Schedule

Fall 2022: Core Courses

ENGL 3020 | Fiction | Baumgartner
Prerequisites: ENGL 1020 or equivalent. This course will focus on the study of fiction as a genre. Special attention will be given to form and technique in the short story and novel. We will read and discuss fiction from a range of cultures and traditions, including stories by Ambrose Bierce, Kate Chopin, Anton Chekhov, James Baldwin, Eudora Welty, Flannery O’Connor, Ursula K. Le Guin, Gabriel García Márquez, Andre Dubus, Amy Hempel, and many others.
Required Text:
The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction, 8th Edition (Full), edited by Richard Bausch and R.V. Cassill [ISBN13: 978-0-393-93775-6]

ENGL 3141 | Creative Writing I: Poetry | Graves
Prerequisite(s): ENGL 1020 or equivalent; and one 2000-level literature course. Creative Writing I will focus on poetry this fall. This class is designed to help you learn the techniques, habits, and discipline of writing literary poems. We will study in the whole craft of writing poetry, generally based on the model used successfully in the other arts, and will learn by observing, imitating, and practicing the approaches used by accomplished poets. It is not simply a “writing workshop,” though we will spend a good deal of time considering and discussing poems that you write and submit to the class. We will read great poems from the past and present, and do our best to write some great poems of our own.
Required texts:
A Book of Luminous Things, edited by Czeslaw Milosz, ISBN: 0156005743
The Poetry Home Repair Manual, by Ted Kooser, ISBN: 0803259786.

ENGL 4907 | Creative Writing II: Fiction | Baumgartner
Prerequisites: ENGL 3142 or permission of the instructor. In this advanced workshop course, students will read contemporary short fiction from a range of cultures and traditions, and have an opportunity to write and submit new work of their own. Special emphasis will be given to advanced issues of form and technique in the short story. We will observe—and attempt to emulate—the process used by writers of successful literary fiction. After we’ve examined some of the finest published stories around, we’ll shift our attention to exploring outstanding student fiction submitted for workshop. Although we will dedicate a significant portion of the semester to student writing, you should come prepared to read and write critically (as well as creatively) on a weekly basis.
Required Texts:
The Girl in the Flammable Skirt: Stories, by Aimee Bender [978-0385492164]
Burning Bright: Stories, by Ron Rash [ISBN-13: 978-0061804120]
The Coast of Chicago: Stories, by Stuart Dybek [ISBN-13: 978-0312424251

Please see The Clarion on the Literature and Language webpage for complete details on all courses offered in the department.