[UConn Stamford]

Instructor: Fred Roden

Prerequisites: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011

In this course we will develop our fluency in and practice our facility with a variety of genres that fall under the category of “life writing.” These include (1) memoir, (2) family/community history (genealogy through narrative), (3) oral history (interviews with consenting subjects), and (4) biography. These are the units of the class, which will be run as a writing workshop. We will read a range of texts that shape our perspectives on these forms. We will work through multimedia, including the visual/digital/material as well as the verbal. We will ultimately consolidate the four specific pieces for a term portfolio. This class involves exchange of ideas and written work as well as presentation of projects-in-process through workshop conversation.

Individual student writing, while self-directed, will be mentored by the instructor and peers to cultivate course goals and interests concerning structure, theme, and purpose. As a “W” class, you will workshop and revise your creative output for a minimum of 15 pages of graded, drafted material. Collectively, we will produce more than that quantity (informally) over the course of the semester.

Engl 3003 “Life Writing” presumes no prior expertise or experience in writing creative nonfiction — only interest. It is open to any students who have completed the first-year writing requirement or its equivalent. Those not yet sophomore status should contact Professor Roden at frederick.roden@uconn.edu to discuss preparedness/permission.

Students enrolled in the Honors section of Engl 3003W will meet quarterly (once for each of the four units) with the instructor and each other to discuss their specific goals in life writing. (Time and modality to be determined by mutual convenience/availability.) The Honors section’s aim will be to prepare at least one of the four units’ completed work for public sharing (publication, print or digital) or private circulation (with individuals of choice).

This course is an elective for the English major and minor and for the Writing minor. For English major tracks, Engl 3003W counts for Creative Writing, English Teaching, and Writing & Composition Studies. For pre-teaching (TCPCG), Engl 3003W satisfies a Composition requirement.

W

[UConn Storrs]

Instructor: Sean Forbes

Prerequisites: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011.

This course is an introductory class in creative writing that will expose you to a variety of genres including poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, drama, and hybrid works. Students will complete five mini-modules, each focusing on a different creative technique, as well as a sixth module in which you will select your own literary models and focus. Expect to spend significant class time writing and responding to authors such as Yusef Komunyakaa, Michelle Zeuner, Annie Dillard, Sylvia Plath, and Lorrie Moore. Revision and active participation in workshop are requirements of the course, and your final project will be a portfolio of selected drafts and revised works.

[UConn Hartford]

Instructor: Thomas Shea

This course in the Short Story will center on a nexus of three valences:

• CSI Detective thinking via authors such as Edgar Allan Poe and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Sherlock Holmes)
• Diverse, International authors (e.g. Polish, British, Indian, Irish, American)
• Collections of short stories as coherent, organic wholes (e.g. James Joyce’s Dubliners, Ernest Hemingway’s In Our Time).

We will also take full advantage of the Wadsworth Atheneum, exploring links between our short stories and the various artistic masterpieces one-half block away.

Course grades will be based on active, verbal class participation (50% of your semester grade), occasional brief writings, a midterm essay, and a final essay (all writing combined is the other 50% of your semester grade). There is usually no final exam.

CA 1, W
TOI-1, TOI-2, W