Program Courses
Please note that course schedules may be amended due to low enrollment, faculty availability, and/or other factors.
Online Sync Sessions are an integral part of the online learning experience. Additional information about learning concepts and assignments may be discussed and sync sessions offer valuable opportunities for students to interact with their faculty and peers during the term. We encourage all students to attend live, but if they are unable to, sync sessions will be recorded and posted within Canvas to allow for an asynchronous model of success as well.
MCW 461-0 : Nonfiction Writing Workshop
Description
What is Creative Nonfiction? This rapidly evolving genre burst onto the literary scene and quickly become ubiquitous in the 1990s, rising even more prolifically with the onset of the internet and the popularity of the “personal essay,” but of course the form has existed for many decades—or even centuries—before occupying the place it currently holds in contemporary literature. In this course, alongside workshopping your own work, we will look at various developments in CNF, moving beyond the traditional personal essay/memoir to include work that hybrids personal material with cultural criticism and CNF driven by a strong narrative voice but in which the narrator is not the “subject” of the story. We will also examine contemporary thinking on the ethics and boundaries of writing about real people. From new journalism to political calls to action to breaking silences around taboo subjects, CNF is constantly shape shifting, reaching higher artistry, and claiming literary relevance in our cultural conversations. Come prepared to ask the big questions, as well as to workshop one piece class-wide and to share smaller samples of your work mirroring the topics we discuss in class.