Wednesday, January 29

Read Tim O'Brien's short story "How to Tell a True War Story."  Then, in your reading reaction notebook, write the following journal:

What do yo think about how O'Brien writes about truth?  He is specifically addressing war stories, but can this be applied to stories in general?  What do you like/dislike about the story?

Reading Reaction Journal 1

After reading the excerpt from The Names: A Memoir by N. Scott Momaday, comment on two of your favorite phrases. Explain why you liked these phrases. Why are they affective? What do they highlight?

Writing Journal 1: Childhood in the Park

Write about a specific memory that you have from your children--a day you spent in a park, camping, or any other moment outside. Describe the weather and the environment. How did you feel? What specific details do you remember about your day in the park?

• Use sensory details
• Show (don't tell)!
• You may need to fill in some of the details
  

Course Description

Creative Writing is an intensive course designed to challenge skilled student writers to broaden their skill by working in various literary genres. Students will study and analyze a variety of writers, and employ literary techniques to create original poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. Students will also analyze their own creative writing process.

Course Overview:
You must keep a writing notebook throughout this course as well as a reading response notebook. One is for your own writing; the other is for the analysis of other people’s writing. There will be many assignments in this course so you must be organized and disciplined in your work habits.

1. Week One-Five: Poetry

Readings: Selections from:
“If I Could Tell You” W. H. Auden
“Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” Dylan Thomas
“Sestina” Elizabeth Bishop
“Blackberry Picking” Seamus Heaney
“It’s a Woman’s World” Eavan Boland
“anyone lived in a pretty how town” e. e. cummings
various essays on poetry

2. Week Six-Ten: Memoir

Readings: Selections from:
“My Mother’s Blue Bowl” Alice Walker
excerpt from The Names: A Memoir N. Scott Momaday
excerpt from Leaning Into the Wind: A Memoir of Midwest Weather Susan Allen Toth
excerpt from Colors of the Mountain Da Chen
excerpt from Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance Barack Obama
excerpt from The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother James McBride
Various essays on memoirs

3. Week Eleven-Fifteen: Fiction

Readings: Selections from:
“The Overcoat” Nikolai Gogol
“The Story of an Hour” Kate Chopin
“A Rose for Emily” William Faulkner
“Roman Fever” Edith Wharton
“Hills Like White Elephants” Ernest Hemingway
“The Catbird Seat” James Thurber
“The Hunger Artist” Franz Kafka
various essays on fiction

4. Week Sixteen-Eighteen: Final Project