English 290 - CRAFTING CREATIVE NONFICTION

A writer?s workshop designed to explore the complexities and delights of creative nonfiction. Constant reading, writing and critiquing. Admission by permission of the instructor. This course is for students with a serious interest in developing and refining their skills at formal essay writing. Because reading and writing are complementary cognitive activities, we spend time reading essays by some of the best writers of the last 100 years or so: Virginia Woolf, George Orwell, James Baldwin, Adrienne Rich, Richard Rodriguez, Alice Walker and Gore Vidal, among others. Selections are organized in thematic clusters to inspire, prompt, provoke or incite responses that will generate formal essays. Attention to the writing process, particularly revision, and to matters of style (?the perfection of style is to be clear without being mean,? said Aristotle). English 290 will combine formal class sessions, independent writing, group writing and conferences with the instructor. A portfolio of finished essays (five or six) is due on the Friday before the last class of the semester. Admission by permission of the instructor.

Writing Sample Required.