Instructor:  Cásares, O

Unique #:  34695

Semester:  Fall 2017

Cross-lists:  n/a

Restrictions:  CRW Certificate students

Computer Instruction:  No

Prerequisites:  One of the following: C L 315, E 303D (or 603B), (316K,) 316L, 316M, 316N, 316P, or T C 303D (or 603B).

Description:  This Creative Writing course focuses on the mechanics (structure, narrative voice, dialogue, character development, etc.) within selected fiction, allowing you to study the different elements you will use later as you write your own short stories.

Texts:  Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft, Janet Burroway and Elizabeth Stuckey-French, Pearson/Longman (Publisher); The Elements of Style, Strunk & White; Various Handouts.

Requirements & Grading:  You are required to write two short sketches (3-4 pages) and two short stories (each 6-10 pages) that will be discussed in a workshop setting or individual conference.  Each story will be revised for an additional grade.  As part of your Class Participation grade, you will read each other student drafts and write peer reviews.  For the student work discussed in class, you will be responsible for writing detailed critiques (1-2 pages).  I will also provide written feedback that should help you to revise certain assignments.

Attendance is required.  There will be no final exam.

Classroom participation/Quizzes/Written Critiques: 20%; Two Sketches and Two Stories, plus two revised stories: 80%.

Instructor:  Saurborn, L

Unique #:  34685

Semester:  Fall 2017

Cross-lists:  n/a

Restrictions:  CRW Certificate students

Computer Instruction:  No

Prerequisites:  One of the following: C L 315, E 603B, (316K,) 316L, 316M, 316N, 316P, 316K, or T C 603B.

Description:  This is an introductory course in writing and reading short fiction.

For the first half of the semester, we will read and respond to contemporary models, discussing such craft elements as point of view, dialogue, and conflict (among others!).  There will be in-class exercises and short take-home assignments, some of which will be discussed in class.

During the second half of the semester, students will complete a short story, which will be workshopped in class.  Students will also make a short presentation on an individually selected book, focusing on a craft element of particular interest.

Texts:  Method and Madness: The Making of a Story (A Guide to Writing Fiction), Alice LaPlante

Requirements & Grading:  Short writing assignments: 40%; Longer short story: 30%; Attendance and participation: 20%; Short presentation: 10%

Instructor:  Saurborn, L

Unique #:  34705-34735

Semester:  Fall 2017

Cross-lists:  n/a

Restrictions:  n/a

Computer Instruction:  No

Prerequisites:  One of the following: C L 315, E 303D (or 603B), (316K,) 316L, 316M, 316N, 316P, or T C 303D (or 603B).

Description:  This is an introductory course in reading and writing fiction and poetry, intended for students interested in grounding themselves in a creative writing practice.  During the semester, we will investigate matters of the writer’s craft—such as imagery, character, and structure—and matters of the reader’s connection—such as place, person, and community.

Assignments are designed to explore the principles of poetic composition and prose writing, and to encourage deeper reflection upon the work of poets and writers we read for class.  By the semester’s end, each student will have a portfolio of revised creative work and the foundation from which to create more.

Class meetings will include writing exercises, discussion, and reading.  Every week, students will meet with their small-group discussion sections.  These sections will include the critique of student work, peer review, and analysis of contemporary models.

Texts:  Imaginative Writing, 4^th Edition, by Janet Burroway; Barefoot Dogs, by Antonio Ruiz-Camacho; King Me, by Roger Reeves; The Balloonists, by Eula Biss.

Requirements & Grading:  Character Sketch, 5 pts.; Plot Sketch, 5 pts.; Short Story Draft , 15 pts.; Poem #1 Draft, 5 pts.; Poem #2 Draft, 5 pts.; Suite of 3-5 poems (Draft    ), 15 pts.; Reading Responses 1 & 2 (5 pts. each), 10 pts.; Revised Portfolio & Process Statement (Revised short story & poem suite), 20 pts.; Participation (quizzes, written and verbal workshop feedback, lecture and section participation), 20 pts.

Note:  In place of a final exam, students will be graded on a final writing portfolio, in which work from over the semester has been revised.

Attendance is required.  Students may not miss more than three classes without lowering the final grade.

Instructor:  Díaz, N

Unique #:  34745

Semester:  Fall 2017

Cross-lists:  n/a

Restrictions:  CRW Certificate students

Computer Instruction:  No

Prerequisites:  One of the following: C L 315, E 303D (or 603B), (316K,) 316L, 316M, 316N, 316P, or T C 303D (or 603B).

Description:  In this course we will read and discuss poems representing a wide range of experiences and places, as well as engage in writing exercises that will help you explore and map the landscape of your own unique poetic voice.  Students will write a poem a week and have the opportunity to workshop some of those poems in class.

Texts:  Readings will be distributed in class.

Requirements & Grading:  Grades will be based on a final portfolio of original poems and revisions (40%); weekly creative and/or critical exercises (30%); and class participation (30%).  Attendance is mandatory; more than three absences may result in a reduction of the final grade.

Instructor:  Moore, L

Unique #:  34750

Semester:  Fall 2017

Cross-lists:  n/a

Restrictions:  n/a

Computer Instruction:  No

Prerequisites:  One of the following: CRW 325 (or E 325), 325F (or E 325F), 325M, 325P (or E 325P).

Description:  In this course, we will learn to read like writers.  We will read a range of classic and contemporary poetry and fiction in order to become appreciative and accurate observers of literary form—of how literary language works, not just what it says--and learn to recognize and employ effective techniques from fiction and poetry.  Whether students come in with a primary interest in fiction, poetry, both, or other genres, they will practice poetic and fictional strategies to build their writing skills and add to their literary repertoires.  Students can expect to read excerpts and/or single works from novelists and short story writers such as Austen, James, Woolf, Auster, Kundera, Fowles, Ishiguro, Munro, and Lahiri; and poets such as Shakespeare, Keats, Shelley, Thomas, Merrill, Hacker, Rios, Kizer, Wong, Corral, Brooks, Rukeyser, and Duffy.  By the end of the semester each student will have completed exercises in 15 different literary forms or genres and revised seven of these into a portfolio of their best work.

Texts:  Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life; David Lodge, The Art of Fiction; Mark Strand and Eavan Boland, The Making of a Poem: A Norton Anthology of Poetic Forms; Alice Munro, Runaway; Jhumpa Lahiri, The Interpreter of Maladies; Marilyn Hacker, Love, Death, and the Changing of the Seasons; Eduardo Corral, Slow Lightning.

Requirements and Grading:  Weekly Online Practice Journal (250 words): 20% of final grade; 30-minute Class Presentation 20% of final grade; Mid-term portfolio submission: 20% of final grade; Final portfolio submission: 40% of final grade.

Instructor:  Unferth, D

Unique #:  34765

Semester:  Fall 2017

Cross-lists:  n/a

Restrictions:  CRW Certificate students

Computer Instruction:  No

Prerequisites:  CRW 340F (or E 341).

Description:  This is an advanced course in fiction writing for students working toward the creative writing certificate. Students will write either three original stories of at least 8 pages each or two original stories and one revision.  They will also write extensive comments (1-2 pages) on their classmates’ stories.  In addition, students will have the opportunity to trade stories and exchange comments with the Pen-City Writers, the Texas Prison Creative Writing Certificate Program sponsored by the English Department.  All work must be original, written for this class, not for another class taken earlier or concurrently.

Policies:  You may miss two classes without penalty.  After that your grade will begin to drop.  This is a no-screens class.  All materials will be used in class in hardcopy.

Readings:  Students will purchase a course packet of selected published stories.

Requirements and Grading:  First story 20%; second story 20%; third story/revision 20%; comments on classmates’ work 20%; participation and attendance 20%.

Instructor:  Casares, O

Unique #:  34755

Semester:  Fall 2017

Cross-lists:  n/a

Restrictions:  CRW Certificate students

Computer Instruction:  No

Prerequisites:  CRW 340F (or E 341).

Description:  This is the final fiction workshop available to students earning their Creative Writing Certificate.  Students will write three original short stories for our workshops.  Original, in this case, means work produced exclusively for this course and not previously discussed in another class.  Along with the workshop stories, students will read and discuss published work assigned by the professor.

Class Policies:  Students will submit hardcopies of their stories on three due dates.  Stories need to be double-sided, double-spaced, and page-numbered.  One of your first two stories may be revised substantially and submitted as your third story.

Each story needs to be at least 8 pages and no longer than 20 pages in length.  These should be complete stories and not novel excerpts.  The focus of this course is literary fiction, which means your work, regardless of the subject matter, will need to have fully developed characters and be more than simply plot driven.

WORKSHOP:  To prepare for our workshop, students will write a one-page critique, double-spaced, for every story we discuss.  Please staple a hardcopy of your critique to the workshop story, and email me a copy of your critique in word.doc.  Critiques need to arrive before class to receive credit for the assignment.  No exceptions.  You are responsible for these critiques even if you are absent from class.  These critiques will make up a significant part of your final grade.

ATTENDANCE: You may miss only two classes without it negatively affecting your final grade.  Students missing more than four classes will fail the course.  Arriving late for more than four classes will also lower your grade.  Students are required to be present for their own workshop.  Attending every class and contributing to our discussion will help your grade.

Laptops, tablets, and phones are not allowed during class.  Please bring hardcopies of any material we are discussing that day in class.

GRADING:  Your final grade will be based on your 3 short stories (or 2 stories + 1 revision), critiques, and participation in class.  3 STORIES/REVISION: 60%; CRITIQUES: 20%; and CLASS PARTICIPATION: 20%.

Instructor:  La Salle, P

Unique #:  34760

Semester:  Fall 2017

Cross-lists:  n/a

Restrictions:  CRW Certificate students

Computer Instruction:  No

Prerequisites:  CRW 340F (or E 341).

Description:  This is a course for advanced students in fiction writing; the student will write a total of 30-40 pages of original fiction during the semester.

There will be three dates on which work is due, and on each the student will turn in either a complete short story or an installment from a longer work; if the student is working on a longer project (a novella, for instance), approval must be given by the instructor ahead of time.

Student work will be examined in class with workshop discussion, and the student will meet with the instructor in individual conferences to discuss projects and progress.

There will also be reading from two texts.

Texts:  The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction, Seventh Edition, Cassill and Bausch, editors; Dreamtigers, Jorge Luis Borges (fiction and poetry, for discussion of how the two genres influence each other).

Requirements & Grading:  90 percent on writing; 10 per cent on in-class participation and quizzes.

The grade will be a matter, essentially, of the quality of the written work.  Two absences are allowed, and more than that will affect the grade.

Instructor:  Young, D

Unique #:  34770

Semester:  Fall 2017

Cross-lists:  n/a

Restrictions:  CRW Certificate students

Computer Instruction:  No

Prerequisites:  CRW 340P (or E 341L).

Description:  This is a class for practicing poets with workshop experience.  While emphasis will be upon work written by students in the class, we will also foster a vital connection to the work of contemporary and past poets.  Students will be expected to work not only on their own poems but also their ability to articulate a sophisticated and informed relationship to poetry in general.

Requirements & Grading:  About a poem a week to be submitted for workshop although all these poems will not be addressed in class.

Ongoing written responses to the work of classmates as well as occasional assignments made at the discretion of the professor.

Attendance.  Active and vocal engagement demonstrated in class consistently.

A final portfolio of about five poems, the majority of them substantially revised in response to workshop feedback.