ENGL 207 - Intermediate Creative Writing: Literary Non-Fiction

Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)

This course is a workshop in literary nonfiction—i.e., various forms of writing that integrate personal experience, thoughtful and imaginative reflection, and often research/reportage. We might consider the word “literary” in this context to indicate the writer’s attention to language and form as well as subject. “Nonfiction” might include such categories as personal essay, memoir, lyric essay, travel or nature writing, cultural criticism, meditation, argument—singly or in various combinations—or might resist such categories. Our reading and writing is informed by Joan Retallack’s observation that the “German word for essay, Versuch, has ‘search’ (suche)—seeking, tracking—embedded in it,” as well as her claim that the “business” of the essay involves “immediate experience complicating what we thought we knew.” Joshua Harmon.

Prerequisite(s): Open to any student who has taken ENGL 205 or ENGL 206.

One 2-hour period.

Course Format: CLS