Fulfills Required Genre Studies or Group E requirement.

This is a course designed for students in the MFA creative writing program, though others who engaged in literature and expression are invited. We will explore the genre of native literature beginning with oral literary expressions from storytelling, songs and oratory, to written forms of poetry and prose, to fusions of forms and film. We will read, listen to, watch and discuss the stories and songs for what they can teach us about the art and craft of writing, listening and speaking. I envision this course as a lively seminar of discussion and discovery. The reading and writing assignments will serve to illuminate universal and specific concerns of writers, of those who create to communicate by any literate means in this age. Texts might include: the traditional stories of Johnny Moses, Black Eagle Child: The Facepaint Narratives, Ray Young Bear, Antanarjurat, The Fast Runner, a film, Almanac of the Dead, Leslie Silko, and work by Luci Tapahanso, Sherman Alexie and others.