ENGLISH 190LC: Levinthal Tutorial in Graphic Novel/Comics
Undergraduate writers work individually with visiting Stegner Fellows in graphic novel/comics. Students design their own curriculum; Stegner Fellows act as writing mentors and advisers. Students will meet once per week with the Stegner Fellow and also four times a quarter in discussions sections with other students and the Levinthal Program Coordinators. Times to be announced upon acceptance. Prerequisites: any course in 90, 91, or 92 series; submitted application and manuscript.
Last offered: Winter 2021
| Units: 5
ENGLISH 190NS: Novel Salon
Who better to discuss a book with than its author? In this course we will immerse ourselves in eight novels and meet with their authors to hear about their drafting, revising, and publishing experiences. We will read as writers or inspiration and craft and analyze novels for structure, scope, character development, dialogue, setting, style, and theme. We will examine how craft conventions are applied and subverted, while asking, What makes a novel work? Students will write about, discuss, and present the novels we read, participate in Q&A with visiting authors, and complete in-class writing exercises designed to inform and inspire. Note: First priority to undergrads. Students must attend the first class meeting to retain their roster spot.
Last offered: Spring 2024
| Units: 5
| Repeatable
2 times
(up to 10 units total)
ENGLISH 190QN: Quantum Narratives
Intermediate course in the craft and art of fiction writing, focusing on speculative fiction.
Last offered: Winter 2024
| Units: 5
ENGLISH 190S: Short Story Salon
Who better to discuss a book with than its author? In this course we will immerse ourselves in eight short story collections and meet with many of the authors of these collections to hear about their experience drafting, revising, and sending their books out into the world. We will read as writers for inspiration and craft and analyze the collections for structure, character development, dialogue, setting, language, and theme. We will pay particular attention to the range, arrangement, and architecture of the story collection as a whole. How does a collection become greater than the sum of its parts? How does an author manage so many stops and starts? We will write about, discuss, and present the collections we read, participate in Q&A with visiting authors, and complete weekly in-class writing exercises designed to inform and inspire our own writing.
Last offered: Spring 2025
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
| Repeatable
2 times
(up to 10 units total)
ENGLISH 190SW: Screenwriting Intensive
The main requirement for this course is a full length film script. The course explores elements of screenwriting including beat structure, character creation, scene vs. montage, as well as description and dialogue. Students will read four to five screenplays during the first half of the course and then write a 90-page film script in the second half of the course. Students will additionally write synopses, treatments, character sketches, and beat sheets. Designed for any student who has always wanted to write a screenplay
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: WAY-CE
| Repeatable
2 times
(up to 10 units total)
Instructors:
Folk, K. (PI)
;
Porter, E. (PI)
ENGLISH 190V: Reading for Writers: STRANGE ENCOUNTERS
This course is both a fiction workshop and a deprogramming. While you are likely to have encountered literature as an intellectual or academic practice, sublime writing is often experienced (and produced) in the body as much as the brain. Great writing often begins that way, too, via methods that are irrational, messy, irreducible, intuitive, even mystical. In fact, we might even ask: how do we turn off the brain? We will learn to read and write not as scholars prodding toward a correct answer but as explorers and sensualists having encounters with living, breathing entities on the page. We might ask: what does a scene make you feel? where do you feel it in your body? what makes a text come alive to you and only you at this moment in your life? Note that this is not an invitation to indulge in narcissism or narrowness in the classroom; rather, this is a chance to appreciate how subjective each person's interaction with a text is, and how valid a panoply of viewpoints. We'll read publis
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This course is both a fiction workshop and a deprogramming. While you are likely to have encountered literature as an intellectual or academic practice, sublime writing is often experienced (and produced) in the body as much as the brain. Great writing often begins that way, too, via methods that are irrational, messy, irreducible, intuitive, even mystical. In fact, we might even ask: how do we turn off the brain? We will learn to read and write not as scholars prodding toward a correct answer but as explorers and sensualists having encounters with living, breathing entities on the page. We might ask: what does a scene make you feel? where do you feel it in your body? what makes a text come alive to you and only you at this moment in your life? Note that this is not an invitation to indulge in narcissism or narrowness in the classroom; rather, this is a chance to appreciate how subjective each person's interaction with a text is, and how valid a panoply of viewpoints. We'll read published works that feel alive on the page: electric prose, divisive narrators, "unrealistic" plots, experimental forms, characters classified as "wrong" or "immoral." You will be responsible for take-home writing assignments, as well as short in-class writing exercises that encourage messy, intuitive writing of your own.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| Repeatable
4 times
(up to 20 units total)
Instructors:
Zhang, C. (PI)
ENGLISH 190YA: Young Adult Fiction
This is an intermediate course on the art and craft of fiction writing in the young adult genre. We will read widely in the genre. The aim of our reading will be to discover principles of craft, at the sentence level and at the narrative level, that generate powerful and enduring fiction. As we read, we will work to develop a writer's definition of YA. What are the differences between great YA and other great literature? What are the best ways to understand quality in a YA text? Within what bounds, stylistic, ethical, and otherwise, are we working as practitioners of the art form? Students will begin a young adult novel and submit pages from their work to the class on a regular basis. We will convene as a workshop to discuss one another's work.
Last offered: Winter 2025
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: WAY-CE
ENGLISH 191: Intermediate Creative Nonfiction
Continuation of
ENGLISH 91. Reading a variety of creative essays, completing short writing exercises, and discussing narrative techniques in class. Students submit a short (2-5 page) and a longer (8-20 page) nonfictional work to be workshopped and revised.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-CE
| Repeatable
2 times
(up to 10 units total)
ENGLISH 191DC: DCI Intermediate Memoir Workshop
Open to DCI Fellows & Partners only. DCI Intermediate Memoir Workshop will take as its occasion for your creative development a continuing examination of memoir essays and memoir book excerpts. These texts broadly innovate within and outside of the formal traditions you studied in DCI Memoir workshop, to find new and exciting ways to represent personal experience. We will read authors including Kathryn Harrison, Brian Doyle, Jerald Walker, Patricia Hampl, MFK Fisher, Jo Ann Beard, and Tressie McMillan Cottom. This course will also serve as the continuing examination and practice of formal memoir writing. My goal for your learning in this class is that you walk out of our last session having done the following: 1) Written a next piece to follow in some way on your work in DCI Memoir: a new or next chapter, a related or new essay, an expansion into a larger piece, etc. 2) Looked at more sophisticated models for writing about your own life in a meaningful way, including hybrids of journal
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Open to DCI Fellows & Partners only. DCI Intermediate Memoir Workshop will take as its occasion for your creative development a continuing examination of memoir essays and memoir book excerpts. These texts broadly innovate within and outside of the formal traditions you studied in DCI Memoir workshop, to find new and exciting ways to represent personal experience. We will read authors including Kathryn Harrison, Brian Doyle, Jerald Walker, Patricia Hampl, MFK Fisher, Jo Ann Beard, and Tressie McMillan Cottom. This course will also serve as the continuing examination and practice of formal memoir writing. My goal for your learning in this class is that you walk out of our last session having done the following: 1) Written a next piece to follow in some way on your work in DCI Memoir: a new or next chapter, a related or new essay, an expansion into a larger piece, etc. 2) Looked at more sophisticated models for writing about your own life in a meaningful way, including hybrids of journalism and personal writing (e.g., The New Yorker), deep dives into personal subjects that twin with passions or areas of expertise, travel writing, and lyric forms of the essay. 3) Written two Short Essays based on more sophisticated writing prompts. 4) Participated in whole-class workshops for both Short Essays, and in a full-class workshop for your next piece. 5) Practiced giving and receiving helpful individual and workshop peer feedback. A variety of creative prompts, critical exercises, and assigned readings will foster your understanding and appreciation of creative nonfiction, as well as your growth as a creative writer. Energetic, committed participation is a must.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
Instructors:
Evans, J. (PI)
ENGLISH 191L: Levinthal Tutorial in Nonfiction
Undergraduate writers work individually with visiting Stegner Fellows in nonfiction. Students design their own curriculum; Stegner Fellows act as writing mentors and advisers. Students will meet once per week with the Stegner Fellow and also four times a quarter in discussions sections with other students and the Levinthal Program Coordinators. Times to be announced upon acceptance.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
Instructors:
Horvath, S. (PI)
;
Juarez, R. (PI)
;
Khoddam-Khorasani, L. (PI)
;
Prieto, D. (PI)
...
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