Document Type

Syllabus

Publication Date

Spring 2024

Course Description

INSPIRATIONAL PASSAGE “A beautiful sentence stops you cold. You savor it not just for what it says but also for how it’s written. It’s not always pretty, mind you. Keats was right: “Beauty is truth, truth is beauty.” A beautiful sentence gives you the sense that you’ve encountered something real and therefore important, however ugly that reality may be. The marathon-long sentence Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote in “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” for example, lists the dangers and humiliations facing African-Americans in a racist society. King’s call for justice delivers a painful, necessary, and, yes, beautiful punch. Less weighty but also beautiful are senses that engage your senses. When Li-Young Lee refers to “the round jubilance of peach” in his poem “From Blossoms,” you’re right there in the orchard, experiencing a bite of summer fruit. Great sentences tap the fountain of creativity,” writes Geraldine Woods in 25 Great Sentences and How They Got That Way. When it's all said and done, it comes down to the power and lucidity of the sentences or lines that appear on the page.

THE APPROACH & OUTCOMES Deesha Philyaw, author of the precedent-setting The Secret Lives of Church Ladies, says, “Playfulness and curiosity are serious tools for the writer.” It’s paradoxical. Even work that covers serious topics, you want the playful and curious. Approach this semester as if it will be the last writing class you’ll take for some time, if ever. Think of a writing workshop as a mastermind group where individuals with similar goals or interests come together to support, collaborate, and advise each other. It’s a collective brain trust where members can share their skills, experiences, and resources to help each other overcome challenges and achieve success. Think of this seminar as an advisory editorial board that you’re submitting your work to for feedback. Lively dialogue can spark profound “aha” moments and breakthroughs that you might not come up with on your own. It happens all the time. The professor functions as the executive editor or publisher. Everybody sitting around the table is smart, but the executive editor has the final authority to determine the work’s fate.

Everything you’ve written at DePauw University has been leading to this. Our theme is “leaning into the writing life.” Once you’ve graduated from this institution, be it this semester or sometime soon, you won’t have easy access to deadlines, people eager to read your work, a campus literary magazine, or professors demanding one-on-one meetings to discuss your work. You’ll have to decide how much or little to lean into the writing life. This seminar is your capstone experience. Maybe for the first or last time in your life, now is the time to be serious about your writing and your writing life. I am asking you to be a serious student, show up on time, and be ready to offer insightful feedback to your classmates. Other than being in conversation about the two books and dozens of craft pieces, we’ll be talking about how to approach writing post-college, including such topics as submitting to literary magazines, contests, and residencies. Should you go to graduate school for an MFA vs. PhD in creative writing? How about a low residency MFA or the Do-It-Yourself approach without a graduate degree? One doesn’t need an advanced degree to be a writer. A writer is simply someone who writes. I am willing to share things I’ve learned in my journey. Writing and publishing are two different things. My intention is for this class to fluff writing wings that will carry you for years.

THE BULL’S EYE FOR OUTCOMES: Your task is to complete a final, original portfolio. You will write (and fully revise) a project of some length – thirty pages is the absolute minimum to complete the writing major. About seven years ago, I had a student write a 150-page novel. Whatever you can generate for this course this spring is what I’ll take. That’s the kind of mindset you need to have. Your project should be unified in one theme: a collection of linked essays, short stories, poems, journalism, or a hybrid project. It could be a memoir, a novella, a novel, or investigative journalism. You’re free to do whatever you wish. Make it something you care about. Stated another way, it should be the most important and personally relevant material you have ever written. Write about your obsessions; write about what captures your imagination. This project will be the focus of the semester and the highlight of your final portfolio.

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