CRW 4120 Howard Fall 2021

This course is designed to provide a space for students to develop fiction in a workshop environment. We will consider Toni Morrison’s notes on creating sites of memory within our characters, and we will discuss visual narration techniques found in fiction and photography. Students will begin the semester writing short pieces that will support the development of two short stories, up to 15 pages each. We will workshop these pieces, and our discussions will focus on craft questions. The students should leave the course with a more concise set of questions to consider as they write. Through our questions, each writer will see the importance of expressing and evaluating critique. Our craft lessons will come from The Art of Subtext by Charles Baxter and The Art of Time by Joan Silber. Additional craft lessons will come from craft essays by Edwidge Danticat, Tracy K. Smith, Margot Livesey, and Ben Percy.