Session
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Session Focus
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Reading Assignment
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Other Assignment
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Meeting Place/Exam Dates
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Week 1
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INTRODUCTION: Introduction to the course; introduction to microfiction and short fiction
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Janet Burroway's Elements of Craft, read Image (pgs 15-28)
Corin, Davis, Eggers, Kincaid, Saunders stories (links below);
Ernest Hemingway “A Very Short Story” (EOC pgs 279-280)
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Micro Fiction Assignment; Preparation of Peer critique
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Guarini Boardroom
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Week 2
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FICTION We will discuss elements of craft in fiction, including story structure (plot) and setting; first in class workshop of microfiction
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Burroway’s EOC:Fiction (pgs 259-270); Setting (pgs 135-148)
Tobias Wolff: “Bullet in the Brain “ (pgs 34-37EOC)
Patricia Lockwood “The Winged Thing”
David Foster Wallace: "Incarnations of Burned Children" (pgs 179-181)
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Begin work on Fiction Assignment
Longer Fiction Assignment and prepare oral and annotated critiques of microfiction
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Guarini Boardroom
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Week 3
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FICTION: focus on character, dialogue, and characterization through details. We will do an in-class writing assignment.
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Burroway's Elements of Craft: Character (pgs 94-108)
Jhumpa Lahiri "Mrs. Sen's"
Denis Johnson"Emergency"
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Prepare critiques with oral and annotated comments of final microfictions; longer fiction assignment due
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Guarini Boardroom
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Week 4
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FICTION: focus on voice and content in fiction.; workshop of longer fiction assignment
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EOC Voice (pgs 47-61); EOC Story (pgs 166-179)
Tillie Olsen "I Stand Here Ironing"
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Preparation and submission of revised draft; prepare peer critiques
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Guarini Boardroom
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Week 5
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FICTION: focus on language, musicality, and sentence and paragraph structure; continued workshop of longer fiction assignment
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EOC: Development and Revision (pgs 195-208)
Raymond Carver "Viewfinder"
Toni Morrison's "Sweetness"
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Prepare peer critiques on fiction
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Guarini Boardroom
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Week 6
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NONFICTION: focus on introduction to creative nonfiction. We will discuss the personal essay, finding your voice, the “I,” and being theprotagonistof yourown work. We will read Jo Ann Beard's "In the Current" and we will have an in-class writing assignment.
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Creative Nonfiction EOC (pgs 225-236)
Joseph Mitchell "Professor Seagull"
Alice Walker: "Beauty: When the Other Dancer Is the Self"
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Tiny nonfiction assignment; preparation of peer critiques
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Guarini Boardroom
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Week 7
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CREATIVE NONFICTION: focus onthe idea of fact vs truth, how to sculpt a nonfiction narrative using techniques from fiction, how to establish a consistent tone in our writing; continued examination of tiny nonfictions
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David Foster Wallace: "Consider the Lobster"
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Prepare for discussion of peer tiny nonfiction
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Guarini Boardroom
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Week 8
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CREATIVE NONFICTION: Guest Lecture; continued nonfiction workshop
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Nora Ephron "On Maintenance"
Joan Didion "At the Dam" EOC (pgs 148-150)
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Be prepared to discuss tiny nonfiction; longer creative nonfiction assignment due
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Guarini Boardroom
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Week 9
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MIDTERM MEETINGS: individual midterm conferences during class; sign up sheet to be made available in Week 8.
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Reading for pleasure
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Continued writing and revision of fiction and creative nonfiction.
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Guarini Boardroom
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Week 10
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SPRING BREAK
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Reading for pleasure
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Writing for pleasure
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SPRING BREAK
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Week 11
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POETRY: introduction to poetry; form vs free verse poetry; in class writing assignment
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Poetry in EOC (pgs 297-317)
Tony Hoagland "There is No Word" (pgs 320-1)
Sharon Olds "The Language of the Brag" (pgs 324-5)
Sharon Olds "Topography"
Michael S. Harper "Grandfather"
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Preparation of first poem; prepare peer critique
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Guarini Boardroom
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Week 12
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POETRY: focus on imagery, sounds, and lines; workshop of first poem
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Amiri Baraka "An Agony. As Now."
Allen Ginsburg "Sunflower Sutra"
Jack Gilbert "Alone"
Robert Lowell "Sailing Home from Rapallo"
Sylvia Plath "Fever 103º"
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First poem due; prepare peer critiques
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Guarini Boardroom
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Week 13
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POETRY: focus on formal poetry schemes, in particular, we will focus on the construction of the sonnet. We will also talk about metaphor, musicality, density, and intensity;
continued workshop of poetry
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Elliot Coleman "Sonnets on the Roman Light"
Denis Johnson "Heat"
Mary Jo Salter "Half a Double Sonnet for Ben"
William Shakespeare "Let me not to the marriage of true minds"
Edna St Vincent Millay "What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why"
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Second poem due; prepare critiques
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Guarini Boardroom
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Week 14
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POETRY: focus on line editing, the imaginative possibilities of poetry, revision, discussion of final portfolio preparation and organization, workshop of third poem, time allowing
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Donald Hall "Kill the Day"
Louise Gluck "Averno"
Linda Gregg "Trouble in the Portable Marriage"
Tracy K. Smith "Declaration"
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Third poem due; prepare peer critiques
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Guarini Boardroom
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Week 15
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POETRY: final workshop and portfolio due
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In Class Reading of Student Work; please select an excerpt of your work (length TBD) for a final class reading on May 2nd. Practice reading out loud.
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FINAL PORTFOLIO DUE
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TBA
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