English 290 - Crafting Creative Nonfiction

Sara London

Th 3:00-4:50 p.m.

English 290 is designed as an advanced essay-writing workshop with active in-class discussion of student essays and readings from assigned texts.  Anthologized essays--by Michel de Montaigne, Frederick Douglass, Vladimir Nabokov, James Baldwin, Virginia Woolf, Anne Fadiman, Annie Dillard, Gloria Naylor, Amy Tan, and many others--will serve as models, and will introduce a variety of genres, including the personal essay, memoir, the lyrical essay, nature writing, travel writing, and literary journalism.  The second hour of class will be devoted to discussion of student work.  Writing assignments will include seven essays on various set topics, ranging from two to ten pages in length.  Students will be encouraged to keep a journal to record ideas, observations, overheard dialogue, quotations, descriptions, lists, memories, etc.  Our discussions of work by both students and masters of the form will involve close scrutiny of prose elements such as language, voice, point of view, tone, mood, subject matter, organization and structure, beginnings and endings.  We will discuss issues of characterization, aspects of lyricism, the importance of clarity and precision, and qualities of texture and rhythm.  What does it mean to have a "voice"?  What constitutes an individual style?

If you are interested in being considered for Advanced Essay Writing, please submit a writing sample from a previous class, or a piece you have written independently.  Leave your work with Bobbie Kozash, English Office, 105 Pierce Hall, no later than January 23, 2006.  I will consider prose submissions of four pages or more; one essay will be fine, but if your submissions are brief, two will be acceptable.  Whether your sample is a personal essay (on any topic), an opinion piece (editorial style), or a critical essay (an analytical essay written for a literature class, for example), it should reflect your ability to express yourself clearly, authoritatively, and concisely.  (Poetry will not be an acceptable submission.  A short fiction piece, along with an essay submission, is fine, but my preference is to see a sample of your nonfiction work.)  I will assume all those applying for this class have mastered grammar and sentence structure.  Please be sure your submission is stapled, that it is not your only hard copy of the work, and that your name is clearly printed on it.

A list of students selected for the course will be posted the first week of classes.  If you have further questions, you may reach me at slondon@smith.edu.