Creative Writing Fall 2023 Class Schedule and Descriptions
C W 101 1 Introduction to Creative Writing Monday 4-6:45 PM TBA
C W 101 2 Introduction to Creative Writing ONLINE TBA
C W 101 3 Introduction to Creative Writing Tuesday 12:30-3:15 PM TBA
C W 101 4 Introduction to Creative Writing Wednesday 12:30-3:15 PM Anne Galjour
This introductory course focuses on the creative writing process of generating material through writing exercises in poetry, fiction and playwriting. It also examines for craft selected readings of exemplary stories, poems and plays. Open to all students. CROSS GENRE COURSE.
C W 301 1 Fundamentals of Creative Writing Thursday 12:30 – 3:15. PM Steve Dickison
Prerequisite: English 114, or equivalent. Enrollment limited to Creative Writing majors; non-majors admitted with consent of instructor. Instruction and extensive practice in writing poetry, fiction and plays, with selected readings of exemplary stories, poems and plays. This course is the prerequisite to Short Story Writing, Poetry Writing and Playwriting. CROSS GENRE COURSE.
C W 302 2 Fundamentals Creative Reading Tuesday 12:30-3:15 PM Anne Galjour
Prerequisite: English 114, or equivalent. Enrollment limited to Creative Writing majors; non-majors admitted with consent of instructor. Students learn to read like writers through lecture-discussion and reading assignments. Submerges the student in literature and asserts the importance of reading. We will analyze the basic craft elements intrinsic to four genres of writing: poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction and playwriting. Together we will apply this study to your own writing. We will explore ways to access your own individual imagination. Through practice, writing can become a way to engage with yourself and the world.
C W 506 1 Business of Creative Writing Thursday 4-6:45 PM Chanan Tigay
Prerequisites for C W 506: C W 101 or C W 301 with a grade of C or better. Enrollment limited to C W majors; non-majors admitted with consent of instructor. Covers agents, corporate and small publishing houses, E-publishing, markets, publicity, theaters and arts organizations etc. Students write letters to agents/editors, press releases for book tours and several short papers. (This is a paired course offering. Students who complete the course at one level may not repeat the course at the other level.)
C W 510 1 Investigating Voice Thursday 4-6:45 PM Joseph Cassara
Prerequisite: C W 301 or C W 101 with a grade of C or better. Restricted to Creative Writing majors. This process course will focus on the ways that writers of fiction and non-fiction utilize narrative voice on the page. What does it mean when we say that a text is voice-driven? How do writers create a consciousness on the page that feels uniquely its own? We will read short stories, novel excerpts, personal essays, reportage and criticism with an eye towards style, syntax and form. We will analyze both the stories being told and the manner in which they are conveyed by analyzing tone, the anatomy of the scene, modes of narration and the ways details are rendered. Assigned authors include: Tommy Orange, Joan Didion, Eve Babitz, James Baldwin, Hilton Als, Junot Diaz, David Sedaris, Miranda July, Rivka Galchen, Annie Proulx, Alexander Chee, Marlon Riggs, Bryan Washington among others. Emphasis will be on assigned readings, with some creative assignments.
C W 510 2 Poetics of Place: The Ends of Worlds Monday 4-6:45 PM Tonya M. Foster
Prerequisite: C W 301 or C W 101 with a grade of C or better. Restricted to Creative Writing majors. Cinema majors welcome by permit number from the instructor. What are the worlds we find at the end of the world? In this course we will read poetry, fiction and nonfiction; and look at tv, film, music and art to track what thinkers and artists see at and as the world’s end. Your class portfolio will include poetry, fiction, nonfiction and one visual art component to explore your own creative thinking in world-making and in exploring what lies at a world’s end.
C W 511GW 1 Craft Of Poetry - GWAR Thursday 12:30-3:15 PM TBA
Prerequisites: Restricted to Creative Writing majors; GE Area A2; C W 301 or equivalent. Focus on basic craft elements of poetry: diction, imagery, rhythm, voice, and form. Close readings of published poetry. Creative and critical writing. (ABC/NC only)
C W 512GW 1 Craft Of Fiction - GWAR Thursday 12:30-3:15 PM Joseph Cassara
Prerequisites: C W 301; ENG 114; ENG 214; Restricted to Creative Writing majors. This course will explore the contemporary short story, focusing exclusively on stories published in the last five years. Through this exploration students will become familiar with the current state of the short story, gaining an understanding of the literary landscape into which they will emerge upon completion of their degrees. Schedules permitting, a number of the writers whose work we read will visit the class to discuss their writing, their writing lives and their paths to publication. Throughout the semester, students will complete a series of writing exercises which the class will workshop, culminating in writing their own complete short stories.
C W 520 1 Writers on Writing ONLINE Thursday 7-8:30 PM Donna De La Perriere
Prerequisite for C W 520: Upper-division standing; GPA of 3.0 or higher; or permission of the instructor. Faculty and visiting writers representing a wide range of styles and subjects will visit the class to read and discuss their writing. Students will respond to the readings and visits on an ongoing basis through critical essays and creative writing exercises. Paired with C W 820. Note: this course can be used to fulfill 3 units of the “creative process” requirement. It can only be taken once for credit. Students who have completed C W 820 may not take C W 520 for credit. CROSS GENRE COURSE.
C W 600 1 Special Topics in Writing: Journal Writing Tuesday 4-6:45 PM Anne Galjour
Prerequisites: Restricted to Creative Writing majors; C W 301 or C W 101 with a grade of C or better; non-majors admitted with permission of the instructor. Journal writing is a personal space for writers to recapture the exquisite richness of personal experience in order to understand themselves and inspire imaginative ideas that lead to stories, poetry, plays and film. As such, we will explore journal writing as a literary form and as a tool to gather ideas for our own creative work. We will read excerpts from a range of writers’ journals and see how their entries found their way into their creative work. Students are expected to keep a journal as a response to stimuli the world presents to them, to record memories, to gather ideas in raw form and to refine ideas and creative work. The reading of assigned journals coupled with ongoing writing exercises will generate poems, stories, personal essays, or scenes or monologues through the semester.
C W 601 1 Work In Progress ONLINE Thursday 4-5:30 PM Donna De La Perriere
Prerequisite: Senior standing in Creative Writing. Enrollment is limited to undergraduate Creative Writing majors. Work In Progress is an advanced process course that offers senior creative writing majors the opportunity to delve into an extended writing project of their own design. Our work in this class will focus on the creative process as it extends past the first burst of inspiration into the longer haul. We’ll study and try out a variety of creative practices that writers can use to keep their projects alive, open and dynamic over the long haul. These practices will also enhance the work of deepening, extending and re-envisioning our projects. Most writers do their work under the intense pressures of earning a living and in a society that has little sympathy with the long, time-consuming and deeply eccentric creative process. Yet it is precisely the stimulation and challenge of this rich process that can sustain us as writers over the years.
C W 602 1 Playwriting Monday 4-6:45 PM Anne Galjour
We will be discussing assigned plays, paying specific attention to how these selected playwrights have responded to situations and events in the world and how they have set their imaginations to what they have witnessed and experienced. We will pay close attention to how their characters and the situations they are in unfold through the journey of each play. We will also be doing writing exercises to help you tap into your own individual imagination and creative problem solving powers. For this, you will need to keep a journal and bring it to class each week. Your journal is a “What if …?” space where you can answer any question with free associations about anything that pops into your head - ideas, circumstances, connections, solutions, images, sounds. If you are having any problem with your characters, circumstance, setting, whatever - your journal is a place to brainstorm it and let your mind run free. We will begin each class with a free write or prompt for your journal, followed by in-class discussion of texts and weekly writing exercises that will focus on different aspects of craft. We will read, write, rewrite then rewrite again and again till we have polished scenes and plays. To support the process we will listen to each others’ scenes heeding Walter Kerr’s words, “Begin with a situation and then make certain characters enter it honestly.”
C W 603 1 Short Story Writing Thursday 12:30-3:15 PM Junse Kim
Prerequisites: C W 301; C W 511GW or C W 512GW or C W 513GW. Enrollment limited to Creative Writing majors; non-majors admitted with consent of instructor. This course will explore different aspects of fiction writing craft by critically analyzing published short stories, as well as fellow students’ creative writing. Students will then apply and hone these craft concepts through in-class writing exercises and homework assignments, transforming conceptual knowledge of craft into “how to” applicable knowledge. Each student will then explore their creative process and consider how it can include critical thinking, consciously applying craft in three written assignments and a complete short story.
C W 606 1 Art of Revision. Thursday 12:30-3:15 PM Paul Hoover
Prerequisites: C W 101 or C W 301; C W 302; C W 512GW or C W 603 Examine and experiment with the artistic processes of published writers (and a variety of other artists) who've taken a project from idea to completion. Study interviews, process notes and "middle drafts" of these artists. Include analyses of the draft process, genre across artistic and literary forms and creation and revision of student work. CROSS GENRE COURSE
C W 609 Directed Writing BA By Arrangement Please Email for Instructor Permission
Permission of the instructor is required to take this course; please reach out to the instructor for a permit number. The semester before you plan to enroll in Directed Writing, submit a sample of your writing by email to the instructor along with a note explaining that you want to take their Directed Writing class. Be sure you include your name and phone number in the email. Class times to be directly arranged with the instructor.
C W 609 1 Directed Writing BA Students ARR Michelle Carter mcarter@sfsu.edu
C W 609 2 Directed Writing BA Students ARR Nona Caspers ncaspers@sfsu.edu
C W 609 3 Directed Writing BA Students ARR May-lee Chai chai@sfsu.edu
C W 609 4 Directed Writing BA Students ARR Maxine Chernoff chernoff@sfsu.edu
C W 609 5 Directed Writing BA Students ARR Andrew Joron ajoron@sfsu.edu
C W 609 6 Directed Writing BA Students ARR Paul Hoover viridian@sfsu.edu
C W 609 7 Directed Writing BA Students ARR Caro De Robertis caro@sfsu.edu
C W 609 8 Directed Writing BA Students ARR Chanan Tigay tigay@sfsu.edu
C W 609 9 Directed Writing BA Students ARR Michael David Lukas mdlukas@sfsu.edu
C W 640 1 Transfer Literary Magazine Wednesday 4-6:45 PM TBA
Prerequisite: C W 301; C W 302; C W 511GW or C W 512GW or C W 513GW; or consent of instructor. Join the staff of Transfer, the literary magazine of the Creative Writing Department, established in 1950 and one of the longest running student literary magazines in the US. The course is designed to give you a working taste of what it takes to put out a literary magazine (including critical analysis and discussion of short-listed submissions, proofreading, solicitation and distribution) and to make you think about the world of literary magazines and your own beliefs in literature. Come prepared to analyze and discuss text and investigate your own literary aesthetics. In addition to assisting the editors publish the print magazine, class members will create, design and edit their own literary magazine. If you’re interested in being an editor of Transfer, at the end of the semester you will be given the opportunity to apply for an editor position for the next issue. This is a process course (not a lab) and can be used to fulfill 3 units of the Creative Process requirement. CROSS GENRE COURSE.
C W 675 1 Community Projects-Literature Wednesday 7-9:45 PM Michael David Lukas
Prerequisite: Restricted to Creative Writing majors; upper-division standing; C W 301 or C W 101 with a grade of C or better; GPA of 3.0 or higher; or permission of the instructor. Paid and unpaid internship positions designed to give CW students practical knowledge and experience are available through local literary and arts organizations, civic and community organizations, Bay Area school districts and within the Creative Writing Community at SF State. Check out our Community Projects in Literature Internship Leads at https://creativewriting.sfsu.edu/content/communityprojects-0. Incredible academic internships are also available for C W 675/875 credit through SF State's Institute for Civic and Community Engagement (ICCE). Check out their list of paid and unpaid internships at http://icce.sfsu.edu. These working by remote and/or in person internships are robust opportunities to 'learn by doing'. If you have any questions, please contact Michael David Lukas at mdlukas@sfsu.edu . C W 675/875 may be taken twice for 6 units of credit.
C W 699 Independent Study By Arrangement
Prerequisite: Consent of instructor and a 3.0 GPA. Upper division students may enroll in a course of Independent Study under the supervision of a member of the Creative Writing department, with whom the course is planned, developed, and completed. This course may be taken for one, two or three units. No priority enrollment; enrollment is by petition, and a copy of your unofficial SF State transcript. Petition for Individual Study forms are available online https://registrar.sfsu.edu/sites/default/files/indstudyi.pdf. This form must be signed by the instructor you will be working with and the department chair. Your instructor will give you the schedule and permit numbers to add the course during the first week of the semester.
GRADUATE CLASSES:
Note: Preference in all Creative Writing graduate courses will be given to students admitted to either the M.A. or the M.F.A. programs in Creative Writing. Preference in M.F.A. level courses will be given to students admitted to the M.F.A. program. Priority in M.A. and M.F.A. writing workshops and creative process courses will be given to students admitted in the genre of the course. Other Creative Writing M.A./M.F.A. students may enroll in these courses only with the permission of the instructor.
C W 803 1 Advanced Short Story Writing ONLINE Monday 7-8:30 PM Donna De La Perriere
Prerequisite: Classified graduate standing in Creative Writing. Priority enrollment given to graduate Creative Writing fiction students; open to Creative Writing students in other genres only on a space available basis, to be determined at the first class meeting. A graduate-level short story writing workshop the aim of which is to foster your growth as a writer by encouraging you to expand the range of possibilities for the way your stories might be made, what they might say and how they might mean. Toward that end you’ll be creating new work, thinking about ways to deepen/extend early drafts, developing and refining work in progress, discussing issues of craft, considering how published writers of short fiction create work that is formally alive and vivid and engaging each week with work by your fellow workshop writers.
C W 804 Advanced Poetry Writing ONLINE Wednesday 12:30-2:30 PM Maxine Chernoff
Prerequisite: Restricted to graduate Creative Writing students or permission of the instructor. Writing poetry with emphasis on analysis of student work and growth of critical abilities. May be repeated for a total of 9 units. In this course we will write and analyze new poems and occasionally do exercises based upon the assigned texts to illuminate what inspires poetic attention and expression in the works of Equi, Long Soldier, Mullen and Knight as well as an anthology to enrich our studies. On-line class. Students will produce 10-12 poems.
C W 806 1 Business of Creative Writing Thursday 4-6:45 PM Chanan Tigay
Prerequisite: Classified graduate standing in Creative Writing. In this class we will explore some aspects of the “business” of creative writing—how writers find and create audiences for their work, find editors and publishers and pay the rent—as well as how they create lives in which art and the creative process are central. This is a survey class, not a seminar, so while this class will not teach you how to become a best-selling writer in ten easy steps, it will provide you with a larger sense of the business side of creative writing while encouraging you to develop your ability to distinguish between the business of creative writing and the art. Each class period will involve lecture & discussion by guest speakers (poets, writers, literary agents, book editors, literary journal publishers, reading series curators, book distribution managers, free-lance writers and editors, literary nonprofit managers and the like). You will be given a writing and/or research assignment the week before each presentation to lead you into the speaker’s field.
C W 809 Directed Writing for Graduate Students By Arrangement
Prerequisite: Classified graduate standing in Creative Writing. Permission of the instructor is required to take this course; please reach out to the instructor for a permit number. The semester before you plan to enroll in Directed Writing, submit a sample of your writing by email to the instructor along with a note explaining that you want to take their Directed Writing class. Be sure you include your name and phone number in the email.
C W 809 1 Directed Writing BA Students ARR Michelle Carter mcarter@sfsu.edu
C W 809 2 Directed Writing BA Students ARR Nona Caspers ncaspers@sfsu.edu
C W 809 3 Directed Writing BA Students ARR May-lee Chai chai@sfsu.edu
C W 809 4 Directed Writing BA Students ARR Maxine Chernoff chernoff@sfsu.edu
C W 809 5 Directed Writing BA Students ARR Andrew Joron ajoron@sfsu.edu
C W 809 6 Directed Writing BA Students ARR Paul Hoover viridian@sfsu.edu
C W 809 7 Directed Writing BA Students ARR Caro De Robertis caro@sfsu.edu
C W 809 8 Directed Writing BA Students ARR Chanan Tigay tigay@sfsu.edu
C W 809 9 Directed Writing BA Students ARR Michael David Lukas mdlukas@sfsu.edu
C W 810 1 Transgressive Writing by Women: Feminist & Womanist Imaginaries of the Outerlands Monday 12:30-3:15 PM Tonya Foster
Prerequisite: Classified graduate status in Creative Writing or consent of instructor. This creative writing seminar will focus on poetry, novels, plays, nonfiction and visual art by women who transgress social and formal boundaries of genre. We will read significant feminist/womanist literature and scholarship and pay particular attention to feminist/womanist theorizing of the intersections of race, gender and class. The bulk of our reading will concentrate on 20th and 21st century work with particular attention to the ways that feminists (even those retroactively so-named) have long challenged the social limits on the material, social and spiritual significance of gendered life and thought. Seminar participants will write one 20-page manuscript in the genre of their choice.
C W 810 2 Art of Narrative Thursday 4-6:45 PM Junse Kim
Prerequisite: classified graduate status, M.A. or M.F.A. in Creative Writing. Course Description: Movies, television shows, paintings, sculptures, comic books, songs and other non-written narrative works of art can inspire us, can make us want to create a piece of writing that is as affecting as we have been affected. Then comes the difficult part: how does one do this? This graduate process class will delve into how one can answer this question. In this course we will 1) develop our critical analysis skills through discussions of reading assignments, 2) analyze how differing narrative genres use similar craft techniques, but have different tools to apply the techniques, 3) develop the process of identifying (or creating) fiction tools that can best mimic the craft perceived in other narrative genres and then 4) practice applying these techniques through in-class writing exercises. There will also be creative and critical writing assignments and craft presentations. Through this process, we will discover how creativity isn’t limited to our wonderful ideas for stories, but also includes the technical aspect of how to bring these ideas to life.
C W 820 1 Writers on Writing ONLINE Thursday 7:00-8:30 PM Donna De La Perriere
Prerequisite: Graduate standing or permission of the instructor. Faculty and visiting writers representing a wide range of styles and subjects will visit the class to read and discuss their writing. Students will respond to the readings and visits on an ongoing basis through critical essays and creative writing exercises. Paired with C W 520. Note: this course can be used to fulfill 3 units of the C W 810 (creative process) requirement. It can only be taken once for credit. Students who have completed C W 520 may not take C W 820 for credit. CROSS GENRE COURSE.
C W 840 1 14 Hills Literary Magazine Wednesday 4-6:45 PM Michael David Lukas
Prerequisite: Classified graduate standing in Creative Writing. Fourteen Hills is a working small press as well as a graduate course in editing, publishing and other skills essential to thriving and leading in the contemporary literary world. Each year, we publish one issue of Fourteen Hills: the SFSU Review, a nationally recognized literary print magazine, as well as the Michael Rubin Book Award (MRBA) winner, a book-length work by an SF State student or recent graduate. Fourteen Hills is run entirely by students with support from our Faculty Advisor and the Department of Creative Writing. The course, taught primarily by the Editor-in-Chief, is designed to give students an opportunity to observe and engage in many aspects of running a literary magazine, from editorial decisions to distribution logistics, from public relations and author interviews to curating a literary prize, from aesthetic considerations to the dynamics of equity and narrative justice in the broader publishing field. Students in the class serve as staff for the journal, working closely with the editors to consider and evaluate work for publication as well as learning about the copy-editing process, visual art selection, cover design, distribution, sales and promotion. This is a class designed to merge real-world, hands-on publishing experience with the honing of skills that can ignite, inspire and empower us in all our literary endeavors. CROSS GENRE COURSE.
C W 852 1 Workshop in Creative Nonfiction Wednesday 12:30-3:15 PM Chanan Tigay
Prerequisite: Classified graduate standing in MFA in Creative Writing, the MA in English; Creative Writing, or the new MA in Creative Writing. In this graduate Creative Nonfiction Workshop, you will submit 2-3 pieces of creative nonfiction—either separate shorter pieces or sections of something longer you are working on. You will hone your skills as critics, responding weekly to your classmates’ submissions, both in class and in feedback letters. The great majority of our time will be dedicated to discussing students’ work, with an eye toward drawing connections between craft principles and their own writing practice. We will workshop two writers’ submissions each week, examining such craft elements as structure, tension, dialogue, clarity, arc and character, paying particular attention to the ways in which conventions of craft are applied and understood—and oftentimes reinterpreted or subverted.
C W 853 1 Workshop in Fiction Wednesday ONLINE 4-6:00 PM May-Lee Chai
Prerequisite: Classified graduate status in the M.F.A. in Creative Writing or consent of instructor. This workshop will be an opportunity for students to explore writing fiction and to study some of the exciting developments by new and established voices in literary fiction (from flash to short stories to novels to hybrid forms). Students will give and receive deep feedback on creative pieces. There will also be prompts and in-class writing exercises to generate new work, experiment and to re-envision. There will be at least one Zoom session with an established author. Authors studied may include Lesley Nneka Arimah, K-Ming Chang, Ling Ma, Manuel Muñoz and Charles Yu. May be repeated for a total of 18 units.
C W 854 1 Workshop in Poetry Tuesday 12:30-3:15 PM Paul Hoover
Prerequisite: Classified graduate standing in MFA in Creative Writing, the MA in English; Creative Writing, or the new MA in Creative Writing. Students will concentrate on the creation and revision of their poetry. The class format will include discussion of reading assignments, group discussion of student work and in-class and at-home writing assignments.
C W 859 Practicum in Teaching Tuesday 4 - 6:45 PM Michelle Carter
Prerequisite: Restricted to graduate Creative Writing students or permission of the instructor. CW 859, Practicum in Teaching, MFA and MA students in Creative Writing are given the opportunity to participate in undergraduate courses for teacher training activities under the supervision of Creative Writing instructors. Each student must make arrangements with an instructor of an undergraduate course to participate in that course as a Teaching Practicum student. Over the course of the semester, students will engage in a process of discovery of the values, beliefs, ideals, and aesthetics that will inform each of their own Creative Writing pedagogies. Students in CW 859 meet as a group once every three weeks in tandem with asynchronous work on Canvas, posting teaching journals and case studies on a weekly basis. This course provides pedagogical grounding for pragmatic classroom teaching work and offers students a structured forum in which to discuss their teaching activities under the supervision of an experienced teacher and in collaboration with other Practicum students. Open to both M.A. and M.F.A. Creative Writing students.
C W 860 1 Teaching Creative Writing Wednesday 12:30-3:15 PM Instructor TBA
This course engages Creative Writing graduate students in practical and theoretical exploration of the teaching of creative writing. Our methods and activities will be diverse. We'll create and present exegeses and lectures. We'll explore strategies for engaging in useful, generative analysis of student works-in-progress. We'll hold practice sessions in leading class discussions, setting out to use text models with creativity, flexibility and rigor. We'll also discuss aspects of Creative Writing pedagogy as stimulated by essays and interviews, with particular attention to practices that promote equity and inclusivity. By the end of the semester, each student will have prepared a syllabus for a fifteen-week creative writing course. Course activities will be not only pragmatic but also diagnostic: each student will aim to unearth their particular passions and priorities as artists, educators and human beings--the prime movers in the discovery of each of our authentic teaching voices and styles.
C W 875 1 Community Projects-Literature Wednesday 7-9:45 PM Michael David Lukas
Prerequisite: Restricted to graduate Creative Writing students or permission of the instructor. Paid and unpaid internship positions designed to give CW students practical knowledge and experience are available through local literary and arts organizations, civic and community organizations, Bay Area school districts and within the Creative Writing Community at SF State. Check out our Community Projects in Literature Internship Leads at https://creativewriting.sfsu.edu/content/communityprojects-0. Incredible academic internships are also available for C W 675/875 credit through SFSU's Institute for Civic and Community Engagement (ICCE). Check out their list of paid and unpaid internships at http://icce.sfsu.edu. These working by remote and/or in person internships are robust opportunities to 'learn by doing'. If you have any questions, please contact Michael David Lukas at mdlukas@sfsu.edu . C W 675/875 may be taken twice for 6 units of credit.
C W 880 1 The Displaced Person: Immigrant and Refugee Narratives Tuesday 12:30–3:15 PM Caro De Robertis
Prerequisite: Classified graduate status in M.F.A. in Creative Writing or consent of instructor. How does displacement—the experience of uprootedness, loss or tectonic change—shape a life? What are the cultural, societal and existential impacts of migration? And what might immigrant and refugee experiences reveal to us about the meaning of community, safety, survival, love, family, resilience, cultural creativity, intergenerational continuity and the infinite longing for home? What emerges from such portrayals, culturally and also aesthetically, and how might this feed our own art-making? In this class, we’ll delve into these universally urgent human themes through the prism of works by immigrant and refugee writers, including Tomás Rivera, Javier Zamora, Beth Nguyen, NoViolet Bulawayo, Edwidge Danticat, Amara Lakhous, Lisa Ko and more. As always, we’ll use these readings as a springboard into our own writing, in whatever directions call us. Along with delving into themes, we will explore craft elements including style, syntax, voice, narrative structure, scope, characterization, narrative tension, setting and use of subtext. We’ll draw on the reading to spark, ignite and expand our own writing and its many possibilities. All genres welcome. May be repeated for a total of 18 units when topics vary.
C W 880 3 Earning Dramatic Emotion Wednesday 7 - 9:45 PM Junse Kim
Prerequisite: Classified graduate status in M.F.A. in Creative Writing or consent of instructor. One of the most difficult narrative issues in fiction writing is how to emotionally move your readers. Often, what we writers render on the page are concepts of drama meant to profoundly affect the reader, but it does not. In this graduate process class, we will critically analyze the intricate concepts of how emotions are developed in fiction and master how to recognize and apply narrative craft that earns and fulfills its dramatic intent. These skills will be developed through discussions of published works, in-class writing exercises and creative writing assignments. Students will be challenged to incorporate narrative techniques in fulfilling dramatic intent into their writing, but with the understanding that the craft consciously being applied (sometimes with difficulty) eventually will become absorbed into their unconscious writing intuition.
C W 881 1 Individual Vision: Poetic Strategies ONLINE Thursday 12:30-2:30 PM Maxine Chernoff
Prerequisite: Classified graduate standing in MFA in Creative Writing, the MA in English; Creative Writing, or the new MA in Creative Writing. This process course on contemporary poets, designed for MFA students, will look at line length, tone, compositional strategies and ideas for revision in the works Niedecker, Berssenbrugge, Mullen, Schuyler, Equi, Long Soldier and examine how poets use language to pay attention to the world. In the long lines of Berssenbrugge, Schuyler and Long Soldier and the short lines of Niedecker and Equi, we see how poets widen and narrow their lenses. We will write poems based on these models as well as discuss your independent work. The anthology Postmodern American Poetry will be used to expand on these themes. Online Class. 3 credits. MA students accepted by request and review of their work.
C W 881 2 Kinship and Community: Voices of Queer People of Color Tuesday 4-6:45 PM Caro De Robertis
Prerequisite: Classified graduate status in the M.F.A. in Creative Writing or consent of instructor. What is kinship? What is community? What is the nexus between our hunger to connect with others, and the hunger to be free? In particular, when we center narratives that inhabit cultural peripheries, what can we learn about the ties that bind—their gifts, dangers, combustible powers, secrets, joys or potential? How do writers forge portrayals of belonging and connection in the context of marginalization? What emerges from such portrayals, culturally and also aesthetically? How might this feed or inspire our own art-making? In this multi-genre class, we’ll explore the themes of kinship and community as they relate to our creative work. For inspiration and context, we will read works specifically drawn from the immensely rich literary traditions of queer people of color, from canonical groundbreaking masters to contemporary voices—and from poetry to literary prose. As always, we’ll use these readings as a springboard into our own writing, in whatever directions call us. Along with delving into themes, we will explore craft elements including style, structure, poetics, voice, characterization, pacing and other aesthetic techniques that make writing sing. We’ll draw on the reading to spark, ignite and expand our own writing and its many possibilities. All genres welcome.
C W 882 1 Contemporary American Playwrights Monday 4-6:45 PM Michelle Carter
[Writers in all genres are welcome in this graduate-level creative process course.] What is theatricality? What are the constituent characteristics and energies of works created for the stage and the stage alone? We will read and view plays by contemporary American playwrights representing a diverse range of voices and forms. Students will experiment with creative assignments springing from works under consideration, building to a class festival of work under development. We'll also explore generative methodologies developed by some of the country's most beloved teaching playwrights. Playwrights under study will include some or all of the following: Sanaz Toossi, Tearrance Arvelle Chisholm, Agnes Borinsky, Hansol Jung, Chiara Atik, Will Eno, Ngozi Anyanwu, Aya Ogawa, Chiara Atik, Jen Silverman, Young Jean Lee, Ryan J. Haddad, Annie Baker, Jeremy O. Harris, Luis Alfaro, Bruce Norris, Jackie Sibbles Drury, Taylor Mac, Will Arbery, Charles Mee Jr., Lucas Hnath, Martyna Majok, Sheila Callaghan, Anne Washburn, Christopher Chen, Jorge Cortinas, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Jose Rivera and others.
C W 893 Written M.A. Creative Project (3 units) By Arrangement
Prerequisite: advancement to M.A. candidacy in Creative Writing. Advancement To Candidacy (ATC) and Culminating Experience Proposal forms must be on file in the Division of Graduate Studies the semester before registration. These 3 units M.A. students sign up for while working on the culminating experience/thesis/written creative project, which may be a collection of short stories, a group of poems, a novel or a play. To enroll: contact your thesis/written creative work committee chair the first week of the semester for the schedule and permit numbers to add the class. You must enroll in this course or you will not receive credit for your thesis.
C W 893 Written M.F.A. Creative Work (6 units) By Arrangement
Prerequisite: advancement to M.F.A. candidacy in Creative Writing; Advancement To Candidacy (ATC) and Culminating Experience Proposal forms must be on file in the Division of Graduate Studies the semester before registration. These 6 units M.F.A. students sign up for while working on the culminating experience/thesis/written creative project, which is expected to be a book length collection of short stories, or poems or a novel or a play of publishable quality. Enrollment is by permission number during priority registration/enrollment: you will be emailed the correct class and permission numbers to enroll in your section. You must enroll in this course or you will not receive credit for your thesis.
C W 899 Independent Study By Arrangement
Prerequisite: consent of instructor and a minimum GPA of 3.25. A special study is planned, developed, and completed under the direction of a faculty member. This course may be taken for one, two, or three units. No priority enrollment; enrollment is by petition, and a copy of your unofficial SFSU transcript. Petition Individual Study forms are available online http://registrar.sfsu.edu/sites/default/files/indstudyi.pdf (699, 899). This form must be signed by the instructor you will be working with and brought with an unofficial transcript for the department chair signature. Your instructor will give you the schedule and permit numbers to add the course during the first week of the semester.