You should also be reading self-selections from our texts throughout the term, finding work that appeals to you or moves you, that you find challenging or curious, and that you'd like to discuss in class. You are free at any time to suggest your selections to me for our schedule.

Attendance, active participation, and attention to reading assignments are vital to a workshop course. It is also crucial that you pay careful attention to and stay aware of updates, as our schedule is flexible and will be adjusted as we progress through the term, based on the kind and frequency of workshop material the class is producing. If you miss a class, please follow instructions detailed on our Homepage.   (You're expected to be prepared for each class meeting, whether you missed the previous one or not.) If you ever have questions, don't hesitate to contact me:  Cindy Nichols. It's important to remember too that missing a one-day per-week class is the equivalent of missing a week's worth of the course.

Aug. 23—

Course introduction. Begin learning logs and work with fiction.

Aug. 30 —

Before class:

Submit any creative material to our Blackboard/Discussion Board/Workshop area which you'd like to have workshopped. Remember to email the class as well, with your work attached as a Word document.

Sept. 6 —

Before class:

In SM, read:

      Chapter 2, pp. 10-16.

     “After I Was Thrown in the River and Before I Was Drowned” and "A Conversation with Dave Eggers," pp.        177-193.

      In Art of Subtext, read "Digging the Subterranean,"pp. 33-61.

Before class:

In SM, read:

      Chapter 3, pp. 17-47 +.

     “A Temporary Matter” and "A Conversation with Jhumpa Lahiri," pp. 287-306.

Read in SM, Chapter 4, pp. 51-57.

Oct. 4 —Read the following:

Write a short story which either 1) closely imitates the work of one of the writers in Story Matters; or 2) is a piece of magical realism.

If you are doing #1, ask yourself before, during, or after writing the piece: what, precisely, are you imitating in the writer's work? Tone of voice? Subject matter? Prose style? Mode? Plot structure? Mood? Perspective? Philosophic concerns? etc. Where is your piece LIKE the other writer's, and where is it NOT?

If you are doing #2, you need to be sure you understand the genre of magical realism.

Oct. 25 —Begin work with poetry. Read: O'Hara Poems1 and O'Hara Poems2 Poets.org on Frank O'Hara Marjorie Perloff's Introduction to Frank O'Hara: Poet Among Painters (Intensive work with O'Hara. Learning logs due for scoring.)

Nov. 1—Read additional items on O'Hara (emailed 11/10).

Nov. 8 —Read:

• All of Mark Doty's, The Art of Description (about 24.5 pages per day for six days).
• The Power Point presentation titled, Form in Poetry Quicky Review.
• If you haven't had my 323 course, you should also look at Form in Poetry—A Full Crash Course in Form from 323.
• A selection of poems by Donald Justice. [I'll be adding more Justice poems soon. --CN 11/10]

Note: The Art of Recklessness references a lot of writers and works. If you're unfamiliar with some of the references, look them up and read them!

Nov. 15 — Read:

• All of Dean Young's The Art of Recklessness (about 28 pages per day for 6 days).
• A selection of poems by Dean Young (focus on "Skipping the Reception," "Facet," "Elegy on a Toy Piano," "Gray Matter," "Lives of the Veterans," "I Can Hardly Be Considered a Reliable Witness," "A Poem by Dean Young," "Lives of the Noncombatants," "Shamanism 101," "Sean Penn Anti-Ode," "Peach Farm," and the interview material).

Nov. 22 —Thanksgiving Holiday.

Nov. 29 — Intensive workshopping.

Dec. 6—Class does a community reading, TBA.

Dec. 10—Chapbooks, Community Events reports, Reflective Letter, and Learning Log due no later than 11:59 pm. Chapbooks must be electronic.

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