Instructor: Meng Jin
Thursday, 3:00-5:45pm | Location: Barker 269
Enrollment: Limited to 12 students
This course is a workshop in pleasure and delight. And wonder and joy and laughter, and rule-breaking, and everything that makes literature lively and alive and worthwhile. We will discover (or rediscover) what it means to truly read for pleasure, attending to all this good stuff in works by writers such as Ross Gay, Ruth Ozeki, Natalia Ginzburg, and more—works that are not merely hedonistic or escapist, but attempt to maintain a modest humanism in spite of humanity’s sins, and to insist on cheerfulness and loving in the face of catastrophe and personal tragedy. Finally, we will attend to hope, exploring the wild utopian visions of Ursula K. Le Guin. As we read, we will cultivate instincts for joyful, resilient imagination in our own writing practice.
This is a generative workshop, a laboratory of idea and story, and a temporary creative community. Unlike in traditional workshops, writers will not bring near-finished works to the group for critique. Instead, workshops will be in service to the dynamic process and practice of creation. Every week, there will be opportunities in class to explore and to play through guided prompts and free writing, and to share raw, new work with each other and receive feedback. At the end of the semester, students will share with each other a fully realized original story written during our time together.
Supplemental Application Information: Please read through the course description and syllabus, and write a letter in your own voice telling me why you’d like to take this course. Tell me about some books or writers you love and describe the kind of writer you are, or hope to become. If you’d like to share an example of your writing--1-2 pages of something you’re proud of, or a part of a project you’re working on--please do, and tell me why you chose it. If you don’t have a sample you’d like to share, simply tell me about what you’d like to write, in your letter.