Creative Writing II Schedule, Spring 2007

Last Updated January 7, 2007

Following each date below are reading or other assignments due for that day. In parentheses are tentative activities and topics for the class period. If you miss a meeting, you should 1) get full notes and updates from several classmates; and 2) check with me again if you have specific, informed questions. Because this schedule is very flexible and subject to change, and because it's a workshop course, it's vital that you attend regularly and keep up with current announcements.

Week 1, Jan. 10 —(Introduction to course. Email procedures. Exchange phone numbers.Preliminary discussion about the arts and "Art Views" from last year's class. Instructions for online survey. Pecker, 1 hr. 26 min.)

Week 2, Jan. 17—By class time, post a self-profile and response to questions about art in our Blackboard Discussion Board. Also: print out and bring the following to class:

1) our complete homepage;

2) this schedule;

3) Fiction Project #1.

("Sonny's Blues" distributed. Continue discussion of arts, creative process, and Pecker. Adjourn to EML 377 to examine and discuss paintings on the Web. Discuss Fiction Project #1. Workshop procedures.)

Week 3, Jan. 24 —Print out and read "Cathedral," "How to Tell a True War Story," and "Sonny's Blues" (handout). Also print out "Questions about 'Cathedral.'"

(Moore story distributed. Continue discussion of the arts, creative process. Discuss "Cathedral." Snow snack? Begin work with fiction and apply form fundamentals to Pecker and readings. Workshop.)

Week 4, Feb. 7 —Read Moore, "How to Talk with Your Mother" (handout) and review any stories we did not have time to discuss last week.

(Discuss Moore. Continue work with form fundamentals. Workshop.)

Week 5, Feb. 14—(Work in computer cluster. Electronic workshopping.)

Week 6, Feb. 21 —Print out Fiction Project #2 and "Questions about Márquez Stories." Also print out and read: Márquez, "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" and "The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World."

(Discuss Fiction Project #2. Plot structures and devices. Genre and mode. Discuss Márquez stories. Workshop.)

Week 7, Feb. 28 — Read Calvino, selections from Invisible Cities. Also read flash fiction samples. (Discuss Calvino and micro or flash fiction. Dollar bill exercise. Workshop.)

Week 8, March 7 —(Fiction wrap-up. Intensive workshopping.)

March 14—Spring Break.

Week 9, March 21 —Print out and read poems by Roethke, Bishop (1), Neruda, Simic, and Ponge. Print out Poetry Project #1. Take a look at Surrealist games in WIKIPEDIA.

(Discuss Poetry Project #1. "The Thing Itself" exercise and first set of readings. "The Luminous Object" exercise and second set of readings. Mode and genre in poetry. Kinds of poets and competing traditions. Workshop.)

Week 10, March 28 —Print out and read poems by Bishop (2), Stafford, James Wright, Tony Hoagland. Also print out and read Short Poem Samples and Poetry on Wheels assignment.

(Continue discussion of mode and genre. Memory poems; love/hate poems; the short-short poem. Poetry on Wheels short-short poem assignment. Workshop.)

Week 11, April 4 —Print out and look over Form and Poetry packet.

(Discuss Poetry Project #2. Traditional form and free verse. Workshop.)

Week 12, April 11—(Visit by guest poet? Workshop. Planning the chapbook. Writer's resources: in EML cluster work on Writer's Link reports.)

Week 13, April 18—Print out Poetry Project #3. Research slam and open mic performances in F/M area.

Do not commit your poems to pages alone, sing them I pray you. —Virgil (qtd. by Amos).

Everything becomes a little different as soon as it is spoken out loud.—Hermann Hesse (qtd. by Amos).

To read a poem is to hear it with your eyes; to hear it is to see it with your ears. —Octavio Paz

Week 15, May 2— (Performances. Course wrap-up. Course evaluation. Extra credit poetry exit survey.)

Mon., May 7—Chapbooks, community events reports, and reflective essays are due in my SE 318 mailbox or in a labeled box on hallway floor by 5pm. Any material turned in after 5 pm will not be accepted except in cases of documented emergencies or illness.

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