ENC 3310-0007 - Fall 2026 - Ubaka

This course is an introductory course in the craft of creative nonfiction, a genre that employs prose craft techniques to present variations of truth, fact, experience, and memory. In this course, we will focus on the voice and hearts of our creative works: what stories are worth telling? What speaks to us and why? We’ll explore what memory can hold, what it distorts, and what it refuses to give back cleanly, paying close attention to the ways personal recollection is often shaped by desire, trauma, family dynamics, silence, and time, while also learning to read like writers, with an eye for detail and nuance. We'll address questions of memory, perspective, and the concept of objectivity while reading writers both living and long dead. Students will develop a clear understanding of point of view, ethics, pacing, temporal arrangement, voice, and structuring. Because creative nonfiction encompasses a wide range of forms, including memoir, personal essay, lyrical essay, literary journalism, nature writing, travel writing, biography, cultural criticism, queer criticism, and more, expect to engage with multiple modes of nonfiction by writers whose identities, histories, and perspectives may align with or differ from your own. No topics are off limits, including, but not limited to: sexuality, gender, queerness, the body, violence, race, religion, etc., so please be advised that some material may be triggering. We will also study works that reflect on the craft of nonfiction, and you will produce your own pieces of creative nonfiction, no less than ten pages and no more than fifteen to be workshopped in class.