English 135 - INTRO: CREATIV NONFICT-PLACE

Students learn to use literary techniques to write factual, engaging narratives that read like fiction. Based on research, interviews and personal experience, creative nonfiction encompasses a wide range of genres, including memoir, travel writing, nature writing, science writing, food writing and biography. Prerequisites: one WI course. Enrollment in each section limited to 16. Course may be repeated once on a different topic. : In creative nonfiction writing, authors of fact-based essays and memoirs use the same craft tools as novelists—from description and dialogue to reflection, scene, structure and exposition—to tell a story. We sharpen these tools with writing and reading assignments that draw from the linked themes of place and travel, and how the passage of time changes perspectives on both. You don't have to be a seasoned traveler to join the course: you can write about any place at all, including home. We also use the Smith College Archives to write about the place we all know and share at different times in its history. Students may respond to assignments and prompts in traditional written essays; graphic essays (comics); or digital essays. Either way, be prepared to write frequently in class and out, read well, participate in class discussion, and be ready to explore your world with new eyes.