Readings and Responsibilities
All readings on e-reserve (unless other noted as on the course website)
| 1/18 | Syllabus. Introductions. BAE. Julliard. |
Week 2
1/25 |
Read: James Baldwin's "Notes of a Native Son" Read: DFW's "Consider the Lobster" Read: Vivian Gornick's "The Situation & The Story" Read: "Essayists on the Essay"
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1-3 distribute
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| 2/1 | Read: Elif Batuman's "The Murder of Leo Tolsoy" Read: Richard Ford’s "Reading"
Read: Workshops (course website handout) Read: Peer Response (course website handout) Read: Notes on Craft (course website handout)
Write: Peer Responses
Workshop 1-3 |
4-6 distribute |
Week 4
| 2/8 | Read: Annie Dillard's "Total Eclipse" Read: Patricia Hampl's "Memory & Imagination" Read: Philip Lopate's "Writing Personal Essays: On the Necessity of Turning Oneself into a Character"
Workshop 4-6 |
7-9 distribute |
Week 5
| 2/15 | Read: Penny Wolfson's "Moonrise"
Read: Madison Smartt Bell's "Modular Design" & "Linear Design"
Workshop 7-9 |
10-12 distribute |
| 2/22 | Read: Jonathan Lethem's "The Ecstasy of Influence" Workshop 10-12 |
1-4 distribute second draft, first essay
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Week 7
| 2/29 | Read: Yusef Komunyakaa's "Blue Machinery of Summer" Read: John Barth's "Incremental Perturbation"
Read: Revising for the Middle Draft (website handout) Workshop: 1-4 |
5-8 distribute second draft, first essay |
Week 8
| 3/7 | Read: Naomi Shihab Nye's "Maintenance" & Mary Oliver's "Dust" & "Habits, Differences, and the Light that Abides"
Read: An Interview with Jane Smiley Read: Jane Smiley: What Stories Teach Their Writers: The Purpose and Practice of Revision
Workshop: 5-8 |
9-12 distribute second draft, first essay |
Week 9
| 3/14 | Spring Break |
Week 10
| 3/21 | Read: Adam Gopnik's "The Last of the Metrozoids" Read: Tim O'Brien's "The Magic Show"
Workshop 9-12 |
1-4 distribute 1st draft, 2nd essay |
Week 11
| 3/28 | Read: Jonathan Franzen's "My Father's Brain" Read: Stephen Koch's "Working & Reworking: Early Drafts & the Techniques of Revision"
Workshop 1-4 |
5-8 distribute 1st draft, 2nd essay |
Week 12
| 4/4 | Martin out of town: class cancelled |
Week 13
| 4/11 |
Read: Charles Baxter's "Dysfunctional Narratives"
Workshop 5-8 |
9-12 distribute 1st draft, 2nd essay |
Week 14
| 4/18 | Read: Chris Offutt's "The Eleventh Draft"
Workshop 9-12 |
1-4 distribute 2nd draft, 2nd essay |
Week 15
| 4/25 | Workshop 1-4 |
5-8 distribute 2nd draft, 2nd essay |
Week 16
| 5/2 | Workshop 5-8 |
9-12 distribute 2nd draft, 2nd essay |
Week 17
| 5/9 |
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