Liberal Arts Courses

Art of the Personal Essay

Course No. WRHC 373  Credits: 3.0

In this workshop course we will work on developing an understanding of the personal essay as a distinct yet flexible nonfictional genre, one possessing its own characteristics and contours that distinguish it from other literary forms. You will also work in this course on the craft of writing and revising your own personal essays. To these ends, we will be reading a number of works that demonstrate the essay’s protean adaptability. Texts will be drawn from Phillip Lopate’s anthology The Art of the Personal Essay, as well as from other sources, including selected blogs, nonfictional texts by visual artists, as well as the online compilation Quotidiana. Prerequisite: WR 203. 3 credits.

Fiction Writing

Course No. WRHC 392  Credits: 3.0

Fiction is the sustained application of the literary artist's imagination to the observation of life, and writing it well requires a vision of what's true in the story before it ever reaches the page. Fiction Writing provides the student with the opportunity to write short fiction, discuss technique, study master storytellers, and critique one another's work. Some weekly topics in writing technique take up the issues of narrative structure, clear meaning, turning story into plot, scene content and scene break, dialogue, conflict and tension, the power of point of view, the revelation of character, and rewriting. Over the course of the term, students work on three pieces of fiction. Prerequisite: WR 203. 3 credits.

Creative Writing Senior Seminar

Course No. WRHC 490  Credits: 3.0

In the Creative Writing Senior Seminar, students will work closely with one another in workshop-style critique as they complete senior projects in writing. Projects may include work in fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, screenwriting, graphic narratives, digital forms, hybrid genres, multimedia writing, cross-genre texts, and other forms. Students will write and revise a substantial portfolio of original work, offer their peers meaningful feedback focused on literary craft, produce a critical introduction that situates their work in the discipline, and give a public reading of their work. They will also complete activities that support professional development, literary community, and connections between writing and other arts. Prereqisites: WR 203 & permission from Creative Writing Concentration coordinator. 3 credits.