ENC 5317 Fall 2023 Howard

At a symposium on his work in 2000, John Edgar Wideman was asked about his nonfiction approach, and he said—to paraphrase—certain things have happened to me, and this is my version of it. I want the workshop to focus on the connection between “certain things” and the “version” you build through structure. We will discuss your line work, structure, and your imagery. To aid our imagery discussion, we will consider notes on photography, such as Susan Sontag’s “anthology of images” and “grammar of seeing” concepts. We’ll also study Toni Morrison’s process of moving from “picture to meaning to text.” Other lessons in visual storytelling will come from Teju Cole, Eudora Welty, Dawoud Bey, Carrie Mae Weems, and others. Since we will have a mix of prose writers and poets in the class, we’ll consider works by poets and writers such as Natasha Trethewey’s Memorial Drive and Marilynne Nelson’s What Are We Doing Here? In addition to the traditional workshop structure, with two rounds of submissions, you are encouraged to write an autobiographical craft essay. We will look at examples from Matthew Salesses, Edwidge Danticat, Maud Casey, Jessica Handler, Felicia Rose Chavez, and others who connect their personal experiences with a craft text.