The curriculum allows the student to develop writing skills, provides an introduction to the possibilities of contemporary literature and offers a perspective on the place of literature among the liberal arts. Criticism by practicing writers and talented peers encourages the student’s growth as both creator and reader of literature.
Reading/Writing assignments:
One manuscript every other week. Reading of other students’ submissions in advance of workshop in which they are to be discussed. Other assigned readings or exercises. 30-70 pages per week.
* Section 4 (Hanna Pylväinen) will have a special focus, Tales in Two Cities: How Place Shapes Story. How is setting best deployed (and described) in fiction? How does shifting setting shift a character or conflict? What kinds of characters and conflicts are prompted by different settings? This Introductory Fiction class will consider these questions via two places: New York City and Princeton itself. Students will read novels based in both locations, and practice site-specific writing through a class trip to New York and an outing on and off-campus. Students will submit two stories during the semester, one from each setting.
