Writers’ Space: Craft (Creative Writing/Artistic Research)

This class is dedicated to the study and practice of elements of craft in literary writing, including structure, character, setting, dialogue, point of view, dramatic arc, tone, theme etc. It is addressed to students who wish to hone and expand their writing and imaginative skills as well as their text comprehension and analytical competencies through creative writing practice in dialogue with critical reading.

How is writing made? How do words on the page create meaning and produce effect? How does writing and how do we as writers, through our craft decisions, engage with stories, cultural/literary expectations, audiences, and genre conventions? We will address and respond to these and other questions through creative practice, in-class writing prompts and exercises, interrogation of our practice, discussion, close reading, and textual analysis of sample material from fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and drama. Classes will be mainly held as workshops; as shared acts of imaginations and spaces in which we focus on artistic practice and talk about writing as process.  

The class is open to students with and without previous experience in creative writing. Students enrolling in this course will be required to share creative writing in class, reflect on their artistic practice, engage with the creative work of their peers and the creative/critical reading material, and participate in class discussions. The aim is to explore and expand the possibilities of what we can do with our writing and where we can take it; to make conscious what may start out as unconscious and thus increase our range and versatility as readers, writers, and critics.