Creative Writing Courses

Creative Writing

Introduction to Art Making

LCA 101 · Spring 2019

C01 · Mondays & Wednesdays, 11:00 am - 12:20 pm

Instructors: Aynsley Vandenbroucke · Boris Fishman · Daniel Heyman · Jane Cox · Ruth Ochs · Stacy Wolf

How do artists make art? How do we evaluate it? In this course, students of all levels get to experience firsthand the particular challenges and rewards of art making through practical engagement with five fields — creative writing, visual art, theater, dance, and music — under the guidance of professionals.

Literary Translation

CWR 206 / TRA 206 / COM 215 · Spring 2019

C01 - Jenny McPhee · Fridays, 2:30 - 4:20 pm

Instructors: Staff

Practice in the translation of literary works from another language into English supplemented by the reading and analysis of standard works.

How to Write a Song

CWR 211 / MTD 211 · Spring 2019

C01 · Tuesdays, 1:30 - 4:20 pm

Instructors: Paul Muldoon

An introduction to the art of writing words for music, an art at the core of almost every literary tradition from Homer through Beowulf to W.B Yeats and beyond.

Creative Non-fiction

JRN 240 / CWR 240 · Spring 2019

S01 · Mondays, 1:30 to 4:20 pm

Instructors: Staff

This is a course in factual writing and what has become known as literary non-fiction, emphasizing writing and including several reading assignments from the work of John McPhee and others. Enrollment is limited to 16 second-year students, by application only.

Advanced Poetry

CWR 302 · Spring 2019

Multiple sections offered

Instructors: Paul Muldoon · Simon Armitage

Advanced practice in the original composition of poetry for discussion in regularly scheduled workshop meetings.

Advanced Fiction

CWR 304 · Spring 2019

Multiple sections offered

Instructors: Aleksandar Hemon · Yiyun Li

Advanced practice in the original composition of fiction for discussion in regularly scheduled workshop meetings.

Advanced Literary Translation

CWR 306 / COM 356 · Spring 2019

C01 - Jenny McPhee · Fridays, 2:30 - 4:20 pm

Instructors: Staff

Students will choose, early in the semester, one author to focus on in fiction, poetry, or drama. All work will be translated into English and discussed in a workshop format.

Writing from Life

CWR 310 · Spring 2019

C01 - Yiyun Li · Mondays 7:30 - 9:20 pm

Instructors: Yiyun Li

What compels us to write about ourselves?

Life is Short, Art is Really Short

CWR 315 · Spring 2019

C01 · Mondays, 1:30 - 4:20 pm

Instructors: James Richardson

All literature is short — compared to our lives, anyway — but we'll be concentrating on poetry and prose at their very shortest. The reading will include proverbs, aphorisms, greguerias, one-line poems, riddles, jokes, fragments, haiku, epigrams and microlyrics.

Creating Your Biomythography Workshop

DAN 350 / CWR 350 / AAS 329 · Spring 2019

U01 · Mondays 1:30 - 4:20 pm

Instructors: Jaamil Olawale Kosoko

Using an interdisciplinary workshop approach to explore the concept of the biomyth, this course will provide an introduction to various sites of contemporary art practices situating literature, design, and dance within a social and historical context.

Archive Writing

COM 350 / HUM 351 / CWR 351 · Spring 2019

S01 · Tuesdays, 1:30-4:20 pm

Instructors: Staff

This course explores the practical and ethical issues involved in archival work, and how modern and contemporary poets have used archival research to fuel historically- and politically-minded interventions.

Archive Writing

COM 350 / HUM 351 / CWR 351 · Spring 2019

S01 · Tuesdays, 1:30 - 4:20 pm

Instructors: Karen Emmerich

This course explores the practical and ethical issues involved in archival work, and how modern and contemporary poets have used archival research to fuel historically- and politically-minded interventions.

Writing, Directing and Acting Others

FRE 388 / THR 388 / CWR 388 · Spring 2019

C01 · Tuesday and Thursday 3:00 - 4:20 pm

Instructors: Florent Masse · Pascal Rambert

Students will have the chance to immerse themselves in the theater-making process, writing, directing and acting texts that they will devise under Pascal Rambert's guidance. Co-taught by celebrated French playwright and director Pascal Rambert and Florent Masse.

Advanced Screenwriting: Writing for Television

CWR 405 / VIS 405 · Spring 2019

C01 - A.M. Homes · Wednesdays, 1:30 - 3:50 pm

Instructors: A.M. Homes

This advanced screenwriting course will introduce students to the complexity and thought process behind creating a first season for a dramatic TV series.

Introduction to Screenwriting: Adaptation

CWR 448 / VIS 448 · Spring 2019

C01 - Christina Lazaridi · Thursdays, 1:30 - 3:50 pm

Instructors: Christina Lazaridi

This course will introduce students to screenwriting adaptation techniques, focusing primarily on the challenges of adapting “true stories” pulled from various non-fiction sources.