CRWRI-UA 815 Creative Writing: Introduction to Fiction & Poetry

Section: 11
Instructor: Linnea Hartsuyker
Class Time: Monday/Wednesday 12:30pm-1:45pm
Location: [Room Info]

Objective: This class is intended to present creative writing as both an art and a craft. We will
proceed from the assumption that we can learn from and create great things in every genre of
writing: poetry and prose, realist, surreal, post-modern, fantastical, speculative, etc. In general,
we will be addressing prose from the point of view of various craft elements, and poetry from the
point of view of subject matter, because the writing choices that make compelling short stories
also inform novels, poems, and various hybrid forms. In this class we will learn to read as
writers and write as storytellers and artists.

Reading: All writers are readers first, so students will be exposed to a variety of writers, forms
and perspectives on writing. We will learn from these writers by discussing them and then
writing weekly assignments based on that learning.

Writing: Getting regular writing practice is an important part of becoming a writer. Students will
be expected to hand in one writing assignment per week, in addition to shorter responses to
fellow students work.

All writing assignments should be in the following format:
Double-spaced Times New Roman
Margins at least 1
Students name, assignment date, assignment title, and page number should appear on
every page
Double-sided printing is fine but not required
Staple or paper-clip papers together
Writing assignments must be printed, not emailed, unless you have advance permission from
the instructor.

Writing assignments will take the following forms:
1. Workshop Responses: students are expected to write at least 300 words of
constructive critical response to each workshop submission, and give one copy to the
submissions author, and one copy to the instructor. (These may be single-spaced.)
2. Craft Exercises: Craft exercises will be assigned each week. A prose work of 1500-
2000 words or a poetry response of at least one fully formed poem is expected. These
will generally be creative responses, although from time to time, they may be critical.
Students may opt out of two craft exercises over the course of the semester by turning in
a piece of paper with their name, the date, and the words opt out.
3. Pieces for Workshop: Students will have the opportunity to workshop 3 pieces during
the semester, a combination of prose and poetry. Prose pieces should be no more than
5000 words, and should be complete or excerpts of a longer work. Poetry sets may
contain up to 5 poems of any length. These workshop pieces may be revisions or
expansions of previous craft exercises, or all-new work. It is the students responsibility
to print out enough copies of their workshop pieces for the whole class, including the
instructor. These are due a week before the piece is to be workshopped.

Class Structure and Guidelines: For the most part, craft lectures and discussions will take
place on Mondays and workshops on Wednesdays.

The workshops will follow this structure. We will discuss:
1. What we thought the work was about
2. What we found the most memorable about the piece
3. What is working well in the piece and what aspects of craft that could be changed or
improved to help the piece achieve its objective better.

During these discussions, the writer will not speak, and the class will not speak to the writer
directly. We will refer to him or her as the author, rather than you or referring to him or her by
name. At the end of the discussion, the author will have a chance to ask questions or for
clarification.

Please remember to keep all comments constructive. Our goal is to help the writer improve the
piece, not make it over into something different. Whether you like or dislike the piece is much
less important than what you see about it that can make it into its own best self.

Conference: Students are expected to meet with the instructor at least twice during the
semester, ideally after submitting a piece for workshop. These conferences will last
approximately 45 minutes, and will allow a more in-depth discussion of a students work and
writing goals.

Attendance: Attendance is mandatory. After the first unexcused absence, the students letter
grade will decrease by a third of a point, so an A will become an A-, a B- will become a C+. If a
student needs to be absent, he or she should contact the instructor well in advance.

Revised Portfolio: Writing is rewriting. On the last day of class, students will hand in at least
two pieces that they have significantly revised over the course of the semester.

Grading: Class Participation (30%), Writing Assignments (50%), Revised Portfolio (20%)

Book List:
City of Thieves by David Benioff
The Making of a Poem by Mark Strand and Eavan Boland
Course Packet available from NYU bookstore

Schedule
Class 1 Sept. 4 W Introductions
Go over syllabus
Assign workshop slots
What is creative writing? What is story?
Class 2 Sept. 9 M Reading: Annie Proulx Brokeback Mountain, Aimee Bender
End of the Line, Anne Lamott Shitty First Drafts
What is plot? What is action?
Types of plot
Does a story need a plot?
Class 3 Sept. 11 W Workshop 1
Class 4 Sept. 16 M Reading: Junot Diaz Aguantando, Myla Goldberg Going for the
Orange Julius, Emma Donoghue The Widows Cruse
Discuss characterwhat is character? How does story
reveal character?
Class 5 Sept. 18 W Workshop 2
Class 6 Sept. 23 M Reading: Wells Tower Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned,
Donald Barthelme The School, Lydia Davis The Fears of Mrs.
Orlando
Point of viewwhat are different points of view? When do
we use them? How can they succeed or fail?
How does POV relate to voice?
Class 7 Sept. 25 W Workshop 3
Class 8 Sept. 30 M Reading: Angela Carter The Bloody Chamber, Rick Moody
Boys
Detail and description: what details do we include, what do
we leave out?
Setting: What work does setting do?
Class 9 Oct. 2 W Workshop 4
Class 10 Oct. 7 M Reading: City of Thieves, first half
Novels, novellas and short stories
Beginnings and frames
Class 11 Oct. 9 W Workshop 5
Class 12 Oct. 16 W Workshop 6
Class 13 Oct. 21 M Reading: City of Thieves, second half
Revisit action and plots
Wrapping it all up: how do endings work?
Class 14 Oct. 23 W Workshop 7
HALFWAY POINT
Class 15 Oct. 28 M Reading: Edgar Allan Poe The Pit and the Pendulum, Charles de
Lint The Words that Remain, Neil Gaiman We Can Get Them
For You Wholesale
Genres of short stories
What can we learn from so-called non-literary genres?
Class 16 Oct. 30 W Workshop 8
Class 17 Nov. 4 M Reading: Mary Oliver The Black Walnut Tree pg 235, Alfred Lord
Tennyson Ulysses pg 110, John Keats To Autumn pg 243,
Frank OHara Ave Maria pg 272, Adrienne Rich Diving into the
Wreck pg 276
What is poetry?
What work does a poem do?
How do the elements of craft discussed so far work in
poetry?
Class 18 Nov. 6 W Workshop 9
Class 19 Nov. 11 M Reading: T.S. Elliot The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock pg 262,
Elinor Wylie Peter and John pg 88, Gwendolyn Brooks We Real
Cool pg 94, Robert Frost The Death of the Hired Man, Half a
Double Sonnet by Mary Jo Salter pg 69
Narrative poetrytelling stories
Class 20 Nov. 13 W Workshop 10
Class 21 Nov. 18 M Reading: John Milton Lycidas pg 173, In Memory of W. B. Yeats
by W. H. Auden pg 188, One Art by Elizabeth Bishop pg 11, Do
Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night by Dylan Thomas pg 12,
What my lips have kissed and where and why by Edna St.
Vincent Millay pg 64, Mark Doty Tiara pg 199, Frank OHara
The Day Lady Died
Elegiac Poetryhow to mourn and give comfort
Class 22 Nov. 20 W Workshop 11
Class 23 Nov. 25 M Reading: Karen Finneyfrock What Lots Wife Would Have Said (If
She Wasnt A Pillar of Salt), Pantoum of the Great Depression
by Donald Justice pg 47, Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley
pg 62, Langston Hughes I, Too pg 266, Gwendolyn Brooks the
mother, Robert Hayden Middle Passage
The personal, political and historicalhow much politics is
too much, ways to make an argument
Class 24 Nov. 27 W Workshop 12
Class 25 Dec. 2 M Reading: Heat by Denis Johnson pg 69, Carol Ann Duffy
Warming Her Pearls pg 151, Adrienne Rich Living in Sin, e.e.
Cummings may i feel said he, Charles Simic My Beloved,
Sharon Olds One Girl at the Boys Party and Topography
Love poetry, sex poetryhow we talk about emotions and
bodies
Class 26 Dec. 4 W Workshop 13
Class 27 Dec. 9 M Reading: Ogden Nash The Tale of Custard the Dragon pg 92,
Unit of Measure by Sandra Beasley, Billy Collins Workshop,
Dorothy Parker: Healed, Frustration, A Pigs Eye View of
Literature
Humorous poetrywhen and how to use humor
Class 28 Dec. 11 W Workshop 14
Class wrap-up