printer friendly pageENGLISH 91DC: Writing the Memoir
Open to DCI Fellows and Partners only. In this course, we will practice the art and craft of writing memoir: works of prose inspired by the memory of personal events and history. In our practice, we will look at different strategies for writing with meaning and insight about the events in our lives. We will read a variety of models by published authors who have made sense of the personal alongside the profound: the sad, joyful, simple and complicated stuff of living and being alive. Our learning will be discussion-driven. You should expect to do daily writing in the class, and to write and read widely between our class meetings. We will read, discuss, and imitate excerpts of memoirs by such authors as Augustine, Andrew Solomon, Joyce Carol Oates, Tim O¿Brien, Joan Didion, and Eavan Boland, among many others. At least half of our class time will be devoted to the discussion of participants' work. The course will address issues ranging from how we select and write about events from our personal lives, to the ethical obligations of memoirists, to the ways we can explore new understanding about the past, as well as our own courage and reluctance to share personal writing. Writers at all levels of experience and comfort with creative writing are very welcome.
Terms: Win, Spr
| Units: 5
Instructors:
Evans, J. (PI)
ENGLISH 91DF: Documentary Fictions
More and more of the best American fiction, plays, and even comics are being created out of documentary practices such as in-depth interviewing, oral histories, and reporting. Novels like Dave Eggers' What is the What, plays like Anna Deavere Smith's Twilight: Los Angeles, and narrative journalism like Rebecca Skloot's The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, all act as both witnesses and translators of people's direct experience and push art into social activism in new ways. In this course students will examine the research methods, artistic craft, and ethics of these rich, genre-bending works and then create documentary fictions of their own. Readings will include works by Truman Capote, Dave Eggers, and Lisa Taddeo, as well as Katherine Boo, author of the award-winning Behind the Beautiful Forevers, who will visit the class. No prior creative writing or journalism experience required. Note: First priority to undergrads. Students must attend the first class meeting to retain their roster spot.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: WAY-CE
| Repeatable
2 times
(up to 8 units total)
Instructors:
Pufahl, S. (PI)
;
Willihnganz, J. (PI)
ENGLISH 91NW: Nature Writing
In this course we will be reading some of the most beautiful, magical, vital, dangerous andrevolutionary essays and stories and poems ever written, and, in our own writing about nature, will be joining that lineage that includes writers such as Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Emily Dickinson, John Muir, Wendell Berry, Rachel Carson, Annie Dillard, and many others. Expect to spend lots of time immersed in nature, literally and literarily. Required materials include: pen, notebook, magnifying glass, binoculars, and a good pair of shoes.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
Instructors:
Smith, A. (PI)
ENGLISH 91V: Creative Nonfiction
Online workshop course. Historical and contemporary as a broad genre including travel and nature writing, memoir, biography, journalism, and the personal essay. Students use creative means to express factual content.
Last offered: Summer 2019
| UG Reqs: WAY-CE
ENGLISH 91VO: Voices of the Land
Amazing things can happen when a writer decides to push back from their desk and go out into the world in search of stories to tell. The lives of the subjects, as well as the life of the writer, can be changed forever. In this class, we will read and discuss three classic works of documentary journalism, and students will come up with a documentary project of their own. In the process, we will practice skills such as interviewing subjects, notetaking, photography, story structure, and other techniques of documentary journalism.nNOTE: First priority to undergrads. Students must attend the first class meeting to retain their roster spot.
Last offered: Winter 2019
ENGLISH 92: Reading and Writing Poetry
Prerequisite:
PWR 1. Issues of poetic craft. How elements of form, music, structure, and content work together to create meaning and experience in a poem. May be repeated for credit. NOTE: First priority to undergrads. Students must attend the first class meeting to retain their roster spot.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr, Sum
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: WAY-CE, WAY-A-II
| Repeatable
2 times
(up to 10 units total)
Instructors:
Brewer, W. (PI)
;
Hofmann, R. (PI)
;
Michas-Martin, S. (PI)
...
more instructors for ENGLISH 92 »
Instructors:
Brewer, W. (PI)
;
Hofmann, R. (PI)
;
Michas-Martin, S. (PI)
;
Perham, B. (PI)
;
Ross, M. (PI)
;
Shanahan, C. (PI)
;
Shewmaker, M. (PI)
ENGLISH 92AP: Arab and Arab-American Poetry (CSRE 92D)
In this introductory course, students will write and read widely, exploring various aspects of poetic craft, including imagery, metaphor, line, stanza, music, rhythm, diction, and tone. The course will focus primarily on the rich and varied tradition of Arab and Arab-American poets, with a special emphasis on contemporary poets exploring the intersections of cultural identity, nationhood, race, gender, and sexuality. The first half of the course will consist of close reading a selection of poems, while the second half of the course will consist of workshopping student writing. Through peer critique, students respond closely to the work of fellow writers in a supportive workshop. Writers at all levels of experience and comfort with poetry are welcome.nNOTE: First priority to undergrads. Students must attend the first class meeting to retain their roster spot.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| Repeatable
2 times
(up to 10 units total)
ENGLISH 92BP: Contemporary Black Poetry and Poetics (AFRICAAM 92BP)
In this poetry workshop, students will write and read closely, exploring various aspects of poetic craft, including imagery, metaphor and simile, line, stanza, music, rhythm, diction, and tone. The course reading will focus on the rich diversity of contemporary poetry from the global Black diaspora, with a special emphasis on poetry that investigates the intersections of race, cultural identity, nationhood, gender, and sexuality. Note: No prior knowledge of Black poetry and poetics is required. First priority to undergrads. Students must attend the first class meeting to retain their roster spot.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
| Repeatable
2 times
(up to 10 units total)
Instructors:
Shanahan, C. (PI)
ENGLISH 92VP: Visual Arts and Poetry
This creative writing workshop will make use of Stanford's own Cantor Arts Center and Anderson Collection to explore the relationship between poetry and visual art. We'll read poets whose work incorporates painting, drawing, printmaking, photography, film, and ekphrasis, and will engage poetically with art on view at Stanford. Each student will produce a mixed media chapbook by the end of the quarter. Readings will include works by Claudia Rankine, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Anne Carson, William Blake, Robin Coste Lewis, Maggie Nelson, Layli Long Soldier, Rainer Maria Rilke, and Etel Adnan. Note: First priority to undergrads. Students must attend the first class meeting to retain their roster spot.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
| Repeatable
2 times
(up to 10 units total)
Instructors:
Ross, M. (PI)
ENGLISH 93Q: The American Road Trip
From Whitman to Kerouac, Alec Soth to Georgia O'Keeffe, the lure of travel has inspired many American artists to pack up their bags and hit the open road. In this course we will be exploring the art and literature of the great American road trip. We will be reading and writing in a variety of genres, workshopping our own personal projects, and considering a wide breadth of narrative approaches. Assignments will range from reading Cormac McCarthy's novel, 'The Road,' to listening to Bob Dylan's album, 'Highway 61 Revisited.' We will be looking at films like 'Badlands' and 'Thelma and Louise,' acquainting ourselves with contemporary photographers, going on a number of campus-wide field trips, and finishing the quarter with an actual road trip down the California coast. Anyone with a sense of adventure is welcome!
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-CE
Instructors:
Carlson-Wee, K. (PI)
Filter Results: