English CEI. The Immigrant and the Exile: Workshop

Instructor: Paul Yoon
Tuesdays, 3:00-5:45 pm | Location: Barker 222
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This is a workshop specifically designed to explore the ways writers have given voice to the experience of being a stranger in a strange land. We’ll spend a semester studying and writing stories that attempt to capture the spectrum of characters who feel like outsiders in the place they reside in, and also those who have left somewhere to begin anew—the joys and the great challenges—and how we craft and put into words the idea of “foreignness,” “exile,” “immigrant,” and “home.” Some writers we’ll read include: Jhumpa Lahiri, Jenny Zhang, Nam Le, Akhil Sharma, and Don Lee.

Supplemental Application Information: Please submit the first 3-5 pages of a short story or a novel, along with a substantial letter of introduction. I’d like to know why you are drawn to fiction writing and what your goals are for this class. I’m interested in the writers you are reading. I’d also like to know a writer or an artist whose work you admire and why. This could be someone in a different field, such as a painter, a filmmaker, or an architect but the important thing is to be specific about what resonates and what draws you to them. Lastly, I’d like you tell me a place that has meant something to you. How you define place is up to you.

Apply via Submittable (by 11:59pm on 9/3, no exceptions)