Columbia Artist/Teachers Intro Program offers free non-credit writing workshops taught by MFA Writing Program students. These courses will help students explore new genres while receiving critical feedback for their work.
CLASSES
The Columbia Artist/Teachers Intro Program is pleased to offer 16 classes this Spring 2013. These classes are split into two sessions:
Session I classes begin in early-to-mid March.
Session II classes begin in late March/early April.
HOW TO REGISTER
Registration for Session I classes is closed.
If you are interested in signing up for a Session II course, send an email to
writingcats@gmail.com.
QUESTIONS
If you have a question about a specific class, you may email the instructor directly. All and any other questions may be directed to the Intro program coordinator at writingcats@gmail.com.
FICTION
POETRY
NONFICTION
CROSS-GENRE
* Session I (classes begin early-to-mid March)
** Session II (classes begin late March / late April)
SUMMARY OF SESSION II COURSES
Classes beginning in late March/early April 2013.
See further below for complete course descriptions.
MONDAYS
Let’s Talk About Sex, Baby (Fiction)
7:45-9:45pm (Apr 8-May 6)
TUESDAYS
The Creep Factor (Fiction)
7-9pm (Apr 9-Apr 30)
Fairy Tales (Fiction)
7:30-9:30pm (April 9-Apr 30)
WEDNESDAYS
Contemporary Approaches to the Lyric (Poetry)
8-10pm (Apr 3-Apr 24)
Against Forgetting: 20th Century Confessional Poetry (Poetry)
8-10pm (Apr 10-May 1)
FRIDAYS
Ruthless Brevity (Cross-Genre)
5-7pm (Apr 5-May 3)
SATURDAYS
The Obscene (Fiction)
12pm-2pm (Apr 6-May 4)
Fiction or Not (Nonfiction)
2-4pm (Mar 30-May 4)
SUNDAYS
Writing Backwards (Nonfiction)
4-6pm (Apr 7-Apr 28)
FICTION
**The Creep Factor
Tuesdays: 7:00pm-9:00pm
4 sessions: April 9, April, 16, April 23, April 30
Dodge 411
Suzie Hanrahan
skh2124@columbia.edu
This course considers how we can define a category of “creep” that pulls from horror, dystopia, mystery, sci-fi, speculative fantasy, ghost stories, fairy tales, noir, graphic novels, and Gothic and Victorian literature, never quite existing on its own but never entirely encased by its parent genre, always on the edge of destroying the tone and conventions it has come to upset. We ask: what writing techniques create creepiness, what effect does “creep” have on the reader, and to what end are these effects implemented to advance or deepen the meaning of a story? How is being creeped-out distinct from being frightened, spooked, or repulsed? How are the elements of humor, landscape, sensory description, quotidian objects, and the absurd used to transport us into the realm of creep and elevate our experience of the text from story to sensation? We’ll look at what creep is, what creep does, and how/when we can incorporate creep into our own work.
Readings may include selections from: Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allen Poe, Korean and German fairy tales, Edith Wharton, Shirley Jackson, Gina Berriault, Donald Barthelme, Roald Dahl, Ben Loory, Kazuo Ishiguro, Joyce Carol Oates, Colson Whitehead, John Layman, Freud, or others. Students are also welcome to bring in examples of their own finding for class discussion.
**Fairy Tales
Tuesdays: 7:30pm-9:30pm
4 sessions: April 9, April 16, April 23, April 30
Dodge 403
Eleanor Levinson
e.w.levinson@gmail.com
Fairy tales only last three pages, but they stick with you all your life. This class will focus on creating memorable images in short spaces. A story can be like a photograph – it provides all the bare essentials onto which a reader can project multiple emotional meanings. What are those bare essentials? While we will only focus on fairy tales, hopefully the skills you learn in this class will be applicable to all your writing.
Readings will include both older and contemporary fairy tales.
**Let’s Talk About Sex, Baby
Mondays: 7:45pm-9:45pm
5 sessions: April 8, April 15, April 22, April 29, May 6
Dodge 411
Elisa Fernández-Arias
elisafernandezarias@gmail.com
Okay, let’s face it: sex is, well, sexy! But there are times too when sex is meaningful, world-shaping, and enlightening. To connect with another person on a sexual level is a universal experience, and it is for this reason that sex—and more broadly, desire—is the focus of so many novels and stories. In literature, the theme of sex is explored in many interesting ways: as personal enlightenment, as an illustration of power roles in a society, as aesthetic inspiration. In this class, we will be focusing on how sex is used in literature and then apply these uses in our own writing. Because of the subject’s very universal nature, we will be exploring writing by authors from around the world. Students will have the opportunity to write and workshop their own work inspired by the readings.
Readings for discussion will include works by Roberto Bolaño, Casanova, J.M. Coetzee, Marguerite Duras, Mary Gaitskill, Michel Houllebecq, Jamaica Kincaid, Gabriel García Márquez, Henry Miller, Haruki Murakami, Vladimir Nabokov, and Annie Proulx.
**The Obscene
Saturdays: 12:00pm-2:00pm
5 sessions: April 6, April 13, April 20, April 27, May 4
Dodge 409
Sasha Denisoff
aad2158@columbia.edu
Sex is about as natural a desire as thirst or hunger, as natural an act as drinking or eating. We wouldn’t be here without sex, and yet its depiction in literature has caused many a heated debate, and even a few precedent-setting legal cases.
This class will focus on the supposedly “obscene” in literature that was, at one point, banned by the US Government. We’ll briefly consider the social mores of the times, and how they’ve changed. We’ll take a look at some of the especially lusty passages that riled people up, then give much deeper thought to the author’s intent. And along the way, we’ll write a few risqué pieces of our own, in the spirit of the ones we’re reading, in the hopes that—if we were to travel back in time—our work might cause just as much of a stir.
Readings for this class will likely include selections from Candide, Fanny Hill, Homo Sapiens, Lady Chatterly’s Lover, Moll Flanders, My Life and Loves, Naked Lunch, Tropic of Cancer, and Ulysses.
POETRY
**Against Forgetting: 20th Century Confessional Poetry
Wednesdays: 8:00pm-10:00pm
4 sessions: April 10, April 17, April 24, May 1
Dodge 411
Amber Galeo and Catherine Pond
alg2138@columbia.edu and pond.catherine@gmail.com
What makes a confessional poem? Is it an exclusively American practice? Does one gender do it better? In this class we will read and discuss Confessionalist poets of the twentieth- century, including Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, Robert Lowell, Louise Gluck, Marie Howe, Franz Wright, Frank Bidart and more. We will explore how Confessionalism has changed and expanded over the century and what it means to us today. Most of the time spent in class will be devoted to workshopping your original pieces. In response to the readings, you will write and revise one new poem for each class. In these poems, you will seek to explore and reveal whatever it is inside of you that terrifies, haunts, enlightens, or even humiliates. We will discuss how to translate the urgency of these emotions into a sense of urgency in your written work. By the last class, you should expect to have completed a few polished poems in addition to some casual in-class writing exercises.
**Contemporary Approaches to the Lyric
Wednesdays: 8:00pm-10:00pm
4 sessions: April 3, April 10, April 17, April 24
Dodge 403
Will Brewer and Liam Powell
wcb2113@columnia.edu and lp2483@columbia.edu
This course hopes to aid the generation of original work, encouraging the poet not only to
explore the self, but to question its connotative inheritance, its imaginative reinventions,
and, ultimately, its creations. Brief readings from Modern and Surrealist texts will be
juxtaposed with contemporary collections whose play with the materiality of language
opens onto deeper lyric interrogation. Emphasis will be directed toward developing
strong skills with form, image, rhetoric, and rhythm.
Writers to be discussed include: Timothy Donnelly, Robyn Schiff, Geoffrey G. O’Brien,
Lucy Brock-Broido, Jorie Graham, Brett Fletcher Lauer, Jeff Clark, Dorothea Lasky,
Maggie Nelson, Andre Breton, Francis Picabia, John Ashbery, and others.
NONFICTION
*Channeling Passion in the Personal Essay
Fridays: 10:00am-12:00pm
4 sessions: March 8, March 15, March 29, April 5
Dodge 411
Frances Dodds
kfd2107@columbia.edu
A great many personal essays are driven by the emotional intensity of an experience, a strong belief, or even at times an irrational bias. The essayist walks a fine line between expressing him or herself with measures of control and innovation, while also allowing the force of her responses to the subject matter to leave the reader with that giddy, lightheaded feeling that comes with finishing a piece of good writing—the sensation of having touched the wick of something very hot, or of collapsing breathless onto a summit, and meeting the view of the valley below. The objective mediator most often suggested to students is time, which translates into distance. While there is no doubt that a certain amount of emotional distance and perspective is vital, I also wish to examine treatment of the issue from other angles, partially because the time passed requisite can be frustrating to young writers. We will think about some of the stylistic tools used by various essayists to allow for the depth of their passions to become accessible and artful on the page.
The readings will tentatively include essays by Richard Seltzer, John Jeremiah Sullivan, George Orwell, Edmund Wilson, Joan Didion, Philip Lopate, Cheryl Strayed, David Sedaris, Elif Bautuman, David Foster Wallace, Jo Ann Beard, and perhaps others. The students will also be asked to write at least one personal essay, about a subject of their own choosing.
*Super Sad True Stories
Fridays: 5:00pm-7:00pm
5 sessions: March 15, March 29, April 5, April 12, April 19
Dodge 409
Sarah Perry
sarahperry100@gmail.com
Sadness has long been recognized as a catalyst to art. In this course, we’ll look at the role of sadness in the personal essay and in memoir. How do authors find pattern and meaning in personal tragedy? How can a writer avoid navel gazing and use painful experiences to make something that is relevant and important to the reader? Who “deserves” to share their sad experiences? What should we tell our reader, and what should we save for our therapist and/or bartender?
And why do we feel compelled to share and read all these sad stories, anyway? Why is it so hard to make great art about happiness?
We’ll read some personal essays and memoir excerpts, and explore what a few critics have to say about personal revelation in creative nonfiction. We’ll also do some writing, both in-class and at home, mining our own sad or scary or angry stories as material. All class discussion is to remain confidential, and every effort will be made to create a safe, supportive environment in which to do challenging but important work. There will be tissues and snacks.
A partial reading list may include: essays by Cheryl Strayed, Jo Ann Beard, and Jorge Luis Borges; memoir excerpts from Andres Dubus III, Kathryn Harrison, Dorothy Allison and Meghan O’Rourke, and criticism from Neil Genzlinger and Lorrie Moore.
Reading materials will be emailed in advance of the first class, and photocopies provided in the remaining sessions. There will be no course books to purchase.
**Writing Backwards
Sundays: 4:00pm-6:00pm
4 sessions: April 7, April 14, April 21, April 28
Dodge 409
Melissa Rhodes
mel.catherine@gmail.com
“I feel that strong emotion must leave its trace; and it is only a question of how we can get ourselves again attached to it, so that we shall be able to live our lives through from the start." -Virginia Woolf, "A Sketch of the Past"
Very often, essays draw from memory, from some event or image or feeling that has "left its trace." One job of the writer is to access that trace, to make it present again. But what is there to value in "living our lives through from the start"? What separates an autobiographical essay from memoir? In what sense does the essayist treat his or her life as a text under revision? We'll complete weekly writing exercises around these themes as we read and discuss works by Virginia Woolf, Max Beerbohm, Charles Lamb, and others.
CROSS-GENRE
*The Art of Walking
Mondays: 7:45pm-9:45pm
4 sessions: March 4, March 11, March 25, April 1
Dodge 411
Brooke Larson
bcl2123@columbia.edu
"Me thinks that the moment my legs begin to move," wrote Henry Thoreau, "my thoughts begin to flow." He wasn’t alone in this discovery -- writers and thinkers across centuries have talked the same walk. What is it about moving our bodies that fleshes out our prose? The writer as walker spans a vast history: from the peripatetic philosophers of Ancient Greece to the on foot manifestos of modern cityscapes. In this course we will stalk the relationship between writing and walking, keeping pace with the flâneur, the pilgrim, the vagrant and the radical as they move through natural and urban spaces. We will follow writers such as Basho, Virginia Woolf, Phillip Lopate, and Anne Carson; cross paths with philosophy and Deep Topography; and, of course, some swagger-happy Dadaists. We will also be doing our own roaming and writing, inside -- and outside -- of class.
**Fiction or Not
Saturdays: 2:00pm-4:00pm
6 sessions: March 30, April 6, April 13, April 20, April 27, May 4
Dodge 409
Greg Dennie
greg.dennie@gmail.com
The overall objective is to evaluate the genres through readings, discussions and writing assignments, and to understand their respective benefits by observing how the genres are able to interact with the same material.
The goal of the class is for each student to invest themselves into a narrative, write it freely, evaluate the writing, sculpt it into a personal essay, and finally, to write the same essay as a short story. The first class will focus on discussion and finding a prompt for a free- write. Each class after will focus on the progression and evaluation of that writing as well as assigned readings and group discussions. Students should always feel free to break rules as they see fit and do whatever it is they do that inspires them to write.
The reading list will include essays from G.K. Chesterton, Philip Lopate, Robert Louis Stevenson, Virginia Woolf, and George Orwell and stories and excerpts from Cervantes, Dostoevsky, Donald Barthelme, and Thom Jones.
*Literary Oddballs: Short and Strange Prose
Saturdays: 12:00pm-2:00pm
4 sessions: March 9, March 16, March 30, April 6
Dodge 411
Hannah Marsh
hfm2111@columbia.edu
Traditional storytelling has its place, but sometimes the stories we want to tell don’t fit conventional frameworks. In this class we’ll read very short stories and essays that challenge traditional notions about plot, character, structure, and even the way words are arranged on a page. We’ll experiment with breaking convention in our own writing, and discuss how the form of a story can best complement its content. This class is open to all genres; although we’ll call most of what we’re reading “prose” (mostly fiction, some nonfiction), occasionally “prose poetry” may be more apt. Readings will include short pieces by Grace Paley, Lydia Davis, Denis Johnson, Jennifer Egan, Annie Dillard, and Ernest Hemingway. Students will also have short writing exercises and the opportunity for feedback from their peers.
*New York City Secrets
Wednesdays: 8:00pm-10:00pm
4 sessions: March 6, March 13, March 27, April 3
Dodge 411
Andrew Lenoir
andrewrlenoir@gmail.com
Baudelaire had Paris. Kafka had Prague. Joyce had Dublin. You have New York. Cities have their own flavor, an energy built up not just by those who live there, but the countless generations that have come beforehand and left their mark. Most people fail to examine the place they live very closely. Our routines blind us to our surroundings and the fascinating details they contain. Do you know why the Puck Building is called the Puck Building? What do the strange markings on James Leeson's grave mean anyway? Why was Roosevelt Island once called Blackwell's Island? As a writer, your city can be your greatest source of inspiration, or even the annoyance that irks you enough to produce great prose. Every walk or subway ride you take can be filled with undiscovered meaning. You are inseparably part of New York, and your relationship with it- good or bad- should always be fruitful.
Students will be encouraged to take a particular interest in a detail, occurrence or period of New York- past or present- and let this serve as their inspiration as they create poetry, short fiction and essays. Students are required to keep a journal cataloging their thoughts, insights and discoveries. Readings will include selections from Joseph Mitchell, Langston Hughes, Frank O'Hara, Walt Whitman, Allen Ginsberg, Jonathan Lethem, Herbert Asbury, and H.P. Lovecraft. Additionally, Kevin Walsh's Forgotten New York is recommended for source material but not required.
**Ruthless Brevity
Fridays: 5:00pm-7:00pm
4 sessions: April 5, April 12, April 19, May 3
Dodge 411
Liz Donnelly
ed2539@columbia.edu
Truman Capote once said of editing, “I’m all for the scissors. I believe more in the scissors than I do in the pencil.” Writers are often told that they need distance on a subject before they can write about it well, but where does that leave young writers? Must they wait years before they begin to write well about anything or can distance be achieved by learning to surgically edit your work. Many writers cringe at the process of editing, but consider the words of Arthur Plotnik (author of Spunk & Bite: A Writer’s Guide to Punchier, More Engaging Language & Style): “You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what’s burning inside you, and [you] edit to let the fire show through the smoke.”
In this course the emphasis will be on editing your own and fellow classmates’ work. Expect to bring in or create a short story or personal essay that we will attempt to reduce by a third—it can be done! We will also experience the power of brevity by engaging with the early work of such writers as Flannery O’Connor, Raymond Carver, Sei Shonagon, Richard Selzer and Joan Didion and daring to edit them.
* **Sit, Breathe, Write: Mindfulness and Creative Writing
Fridays: 12:00pm-2:00pm
11 sessions: March 8, March 15, March 22, March 29, April 5, April 12, April 19, April 26,
May 3, May 10, May 17
Dodge 411
Emily Herzlin
mindfulwriters@gmail.com
Mindfulness seems to be an increasingly popular word these days, but what does it really mean, and what does it mean for writers? How can we pay better attention to our world? How can we discover what we really want to write about? How can we become compassionate artists? What do our bodies have to do with writing? How can we develop and sustain a personal writing practice when we have so much stress and so much to do? In Sit, Breathe, Write, we'll look at these questions, and more. Whether you're a writer interested in learning to meditate, or you're curious how you can use your writing practice to support your mindfulness practice, this class is for you.
In this class, we practice basic mindfulness techniques to become more familiar with the landscape of our minds, the texture of our thoughts, and the richness of the present moment--all of which will inform our writing. Writing prompts are geared towards cultivating curiosity about the environment, the sense perceptions, thoughts, and emotions. Furthermore, we will explore writing as a way to actively learn about our world. This class is a place to play, to experiment with words and form, take artistic risks, and return to the page with greater confidence.
Basic meditation instruction will be given at the start of every class. No experience with meditation necessary. Beginners welcome. Writers of all genres welcome.
Regular meditation and journaling practices are encouraged during this course (but are not mandatory.) Most writing will be done in class, with brief homework assignments. Our main text will be Natalie Goldberg's Writing Down the Bones. We will also look at readings from nonfiction, fiction, poetry, and dharma books.