 Department of English Language and Literature |
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| English 223.001: Intro to Creative Non-Fiction "When you write, you lay out a line of words. The line of words is a miner’s pick, a wood-carver’s gouge, a surgeon’s probe." Annie Dillard, "The Writing Life" In any genre, writing is first and foremost a carefully honed craft. In this class, we will begin to delve into the writing of personal essays and the genre of creative nonfiction, placing a particular emphasis on craft and on turning ourselves into characters and our experiences into art. While all writers draw upon their own knowledge and experiences as they create their work, creative nonfiction writers in particular enter into a contract of truth telling with their audience. But what does "truth" in nonfiction really imply? How can we remain truthful to our subjects and to our stories while also participating in the making of something artful? As we answer these questions, we will closely examine essays covering the breadth of creative nonfiction's subgenres, from memoir to literary journalism to travel writing. We will discuss these published essays as well as our own writing from the perspective of working writers, focusing on craft, process, and making writing (and the production of art) a habit. Thus, students in this course can expect to write frequently and extensively: they will write about one another’s work and published works as well as create their own essays from material developed in writing journals. |
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