Courses and Descriptions

Genres Offered

The Creative Writing Program offers a wide variets of programs in many different genres open to all students. The genres we specialize in are: fiction, nonfiction, poetry, screenwriting, and playwriting. The Living Writers Series Course is also a required course for majors and minors.

Screenwriting

CRW 201-Screenwriting: Introductory

This introductory writing course explores the screenwriting genre through practical application of various writing techniques, exercises, and organizational concepts, and through critical analysis of professional screenplays, film clips, and student work.

CRW 301-Screenwriting: Intermediate

Intermediate screenwriting will allow students to analyze films, screenplays, and lectures to continue the structural outcome of the feature-length screenplay, which they started in CRW 201, or an entirely new script of their choosing. Workshops in class with groups as well as those led by the instructor will help students navigate through the structure, format and style of a feautre length film script. Exercises, reading scripts, as well as written and oral critical responses/critques of classmates' work will be required.

CRW 401-Screenwriting: Advanced

Students will complete and revise the screenplay started in earlier classes in an effort to prepare their full-length scripts for future submission and production. To facilitate this, the course relies heavily on staged readings in a workshop setting, so screenwriters can imagine their script moving from page to film. Creating a community where peers aid in a screenplay's development is also a key objective of the course.

Poetry 

CRW 205-Poetry Writing: Introductory

This is an introductory course in the fine art of reading and writing poetry, with an emphasis on the latter. Since reading and writing poetry are reciprocal activies, students will read a variety of poetry voices and styles with a critical eye on "how" and "how well" they are written and how this can be used in their own writing. The course will discuss ideas for generating poems, the vocabulary to discuss them in a workshop setting, and revision techniques.

CRW 305-Poetry Writing: Intermediate

This course will help you further your ability in accessing the sources of poetic creation in the imagination with a continuing focus on free-association, but it will also reaffirm the technical aspects of poetry writing learned in CRW 205. Thus, you will continue to work with the basic elements of poetry, such as line breaks, cadence, comparisons, and so forth. However, the class will also move deeper into revision by sequences of poems (both those of other poets and your own) so that you can see how much sequences evolve both in juxtaposition and in contradistinction with each other. You will also learn how to do more involved critques in workshop, which in turn will help you become more self-conscious in the revision of your own work. In short, CRW 305 will further your development as a poet, both at the level of initial composition and at all stages of revision.

CRW 305- Poetry Writing: Advanced

This is an advanced workshop in poetry. Students will read books by established poets, write their own poems for workshop, and further refine the practice of critque. We'll discuss issues of importance to writers, such as the growth of writing contests as an avenue to book publication and the popularity of spoken word poetry. We'll study contemporary literary journals and other resources for writers and students will submit work to outline and print journals. Students will write their own chapbooks, and will participate in a public poetry reading.

Fiction

CRW 206-Fiction Writing: Introductory

Toni Morrison wrote: "If there's a book you really want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it." You can get started in this beginning to fiction writing workshop. You'll be reading contemporary short stories and writing exercises using a variety of fiction techniques. In the latter half of the semester everyone will produce a full-length story, which will be discussed by the entire class. You'll be giving written critiques of everyone's stories and this will help you form a critical aesthetic in the genre.

CRW 306-Fiction Writing: Intermediate

This course is an intensive workshop in fiction writing in which you will examine student stories as well as stories from The Best American Short Stories. Students will develop and discuss their aesthetic prinicipals. Requirements: 3 stories or sections of a novel, story responses, self-assement paper, and use of Angel.

CRW 406-Fiction Writing: Advanced- Flash Fiction

It takes skill to compress the universe of a story or tale into less than a thousand words. Flash fiction must deliver an impact to ramify in subtext while paying attention to economies of scale. In this class we'll be writing almost a dozen different flash fictions, and we'll be reading widely contemporary flash fiction. The course will require you to write flash fiction every week. You will be expected to make group presentations and organize a portfolio of your best work.

CRW 406-Fiction Writing: Advanced- Horror

This course looks at an established sub-genre of fiction, in this case, horror. Horror takes ordinary fears and anxieties and elevates them to concrete status within the story. Students will read and respond to stories in the sub-genre, but will be encouraged to explore and formulate principals about the sub-genre that interests them the most. Requirements: 3 stories or sections of a novel, story responses, self-assement paper, and use of Angel.

Playwriting

CRW 207-Playwriting: Introductory

This introductory course in playwriting uses a wide-variety of techniques, exercises, and organizational concepts to explore the particular challeneges and rewards of this genre. Existing theatrical literature as well as our own work will be evaluated and discussed, culminating in a ten-page play.

CRW 307-Playwriting: Intermediate

Advanced playwriting techniques will be explored with the specific objective of creating a one-act play (or the first act of a full-length play). Exsisting theatre literature will be analyzed with particular emphasis on modern use of language.

CRW 407-Playwriting: Advanced

This advanced playwriting course focuses on revision and development as playwrights prepare their one-act plays for future submission to professional theatrical organizations. To facilitate this, the course relies heavily on staged readings in a workshop setting, modeling the traditional procedure for play developement in America. Creating a writing community where peers aid in a play's developement is also a key objective in this course.

Nonfiction

CRW 208-Creative Nonfiction Writing: Introductory

This is an introductory workshop in nonfiction. Students will read and discuss the work of established writers and will become familiar with creative writing skills such as crafting scenes, using dialogue effectively, and building strong characters and themes. They will complete weekly exercises and write two essays. Students improve writing skills, share constructive criticism in a workshop setting, begin to build critical vocabulary and become familiar with the genre of nonfiction.

CRW 308- Creative Nonfiction Writing: Intermediate

This is an intermediate nonfiction workshop. Students will read and discuss their creative nonfiction by established writers, write their own essays, and critique the work of their peers. Students will conduct various forms of research to establish mastery over chosen subject matter. They will investigate technical and aesthetic aspects of the genre , and ponder ethical questions, such as "what is truth?" and "do I have a right to use other people's stories as my own?" One full-length essay as well as several short pieces will be required.

CRW 408-Creative Nonfiction Writing: Advanced

This is an advanced workshop in creative nonfiction. Students will read and discuss samples of the essay form by established writers, write their own essays for workshop, and refine the practice of critique. We'll discuss issues of importance to nonfiction writers, such as the rise of the e-book, iTunes' experiment to offer essays for sale, and the always-relevant subject of factual truth versus emotional truth. We'll further persue ways to integrate research and investigate ways to expand subject matter byond the realm of simple memoir. We'll study contemporary literary journals and other resources for writers and students will submit work to online and print journals.

Living Writers Series

CRW 300- Living Writers Series

This large-lecture course explores the creative process via a series of talks presented by writers across the genres and may include other members of the writing community (editors, librarians, publishers). Students develop their own values and aesthetics, and articulate them through exercises and assignments; participants become aquainted with the challenges, practices, and rewards of "the writing life." Open to all majors/minors. For more information about the Living Writers Series, click here.