
sophomore standing, and consent of the instructor. Conference. Not
offered 2005-06.
Prose Poems and Epistles
Full course for one semester. These two flexible poetic forms (both
of which are old) offer contemporary poets fresh, new ways of
approaching content. The prose poem invites poets to work freely
beyond the boundaries of line breaks. Likewise, epistles, dating
back to ancient Rome, encourage writers to truly explore point of
view and, in a contemporary format, might include forms such as
email letters and notes to oneself. Students will work intensively
on creating a body of prose poems and epistles. This studio is
designed for students who have had extensive creative writing
workshop experience. Prerequisites: a writing sample and/or consent
of the instructor. Conference. Not offered 2005-06.
Deepening: Process and Re-Vision
Full course for one semester. In this workshop for experienced
writers we will explore through readings and focused suggestions
for writing what it means to be engaged in the process and craft of
poetry. This class will be based on writing a new poem every other
week–on alternate weeks we will explore workshop suggestions, crack
open and sometimes re-conceptualize poems in order to more fully
deepen and explore the range of voice and the possibilities of the
poem itself. Enrollment limited to 15. Prerequisites: a writing
sample of three to five poems, Creative Writing 224, sophomore
standing and consent of the instructor. May be repeated for credit.
Conference.
Autobiography and Archetype
Full course for one semester. "Archetype is the machinery through
which autobiography achieves something larger than the single life;
and autobiography is the means by which archetypes are renewed." So
writes the poet Stanley Plumly in an essay from which this course
takes its name. How do the deeply personal, the poetry of family,
the poetry of the place you speak from (the house you grew up in,
the body you inhabit …) or the poetry of speaking to the other,
speak universally? In this workshop for experienced writers,
through readings, focused suggestions for writing, and discussion
of students’ poems, we will explore how raw and often difficult,
emotional material is crafted into a poem that speaks not just to
its author but to readers seen and unseen who may encounter it.
Enrollment limited to 15. Prerequisites: a writing sample of three
to five poems, Creative Writing 224, sophomore standing, and
consent of the instructor. Maybe be repeated for credit.
Conference.
