English 191 - Community, Context, and Creative Writing

In this creative writing course, we will write across genres while engaging with a wide range of creative contexts in which such writing occurs. We will study, interact with, and actively respond to real-world communities including (but not limited to) publishers and literary magazines, communities of writers with shared identities, literary organizations, and local writing circles. With the help of class visitors and our own in-class discussions, we will identify the conversations in which our writing participates and write as part of those conversations. Responses to our creative writing will revolve around classroom community, where small group workshops will respond dynamically to each other's work. Students will leave the course with a strong sense of their own literary contexts, a lasting experience of literary community in the classroom, and a plan for how to build literary community in their own lives.

Admission with consent of the instructor. Limited to 25 students. 10 spots reserved for first-year students. Fall semester. Lecturer Sweeney.

How to handle overenrollment: Priority for first-year students and students who have not previously taken a creative writing class.

Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: Emphasis on written work (creative writing), reading as a writer, group discussion, small-group workshops of peer writing.