English 219FR - Topics in Creative Writing: 'Form as Experiment: Poetry, Prose, Hybrid'

In this creative writing course, students will explore short literary forms including poetry, prose, prose poetry, micro-essays, flash fiction, fables, parables, and comix. We will study collections, series, and individual examples of short forms; authors studied may include Anne Carson, Lydia Davis, Diane di Prima, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Yasunari Kawabata, Michel de Montaigne, Harryette Mullen, Francis Ponge, Claudia Rankine, and Gertrude Stein. Everyone will make a short piece every week, with regular workshops. We will focus our attention on language, precision, compression, the turn, and how the constraint of length might create the aesthetic and political effects we desire.

Prereq: ENGL-201 or equivalent.