Writing: Traveller's Tales - Poets and Novelists on the Road

Seminar – Travel writings by poets and novelists that reflect how their worldly journeys fed into and often mirrored their artistic lives. The seminar examines how the geography of the imagination meshes vitally with the geography of the world at large.

Readings:

The Voices of Marrakesh, Elias Canetti
[& several essays on Algeria by Albert Camus]
Barbarian in the Garden, Zbigniew Herbert
Venice Observed, Mary McCarthy
Black Lamb and Grey Falcon (selections), Rebecca West
The Narrow Road to the Deep North, Bashô
The Colossus of Maroussi, Henry Miller 
Etruscan Places, D.H. Lawrence
Journey to the Land of the Flies, Aldo Buzzi
The Discovery of Guiana, Sir Walter Ralegh
In Patagonia, Bruce Chatwin 
Running in the Family, Michael Ondaatje
Mayan Letters, Charles Olson
The Snow Leopard, Peter Matthiessen
My Journey to Lhasa, Alexandra David-Neel [discussed with excerpts from Robert Byron's The Road to Oxiana]

See the Writing MFA Program page for course information and requirements.