ENGH 497: Topics in Creative Writing

ENGH 497-001: Special Topics in Writing: Bookish Beasts
(Spring 2016)

04:30 PM to 07:10 PM T

Section Information for Spring 2016

This is the course where creative writing gets into a big party with visual art, conceptual art, graphic design, handmade books, posters, & maybe even a walk outside.  Through reading & your own projects, you'll explore the visual/verbal boundary, as well as other edges of what with multiple pathways, circular texts, altered books, erasures, constrained texts, hand-made books, three-dimensional poem objects, & on-site text installations.  Class time will include workshop critique & discussion of the reading, including the history & theory of what we are practicing.  We'll tour the artist book collection in Fenwick Special Collections, &, if scheduling permits, visit book-arts in the School of Art.

The reading list evolves a bit each year, & grads in 608 will have more reading than undergrads in 497...but you can expect to encounter such writers as Christian Bok, John Cage, Johanna Drucker, Jonathan Safran Foer, Eugen Gomringer, Noah Eli Gordon, Matthea Harvey, Ronald Johnson, Karla Kelsey, Srikath Reddy, as well as Ian Hamilton Finlay's garden (Little Sparta), Alec Finlay's landscape/poetry events & works by the "walking artist" Hamish Fulton.  We will also tackle book-length works where artist's book meets memoir--such as Ann Carson's Nox & Jill Magi's Threads--and unique works in text like M. Nourbese Philip's Zong!, a profound meditation on the slave trade, created via erasure & constraint.

Those with skills in book making, printing, graphic design, or visual arts will find good use for them, but such skills are not reuqired.  Works displayed here emphasize the visual, but other projects are made only of words on paper, & you can excel in this course with no artsy-craftsy leanings at all.  Bring a sense of adventure & love of words--including the sound, the look, & the history of words.  Grades are based on the depth of your engagement with new forms & new ideas of what "poetry," "writing," "narrative," & "art" might be, expressed via original projects (large & small), creative responses to readings, prose reflections on creative process & historical context, & participation in discussion.

Undergrads: Application to this class is required by the university catalog.  Send an e-mail listing your creative writing courses or other relevant background, plus a single attachment containing five poems or a story to stichy@gmu.edu.  BFA, BA, & non English-majors are welcome.

Grads: Book Beasts fulfills the "other genre" requirement for all genres--fiction, non-fiction, & poetry.  Prose writers bring a lot to the conversation, & many have excelled in this course.

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Course Information from the University Catalog

Credits: 3

Intensive practice in creative writing and study of creative process. Workshop course. Concentrates on specialized literary type other than short story or poetry such as playwriting, screenwriting, children's literature, travel literature, autobiography, gothic novel, or translation. Notes: For students already writing original creative work. Students must submit typed manuscript at least one week before registration. May be repeated within the term for a maximum 12 credits.
Specialized Designation: Topic Varies
Recommended Prerequisite: ENGH 396 or equivalent and manuscript review. Enrollment is controlled. Contact instructor for manuscript guidelines.
Schedule Type: Lec/Sem #1, Lec/Sem #2, Lec/Sem #3, Lec/Sem #4, Lec/Sem #5, Lec/Sem #6, Lec/Sem #7, Lec/Sem #8, Lec/Sem #9, Lecture, Sem/Lec #10, Sem/Lec #11, Sem/Lec #12, Sem/Lec #13, Sem/Lec #14, Sem/Lec #15, Sem/Lec #16, Sem/Lec #17, Sem/Lec #18
Grading:
This course is graded on the Undergraduate Regular scale.

The University Catalog is the authoritative source for information on courses. The Schedule of Classes is the authoritative source for information on classes scheduled for this semester. See the Schedule for the most up-to-date information and see Patriot web to register for classes.