Catch Afire: Prose Writing Intensive

In this intense three-week course, students will start out the New Year with the resolution to put their writing first. We will work towards producing a complete draft of a new prose piece a short story, novel excerpt, or hybrid fictional piece. In-class and take-home writing exercises will spark new pathways to generate and polish creative work. Our focus will be on process, building a rigorous, fertile space in which new writing can flourish, developing constructive writing habits that bolster our productivity, and supporting the development of other writers. While students may execute pre-existing ideas, our intention will be to write entirely new work. Writers will receive feedback on their fiction during in-class workshops and individual conferences with the instructor. We will foreground discussions of exemplary works by established writers including Junot Diaz, Paule Marshall, Edward P. Jones, Edwidge Danticat and ZZ Packer. We will also watch films and talk about exploring the writer's life, for example, The Price of the Ticket, The Agronomist, and A Litany for Survival.