English 296hf - Colloquium: Topics in Advanced Fiction Writing: Historical Fiction

This course will help more advanced fiction writers improve their skills in a supportive workshop context that encourages experimentation and attention to craft. It focuses on technique, close reading, and the production of new work. Students submit manuscripts for discussion, receive feedback from peers, and revise their work. The topic for Fall 2021 is Historical Fiction, defined here as work written by someone who was not alive at the time of the events described, so that the writer approaches the story only by research and imagination. In addition to writing, students will do research that draws on archives, nonfiction sources, and sensory research to evoke the inner and outer worlds of people who inhabit a specific time and place in the past. We will read examples of fiction in this form by authors such as Toni Morrison, George Saunders, Maaza Mengiste, Sarah Waters, and Min Jin Lee. A writing sample and permission of the instructor are required. Enrollment limited to 12.