This course is designed for any level (beginning, intermediate, advanced) writer who wants to study and write non-fiction personal narratives. The personal narrative can be crafted in a myriad of forms, from the straight-up personal to the braided-essay using a personal experience as an anchor to the hybrid personal essay with visuals and to the researched personal narrative. This course will explore a wide-range of personal essayists, paying close attention to their structure, voice, point of view, tone, and purpose/message.
Students will read published creative non-fiction works to analyze creative writing elements in use and to lead seminars about the works. There will be a writing portfolio kept throughout the quarter that will demonstrate knowledge of creative writing elements and terminology, skills learned and practiced (metaphor, analogy, descriptive language, imagery, pacing, syntax, and vocabulary), reading reflections, seminar questions and notes, and personal creative works.
This is a writing intensive course, with attention to finding or narrowing down topics, adding a research component to the creative writing, strengthening voice, and practicing effective editing and revising skills through peer workshops. This course is held on Wednesdays 6-9:30pm in person, or asynchronously in Canvas.