Unit 1: The Art of Writing (& writing about art)
Tuesday, January 21st
Introduction to each other and course
Read: Syllabus, “What is Creative Nonfiction?” & excerpt from Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott, come with an example of creative nonfiction for discussion
Thursday, January 23rd
Continue introductions, class schedule
Reading discussion: defining creative nonfiction & the art of writing (& broccoli)
Introduce close readings
Read: “How to Write Vivid Descriptions,” “Write till You Drop” & “Total Eclipse” by Annie Dillard
Tuesday, January 28th
Close reading/reading discussion: descriptive writing & sensory details
Sign up for close readings (check out the close reading options here)
Intro to Art Narrative assignment
Sensory detail exercise
Read:, “Why I Write” by TTW & Leap by Terry Tempest William & Still Life with Oysters and Lemon by Mark Doty excerpts
interviews with the authors: "On Writing as an Act of Living: An Interview with Terry Tempest Williams" in Brevity & An Interview with Poet Mark Doty at Poets & Writers
Thursday, January 30th
Close reading/Reading discussion, form/style & ekphrastic essays
Share sensory detail exercise
Read: "Ekphrasis" by Marjorie Munsterberg & Ekphrastic poems at poetry.org (bring with you next Thursday)
Tuesday, February 4th
Art Museum Day!
e-mail art narrative proposal
Read: “Building Blocks of Creative Nonfiction: Characterization and Scene,” NowNovel dialogue examples, and A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Egger excerpt
(From Your Fathers, Where are They? And the Prophets, Do they Live Forever? by Dave Eggers)
Thursday, February 6th
Close reading/Reading discussion: more ekphrasis & dialogue
Share ekphrastic poems/activity
In-class work on dialogue
Sign up for conferences for next week!
Read: “Dead Christ” by Brian Bouldrey
Tuesday, February 11th
Individual conferences this week!
Close reading/Reading discussion: ekphrasis, visuals, & video essays
Art narratives in process check-in, preparing for workshop
Rough draft for Thursday
Thursday, February 13th
Small group workshop rough draft/revisions
Read: “My Mother in Two Photographs…” by Aleida RodrÍguez
Unit 2: Identity (A picture is worth a thousand words)
Tuesday, February 18th
Art Narrative due!
Visual rhetoric & terms for analysis
Photo essays
Introduction to Snapshot essays, technology & examples
Visual narrative group assignments
Read: “Caring for your Introvert” by Jonathan Rauch, “A Path Taken, with All the Certainty of Youth” by Margaret Atwood, & individual excerpts from The 27th Letter of the Alphabet by Kim Adrian
Thursday, February 20th
Close reading/Reading discussion: identity
In-class group work on visual narratives
Possible visit from Parker Media Lab
Read: excerpt from Picturing Texts& excerpts from Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
Tuesday, February 25th
Close reading/Reading discussion: images & text
Group Visual Narrative presentations
Pre-writing/Planning/Storyboarding snapshot essays
Read: "On the Origin of the Video Essay" & Mangoes by John Bresland & Baptism by Marilyn Freeman
Thursday, February 27th
Close reading/Reading discussion: video essays & identity
Work on snapshot essays
Sign up for conferences
Read: “Walking the Line,” Fitting the Pattern by Christine Wilks, “That Kind of Daughter” by Kristen Radtke (& City Fish by JR Carpenter)
Tuesday, March 3rd
Individual conferences this week!
Close reading/Reading discussion: interactivity & reader/author relationships
Hypertext, how to talk about e-lit, terms for analysis
Work on snapshot essays
Read: “Electronic Literature: What is it?” by N. Katherine Hayles & “Mr. Plimpton’s Revenge” by Dinty Moore
Thursday, March 5th
Reading discussion: nonlinear/linear narrative
Workshop snapshot essays/Revision
Read: “How to write like a *((@*(#$&” and excerpt from Wild by Cheryl Strayed
Unit 3: Place (Where we have been & where we are going)
Tuesday, March 10th
Snapshot Essays due (& presentations)
Reading discussion: Merging identity & place & home & maps
Read: “How to write about Place in Creative Nonfiction,” “The Ashes of August” by Kim Barnes, “The Art of the Travel Essay” & “History” by Dinty Moore
Thursday, March 12th
(Presentations continued)
Close Reading/Reading discussion: researching/capturing place, “home”
Introduce Google Maps Essay, technology & examples
Group analysis assignments
Read: “Pine Point” by the Goggles and assigned Hyperlocal Essays
March 16-20 Spring Break!
Tuesday, March 24th
Group Hyperlocal analysis presentations
Pre-writing/planning/mapping Google Maps Essay
Read: “Taroko Gorge” by Nick Montfort and excerpts from A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
(and Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer?)
Thursday, March 26th
Close reading/Reading discussion: code, generative text, & authorship
In-class work on Google Maps
Read: “High Muck a Muck: Playing Chinese” by Nicola Harwood & co. and excerpt from Stealing Buddha’s Dinner by Bich Minh Nguyen
Tuesday, March 31st
Individual conferences this week!
Close reading/Reading discussion: multimedia elements & design & co-authorship
In-class work on Google Maps
Read: “As we May Think” by Vannevar Bush& excerpt from Circle K Cycles by Karen Tei Yamashita
(& excerpt from Computer Lib/Dream Machines by Ted Nelson?)
Thursday, April 2nd
Workshop Google Maps drafts/revision
Reading discussion: links, connections & hypertext (& collage)
Introduction of hypertext project
Media options/brainstorming
Read: “My Body, A Wunderkammer” by Shelley Jackson & excerpt from Bossypants by Tina Fey
Unit 4: Connections (Listen to your (multimodal) broccoli)
Tuesday, April 7th
Google Maps Essay Due!
Close reading/Reading discussion, hypertext, fragmentation & lexias
Introduction to hypertext essay & examples
In-class My Body assignment
Topics, planning & storyboards
Bring images/text for hypertext tutorial!
Thursday, April 9th
Dreamweaver/Twine tutorial
Hypertext assignment
In-class work on projects
Read: “88 Constellations for Wittgenstein” by David Clark & “The Fall” by Alan Bigelow& “The Bafflement Fires” by Jason Nelson (in class)
Topic proposals due (via email)
Tuesday, April 14th
Close reading/Reading discussion, media & authorship
Navigation options (a look at three diverse styles)
Hypertext assignment, cont.
In-class work on projects
Read: “The Gathering Cloud” by JR Carpenter (winner of the 2016 New Media Prize) & “Arriving Simultaneously on Multiple Far-Flung Systems” by Judy Malloy (short-listed for the 2018 Coover award for electronic literature)
Thursday, April 16th
Close reading/Reading discussion: the elegance of e-lit
In-class work on projects
Read: “The End of Books” by Robert Coover & Novelling by Will Luers, Hazel Smith, and Roger Dean (winner of the 2018 Coover award for electronic literature)
Tuesday, April 21st
Individual Conferences this week!
Reading discussion: the past & future of e-lit
Virtual Reality?
Reflective memos
In-class work on projects
Thursday, April 23rd
In-class work on projects/ Posting drafts
Sign up for workshop & conferences
Tuesday, April 28th
Presentations & discussion/workshop
Thursday, April 30th
Last day of class!
Presentations & discussion/workshop
Final project revisions & reflections due by Thursday, May 7th