CRW 5130 Spring 2019 Howard

The fiction workshop will follow the traditional workshop model to assist writers as they seek clarity in both the writing and the process. Also, I want to focus on the connection between the visual pacing and the language used to add depth and composition to the storytelling. As in past semesters, we will consider the “anthology of images” that Susan Sontag describes in On Photography. Victor Lavalle, in a Center for Fiction essay, One Thing I Never Learned in Workshop describes how we can discuss the right order of images. In her essay The Site of Memory, Toni Morrison describes a process of coming from image to meaning to text.

These visual approaches may be central to the ways you work. In any craft approach or person process, we can think about how the relationship between an image and text helps to shape your layers of drafting and your finalized work. In addition to these ideas, we will consider the notes on photography and filmmaking including ideas from Eudora Welty, Teju Cole, John Berger, Dee Rees, and Barry Jenkins.

I am working on a reading list that will feature novels and short stories from writers such as Jamel Brinkley, Lauren Groff, Ottessa Moshfegh, Nafissa Thompson-Spires, Daniel Alarcon, Lee Conell, Daniel Gumbiner, Sigrid Nunez, Brandon Hobson, and Rebecca Makkai.

Also, the workshop is open to students outside of creative writing, but participation requires a conference or correspondence with me about past work and expectations. My intention here is to encourage a rigorous process that incorporates craft lessons from other disciplines, especially theater, music, dance, and film.

Our goal is to think about how language and images affect the way we stage and structure the work.