English 010.301 Intro to Creative Writing: Sports Narratives Jamie-Lee Josselyn M 2:00-5:00
English 010.302 Intro to Creative Writing: Extreme Noticing Sam Apple T 4:30-7:30
English 010.303 Intro to Creative Writing Weike Wang M 2:00-5:00
English 010.304 Intro to Creative Writing: Fact and Fiction Marion Kant T 1:30-4:30
English 010.305 Intro to Creative Writing: Poetry and Memoir Laynie Browne R 1:30-4:30
English 010.306 Intro to Creative Writing: Narrative Collage Karen Rile W 2:00-5:00
English 010.307 Intro to Creative Writing: Imitations in Writing and Form Ahmad Almallah T 4:30-7:30
English 010.601 Intro to Creative Writing: Poetry and Memoir Laynie Browne W 5:30-8:30
English 110.401 Writing for Television Scott Burkhardt W 6:00-9:00
English 112.301 Fiction Writing Workshop Marc Anthony Richardson W 6:00-9:00
English 113.301 Poetry Writing Workshop Rachel Zolf T 1:30-4:30
English 114.401 Playwriting Workshop Anne Marie Cammarato F 2:00-5:00
English 115.301 Advanced Fiction Writing Max Apple T 1:30-4:30
English 115.302 Advanced Fiction Writing: Autofiction Weike Wang M 5:00-8:00
English 116.401 Screenwriting Kathleen DeMarco Van Cleve M 2:00-5:00
English 116.402 Screenwriting Scott Burkhardt W 2:00-5:00
English 116.403 Screenwriting Scott Burkhardt R 4:30-7:30
English 117.301 The Arts and Popular Culture Anthony DeCurtis R 1:30-4:30
English 121.301 Writing for Young Adults Nova Ren Suma W 2:00-5:00
English 122.301 Making Comics J.C. Cloutier and Rob Berry MW 2:00-3:30
English 124.401 Writing and Politics Lorene Cary W 5:00-8:00
English 129.401 Across Forms: Art and Writing Sharon Hayes and Rachel Zolf W 2:00-5:00
English 130.401 Advanced Screenwriting Kathleen DeMarco Van Cleve W 2:00-5:00
English 134.401 Passion Projects: Radical Experiments in Writing Plays, Screenplays, Solo Shows and Pilots Ricardo A. Bracho R 4:30-7:30
English 135.301 Creative Nonfiction Writing Max Apple R 1:30-4:30
English 135.302 Narrative Nonfiction: The Art of Experience Jay Kirk T 1:30-4:30
English 135.303 Creative Nonfiction Writing: Writing Your Travels Marion Kant R 1:30-4:30
English 138.401 Writing Center Theory and Practice Valerie Ross TR 10:30-12:00
English 142.401 Duchamp Is My Lawyer Kenneth Goldsmith and Peter Decherney R 1:30-4:30
English 145.301 Advanced Nonfiction Writing: Writing about Mental Health and Addiction Stephen Fried M 4:30-7:30
English 158.301 Journalistic Storytelling Dick Polman M 2:00-5:00
English 159.301 Political Commentary Writing: The Presidential Election Dick Polman W 2:00-5:00
English 514.640 Writing Experiments Christy Davids T 4:30-7:30
English 516.640 Writing and Remembering: A Memoir Workshop Kathryn Watterson R 5:30-8:10
Descriptions
English 010.301
Intro to Creative Writing: Sports Narratives
Josselyn
M 2:00-5:00
We use sports to shape our lives as individuals, as families, and as communities. Whether a runner completing a marathon for charity, a high school hopeful’s quest for a scholarship, or a pro team clinching — or falling short of — a title, the highs and lows of an athletic journey, when combined with literary devices, insightful reflection, and occasionally just the right amount of indulgence, make for stories that teach and inspire. Even those of us who are true amateur athletes or exclusively spectators tap into the emotions that sports evoke. Additionally, sports provide a crucial platform for social, political, and cultural issues via circumstances both on and off the court, field, or track.
Over the course of the semester, students in our workshop will compose a personal essay from the perspective of an athlete or fan, a reported piece on an athlete, team, or sporting event, and a short story that centers around athletics. For their final project, students will complete a longer piece in one of these modes, along with a revision of an earlier draft. As students work on their own sports stories, we will be joined by several in-class guests and we will read the work of great storytellers like Grantland Rice, Toni Cade Bambara, Roger Angell, Leslie Jamison, Bill Simmons, and Penn’s own Buzz Bissinger, Sam and Max Apple, and Dan McQuade. We will also look to professional athletes whose words and gestures have made an impact, from fan favorites like Philly’s own Jason Kelce to athlete activists like Kathrine Switzer, Megan Rapinoe, and Colin Kaepernick.
English 010.302
Intro to Creative Writing: Extreme Noticing
Sam Apple
T 4:30-7:30
In the words of novelist Alice LaPlantte, “our first job as writers” is “to notice.” We all notice the world around as we make our way through each day, but “noticing” as a writer is different. Whether working on fiction, nonfiction, poetry, or any other genre, the writer has to pay attention to the very small, to zoom in on the specific detail or insight that can make even the most mundane moment feel entirely new. Noticing in this way is a skill that, like most skills, is developed with practice. In this class, we’ll practice paying attention to the small with weekly writing prompts and take occasional “noticing excursions” around campus. Along the way, we’ll review student writing as a group and read works by great contemporary noticers, including Karl Ove Knausgaard, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Ben Lerner, and Miranda July. Questions? Contact me at samapple@gmail.com.
English 010.303
Intro to Creative Writing
Wang
M 2:00-5:00
In this course, students will read contemporary fiction writers such as Nunez, Hempel, Shepard, and Moody, among others. Students will be introduced to the craft of writing through discussions on plot, character, dialogue and voice. Students will also be encouraged to explore different kind of fictional writing from flash to ‘pseudo-memoir’ to the short story. The second half of the semester will be dedicated to workshopping the works of peers. Each student will be expected to turn in biweekly short assignments (1-2 pages) as well as two creative pieces for workshop (8-12 pages).
English 010.304
Intro to Creative Writing: Fact and Fiction
Kant
T 1:30-4:30
In this course, students will read literature by contemporary (and not so contemporary) writers such as Virginia Woolf, George Orwell, Edna O’Brien, Angela Carter, Bell Hooks, Zadie Smith, Neil Gaiman. Students will be introduced to the craft of writing through discussions of genres, styles, techniques and themes.
This course is going to be taught online, both in synchronous and asynchronous sessions that take the form of workshops and interactive discussions. There will also be independent discussions between student and instructor. The seminar is scheduled for three hours on Tuesday between 1:30 and 4:30pm with reading, writing and talking sections.
English 010.305
Intro to Creative Writing: Poetry and Memoir
Browne
M 5:30-8:30
This is a course for students who are interested in exploring a variety of approaches to creative writing, including poetry, memoir, and hybrid texts. Readings will include poetry and memoir, and will represent various approaches to writing from life, including works by: Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Marosa Giorgio, Nathalie Sarraute, Renee Gladman, and Lyn Hejinian, among others. Students will be encouraged to discover new territory, to cultivate a sense of play, to collaborate, and to unhinge conventional assumptions regarding what is possible in writing.
English 010.306
Intro to Creative Writing: Narrative Collage
Rile
W 2:00-5:00
NARRATIVE COLLAGE: because the most interesting journey isn’t a straight line. In this workshop we’ll explore fiction and creative nonfiction using nontraditional techniques including nonlinear segments, multiple voices, found texts, and more. We’ll dig into readings from a wide range of sources, from Sei Shōnagon’s 10th-century Pillow Book through Jenny Offill’s 2020 bestseller Weather. This seminar-style course is designed for students interested in experimenting with both memoir and fiction, and is appropriate for any level of experience, from curious beginners to accomplished writers. There will be weekly reading assignments with short response papers and weekly creative prompts, which will be workshopped in a collaborative, supportive setting. Questions? Contact me at krile@writing.upenn.edu.
English 010.307
Intro to Creative Writing: Imitations and Writing in Form
Almallah
T 4:30-7:30
What is a cento? An essay? A short story? How do you go about writing one? How can writing a sonnet or a piece of dialogue both be an exercise in bringing the poetics of language to the forefront? How can the imitation of literary forms be a way into improving your writing? How does writing “a terrible sonnet” sound to you? This course works around the idea of imitation as a way of constructing generative practices of writing by setting limitations. We’ll begin by looking at examples of poetic forms and their imitations in pre-modernist and modernist works and their use of form. Eventually we’ll work on writing our own imitation and how to use them or break them into any style, including prose.
English 010.601
Intro to Creative Writing: Poetry and Memoir
Browne
W 5:30-8:30
This is a course for students who are interested in exploring a variety of approaches to creative writing, including poetry, memoir, and hybrid texts. Readings will include poetry and memoir, and will represent various approaches to writing from life, including works by: Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Marosa Giorgio, Nathalie Sarraute, Renee Gladman, and Lyn Hejinian, among others. Students will be encouraged to discover new territory, to cultivate a sense of play, to collaborate, and to unhinge conventional assumptions regarding what is possible in writing.
English 110.401
Writing for Television
Burkhardt
W 6:00-9:00
This is a workshop-style course for those who have an interest in writing for television. The course will consist of two parts: First, students will develop premise lines, beat sheets and outlines for an episode of an existing television show. Second, students will develop their own idea for a television series which will culminate in the writing of the first 30 pages of an original television pilot. Students will be admitted on the basis of an application by email briefly describing their interest in the course and their experience as a writer to bujo@sas.upenn.edu. This course is cross-listed with Cinema and Media Studies 117.
English 112.301
Fiction Writing Workshop
Richardson
W 6:00-9:00
In this fiction writing workshop, we will be making a conscious effort to transcend our personal reading and writing preferences in order to be apprenticed by divergent literature—aesthetic achievements centered around objective reality, subjective life, and ecstatic confession and play! Most of the works that tend to affect us deeply are the ones that might have wearied us, or even greatly disturbed us. But in time, upon further reflection, we find them rather informative—or even illuminating! We will do a lot of new weekly writing, which will result in a draft and a final version of an original story. You and another classmate will be “hosting” at least one class in open discussion of a weekly reading, and critiquing each other’s drafts—focusing on craft, rather than content. You will challenge your self-censorship in a safe and supportive environment, and will read weekly what you write to develop your observational and listening skills in determining the effects of the spoken word.
English 113.301
Poetry Writing Workshop
Zolf
T 1:30-4:30
There’s a reason Plato banned all poets from his utopian Republic: poetry is wild, uncontainable, ungovernable. The poetic is a force that upends not just language but all fixed ideas and categories. In this course we’ll explore your poetic potential. Students are welcome in our language lab no matter what your experience with the poetic has been. You can even be a fiction or creative non-fiction writer--or an artist--interested in working with the force of the poetic and improving the rhythm, diction, sound, and arrangement of your work with language. In this course, you’ll read and respond to a range of poetic works, write every week, be workshopped by your peers, and work on a poetic portfolio that is just as wild as you can be.
English 114.401
Playwriting Workshop
Cammarato
F 2:00-5:00
This course is designed as a hands-on workshop in the art and craft of dramatic writing. It involves the study of new plays, the systematic exploration of such elements as storymaking, plot, structure, theme, character, dialogue, setting, etc.; and most importantly, the development of students' own short plays through a series of written assignments and in-class exercises. Since a great deal of this work takes place in class - through lectures, discussions, spontaneous writing exercises, and the reading of student work - weekly attendance and active participation is crucial. This course is cross-listed with Theatre Arts 114.
English 115.301
Advanced Fiction Writing
Max Apple
T 1:30-4:30
The class will be conducted as a seminar. Every student will write four stories during the semester; each story will be discussed by the group. The instructor will, from time to time, suggest works of fiction that he hopes will be illustrative and inspirational but there will be no required books. Attendance and active class participation are essential. Permit from the instructor is required. Please submit a brief writing sample to maxapple@gmail.com.
English 115.302
Advanced Fiction Writing: Autofiction
Wang
M 5:00-8:00
Often what we write can feel close to home. Our characters and events, some are firmly rooted in the real. But what is the overlap between writer and character? Writer and story? In this course, students will study the modern tradition (and trend) of auto fiction, or fictionalized autobiography. We will read writers such as Li, Cusk, Heti, Nunez, Hempel, Galchen, among others, and study auto fiction in both short and long forms. In our discussion, we will attempt to pull apart the layers that go into a truthful story that is also a lie. Throughout the semester, students will have a chance to write auto fiction of their own. Each student will be expected to turn in biweekly assignments (2-4 pages) that will culminate in a final portfolio of ‘autobiographical’ work.
English 116.401
Screenwriting
DeMarco Van Cleve
M 2:00-5:00
This is a workshop-style course for those who have thought they had a terrific idea for a movie but didn't know where to begin. The class will focus on learning the basic tenets of classical dramatic structure and how this (ideally) will serve as the backbone for the screenplay of the aforementioned terrific idea. Each student should, by the end of the semester, have at least thirty pages of a screenplay completed. Classic and not-so-classic screenplays will be required reading for every class, and students will also become acquainted with how the business of selling and producing one's screenplay actually happens. Students will be admitted on the basis of an application by email briefly describing their interest in the course to kathydemarco@writing.upenn. edu. Permit from the instructor is required. This course is cross-listed with Cinema and Media Studies 116.
English 116.402
Screenwriting
Burkhardt
W 2:00-5:00
This is a workshop-style course for those who have thought they had a terrific idea for a movie but didn’t know where to begin. The class will focus on learning the basic tenets of classical dramatic structure and how this (ideally) will serve as the backbone for the screenplay of the aforementioned terrific idea. Each student should, by the end of the semester, have at least thirty pages of a screenplay completed. Classic and not-so-classic screenplays will be required reading for every class, and students will also become acquainted with how the business of selling and producing one’s screenplay actually happens. Students will be admitted on the basis of an application by email briefly describing their interest in the course to bujo@sas.upenn.edu. Permit from the instructor is required. This course is cross-listed with Cinema and Media Studies 116.
English 116.403
Screenwriting
Burkhardt
R 4:30-7:30
This is a workshop-style course for those who have thought they had a terrific idea for a movie but didn’t know where to begin. The class will focus on learning the basic tenets of classical dramatic structure and how this (ideally) will serve as the backbone for the screenplay of the aforementioned terrific idea. Each student should, by the end of the semester, have at least thirty pages of a screenplay completed. Classic and not-so-classic screenplays will be required reading for every class, and students will also become acquainted with how the business of selling and producing one’s screenplay actually happens. Students will be admitted on the basis of an application by email briefly describing their interest in the course to bujo@sas.upenn.edu. Permit from the instructor is required. This course is cross-listed with Cinema and Media Studies 116.
English 117.301
The Arts and Popular Culture
DeCurtis
R 1:30-4:30
This is a workshop-oriented course that will concentrate on all aspects of writing about artistic endeavor, including criticism, reviews, profiles, interviews and essays. For the purposes of this class, the arts will be interpreted broadly, and students will be able—and, in fact, encouraged—to write about both the fine arts and popular culture, including fashion, sports and comedy. Students will be doing a great deal of writing throughout the course, but the main focus will be a 3,000-word piece about an artist or arts organization in Philadelphia (or another location approved by the instructor) that will involve reporting, interviews and research. Potential subjects can run the full range from a local band to a museum, from a theater group to a designer, from a photographer to a sculptor.
English 121.301
Writing for Young Adults
Suma
W 2:00-5:00
Young adult literature is powerful, inventive, and worthy of respect—and those writing it have enormous potential in their hands. This writing workshop will explore the craft of YA literature through creative assignments and readings of texts by both giants in the field and emerging voices, and discussions of student work in a constructive environment. Students will focus on craft concerns crucial to writing about and for teens, such as: voice, point of view, immediacy, pacing, and opening hooks. Students will create writing of their own that pushes the boundaries of form and content, drawing on the many possibilities available in YA literary fiction: blurred genres, unreliable narrators, retellings, and issues of identity and self-discovery. We will look beyond straightforward prose into forms such as epistolary and verse novels and other experimental mashups. We will consider how tolerant YA literature can be of ambiguity, and address the handling of so-called taboo subject matter. Authors we will study as inspirations and models may include Elizabeth Acevedo, Elana K. Arnold, Libba Bray, A. S. King, Justine Larbalestier, Malinda Lo, Kekla Magoon, Anna-Marie McLemore, Emily X.R. Pan, Jason Reynolds, Randy Ribay, and Ibi Zoboi. Come ready to challenge any preconceptions you may have about YA literature and examine what some believe is its greatest potential: to offer young readers a vehicle for recognizing themselves, and for reflecting and even transforming the world around them. Students will write the opening chapters of their own YA novels and produce a final portfolio of creative work that showcases their unique YA voice, with potential for further exploration beyond the confines of this class.
English 122.301
Making Comics
Cloutier, Berry
MW 2:00-3:30
This course is a creative writing workshop in the inexhaustible art of making comics. Open to both beginners and enthusiasts alike, the seminar will expose students to the unique language of comics and allow them to create their own stories in the medium. Through essential critical readings, practical homework, and lab assignments, students will develop an understanding of how text and sequential images create a unique kind of reading experience and storytelling. Over the course of the semester, students will take on a variety of roles in the making of comics (writing, illustrating, page layout, inking, character creation, and more), read groundbreaking comics theory and criticism, analyze now-classic and experimental comics, adapt a variety of prose & verse genres into comics and, ultimately, create a longer graphic narrative project as a group.
Although this is not intended as a course in drawing, all students will be expected to explore comics storytelling through the combination of words and cartoons (don’t worry, stick figures are fine!). In-class reviews will give students direct insight into how certain choices of composition affect the storytelling process. During the first half of the semester, the course will rigorously combine theory and practice, navigating through a slew of different genres (e.g. poem, short story, journalism, memoir, etc.) and how these can be transmogrified into comics form. The second half will be dedicated to the production of the longer comic project.
English 124.401
Writing and Politics
Cary
W 5:00-8:00
This is a creative writing workshop for students who are looking for ways to use their writing to participate in the 2020 election. Student writers will explore a number of different forms—which may include fiction, creative nonfiction, essay, playscripts, and more—as well as the way these forms can take shape for different readers—such as blogs, social media posts, short videos, or podcasts—and will also consider a range of topics as we publish work, in real time, with the multimedia platform #VoteThatJawn. #VoteThatJawn launched in 2018 to support youth registration and voting in Philadelphias 2018 midterm elections, and registration of 18-year-olds that year doubled: from 3,300 to nearly 7,000. In 2020, university, high school, and media partners across the city aim to hit 10K. Imagine that. Imagine a creative writing class that answers our desire to live responsibly in the world and to have a say in the systems that govern and structure us. Plus, a course devoted to learning to write with greater clarity, precision, and whatever special-sauce Jawn your voice brings.
The course is designed as an editorial group sharing excellent, nonpartisan, fun, cool, sometimes deadly earnest content for and about fresh voters. In addition, you will gain experience in activities that writers in all disciplines need to know: producing an arts-based event and a social media campaign, working with multimedia content, and collaborating with other artists. English 124 will sometimes work directly with diverse populations of youth from other colleges and high schools throughout the city. Because you will engage with a common reading program about the groundbreaking Voting Rights Act of 1965, the class is cross-listed with Africana Studies 124. In addition, the work of #VoteThatJawn performs a civic service; therefore it is listed as an Academically Based Community Service (ABCS) course with the university.
Don’t sit out this momentous electoral season. Devote time to your writing and use that writing to bring voters your age to the polls. This course is cross-listed with Africana Studies 124.
English 129.401
Across Forms: Art and Writing
Hayes, Zolf
W 2:00-5:00
What if a poem spoke from inside a photograph? What if a sculpture unfurled a political manifesto? What if a story wasn’t just like a dance, but was a dance—or a key component of a video, drawing, performance, or painting? Many artists employ writing in their practices, but may not look at the texts they create as writing. And many writers have practices that go beyond the page and deserve attention as art.
In this course, which is open to all students interested in art and writing, regardless of experience, students will develop multiple creative projects that integrate the forms, materials, and concerns of both art and writing. As a class we will employ critique and workshop, pedagogic methodologies from art and writing respectively, to support and interrogate cross-pollinations between writing and art practices. We will also study a field of artists and writers who are working with intersections between art and writing to create dynamic new ways of seeing, reading, and experiencing.
This course is cross-listed with Fine Arts 315/615. Permission to enroll is required; please submit a short description of your interest in the class to zolfr@writing.upenn.edu.
English 130.401
Advanced Screenwriting
DeMarco Van Cleve
W 2:00-5:00
This is a workshop-style course for students who have completed a screenwriting class, or have a draft of a screenplay they wish to improve. Classes will consist of discussing student's work, as well as discussing relevant themes of the movie business and examining classic films and why they work as well as they do. Classic and not-so-classic screenplays will be required reading for every class in addition to some potentially useful texts like What Makes Sammy Run? Students will be admitted on the basis of an application by email. Please send a writing sample (in screenplay form), a brief description of your interest in the course and your goals for your screenplay, and any relevant background or experience. Applications should be sent to kathydemarco@writing.upenn. edu. Permit from the instructor is required. This course is cross-listed with Cinema and Media Studies 130.
English 134.401
Passion Projects: Radical Experiments in Writing Plays, Screenplays, Solo Shows and Pilots
Bracho
R 4:30-7:30
This creative writing workshop will focus on writing for screen, stage and internet and is open to undergraduate and graduate students at every level of writing experience. The course will be writing intensive and also include the reading and analysis of feminist, trans, queer, working class and racially liberatory plays, films, television and performance as models of inspiration. Meditation, drawing, theater games, improv exercises, screenings and outings to see work on and off campus will round out this holistic and experimental approach to making work that illuminates and entertains audiences from across the US and global audience spectrum. This course is cross-listed with Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies 512.
English 135.301
Creative Nonfiction Writing
Max Apple
R 1:30-4:30
Each student will write three essays and the class will offer criticism and appreciation of each. There will be some discussion of and instruction in the form, but the course will be based on the student writing. Attendance and participation required.
English 135.302
Narrative Nonfiction: The Art of Experience
Kirk
T 1:30-4:30
Every work of nonfiction is a writer’s attempt to reconstruct experience. But experience can be an elusive thing to capture: a strange hybrid of the highly subjective and the more tangible zone of perceptible fact. How do we strike a balance in narrative nonfiction? For one, we employ the same devices that we already use to navigate our way through the world—that of our senses. The more vivid the details of sight, touch, smell, taste, and sound, the more immersed the reader will become in the author’s re-created world of words. But what of the more abstract, less concrete sixth sense of thought? After all, it is our mind that perceives and finds the subjective meaning in experience. In this narrative nonfiction writing workshop, we will look at craft, literary technique, the mechanics of building vivid and powerful scenes, discuss the role of story-logic, and the importance of hard fact-checking. Yet, the student is also urged to pay close attention to their own internal narrator, and to be mindful of the intuitive (and unconscious) powers at play in their writing. Each week we will review classics in the genre, do in-class writing exercises, go on periodic “experiential” assignments, and explore how the art of playing around with the raw material of everyday life (i.e., “reality”) can make for great and unexpected stories.
English 135.303
Creative Nonfiction: Writing Your Travels
Kant
R 1:30-4:30
In this course students will discuss what traveling means in an age when many people can get on a plane or drive on a whim to a place of their choice. Students will be asked to think about travel as a deliberate act or an act of improvisation, as never-ending process or a fixed journey. Students will observe themselves as travellers and record what they see and what happens around them when they travel. They will explore a popular form of writing and draw on their experiences and practice of both—traveling and writing. The familiar will become strange and new as they move through places and locations they think they know, return home, walk through their memories and explore places of the past. The course will explore famous works by travellers who visited the USA, for instance Charles Dickens’s “On America and the Americans,” and consider recent works such as Robert MacFarlane’s The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot (2012).
This course is going to be taught online, both in synchronous and asynchronous sessions that take the form of workshops and interactive discussions. There will also be independent discussions between student and instructor. The seminar is scheduled for three hours on Thursday between 1:30 and 4:30pm with reading, writing and talking sections.
English 138.401
Writing Center Theory and Practice
Ross
TR 10:30-12:00
This course is intended for capable writers who possess the maturity and temperament to work successfully as peer tutors at Penn. The course emphasizes the development of tutors’ own writing through the process of collaborative peer-criticism, individual conferences, and intensive sessions on writing, from mechanics to style. The class meets twice weekly; tutors also work two hours weekly in the Writing Center or elsewhere, and confer regularly in small groups or one-on-one meetings with the instructor. Tutors are required to write five short papers, eight one-page peer reviews, and two responses to readings. Additionally, students keep a journal and give two class presentations. CWIC-affiliated course; fulfillment of writing requirement and permission of instructor required. This course is cross-listed with WRIT (Writing Program) 138. For more information, visit the Critical Writing Program.
English 142.401
Duchamp Is My Lawyer
Goldsmith, Decherney
T 1:30-4:30
This course examines the impact of copyright law on artists and creative industries. Looking at publishing, music, film, and software, we will ask how the law drives the adoption of new media, and we will consider how regulation influences artistic decisions. A mix of the theoretical with the practical, this course will be using UbuWeb (the largest and oldest site dedicated to the free distribution of the avant-garde) as our main case study. The course will cover both the history of copyright law and current debates, legislation, and cases. We will also follow major copyright stories in the news. Readings cover such diverse topics as the player piano, Disney films, YouTube, video game consuls, hip hop, the Grateful Dead, file sharing, The Catcher in the Rye, and many more. We will also examine the critical role of "shadow libraries" (free culture hubs) in regards how the cultural artifact is produced and distributed in the digital age, alongside today’s gatekeepers of algorithmic culture, such as Netflix, Amazon, and Spotify. This course is cross-listed with Cinema and Media Studies 142.
English 145.301
Advanced Nonfiction Writing: Writing about Mental Health and Addiction
Fried
M 4:30-7:30
There are many reasons mental illness and addiction are so pervasive, and so difficult to treat and discuss—leading to all-time high rates of suicide and overdose. But there is one baseline problem we can immediately address: learning how to do more effective, affecting, and evidence-based writing about behavioral health. In this advanced writing course, one of the first of its kind for undergraduates in the country, students will explore some of the most powerful American nonfiction writing on behavioral health, in publications and books, and will have some of the authors as guest lecturers. During the class, each student will read and do a presentation on one major piece of mental health or addiction writing, and then will create, workshop, and rewrite one major piece of nonfiction writing of their own. Projects can be reported memoir, narrative longform, investigative reporting, medical science writing, or some combination of these. Taught by Stephen Fried, lecturer, CPCW; adjunct professor, Columbia University; collaborator, Scattergood Behavior Health Ethics Program, Penn Med; award-winning health journalist and author of Rush (biography of founding father of American mental health care); coauthor, with Patrick Kennedy, of A Common Struggle: A Personal Journey Through the Past and Future of Mental Illness and Addiction; coauthor of 2019 National Council for Behavioral Health white paper, “Mass Violence in America: Causes, Impacts & Solutions,” cofounder of WHYY/Scattergood Behavioral Health Journalism Workshop and Columbia Conference on Mental Health Journalism & Media. Permission to enroll is required; please submit a short writing sample to the instructor at stephenfried@comcast.net.
English 158.301
Journalistic Storytelling
Polman
M 2:00-5:00
The key issue: “How does the writer hook the reader, and how does the writer keep that reader hooked to the end?” English 158 is about mastering the mechanics of effective nonfiction narrative storytelling. Imagine that you are writing general-interest feature articles for a general-interest publication or website: What are the best ways to put the reader into your story? What are the elements that make a piece work? What are the elements of a good opening? When is it better to “show” as opposed to “tell”? When is it best to use first, second or third person? When is it best for the writer to use your own voice—or keep that voice at a distance? When is it best to use humor, and when to avoid it? When is it best to use anecdotes and scenes—both of which are staples of narrative storytelling? What are the “universal” themes that exist between the lines? We’ll work in different genres: observational pieces, profiles, personal pieces, long-form third-person pieces—and guest professionals will visit to share their expertise. An editor of mine used to say, “Good writing can be nurtured, cultivated, and encouraged.” That’s what I try to do. And I always say, “Journalistic writing is the most fun you can have working hard, and the hardest work you can do while having fun.”
English 159.301
Political Commentary Writing: The Presidential Election
Polman
W 2:00-5:00
What’s the most professionally honest and effective way to cover the historically unique Trump administration? Do the traditional rules of “objectivity” work anymore, when writing about a president who breaks the norms of communication and governance? What’s the most honest and effective way to harness the technological revolution - the impact of Facebook, Twitter, and the rest of social media; the megaphone of ideological media - that has already upended the old norms of coverage?
We’ll tackle these issues by writing about the Trump administration - and most timely of all, the autumn '20 presidential campaign. We’ll discuss the partisan national landscape, where even empirical facts are often deemed to be in dispute. Students will write stories in two formats: “straight” news blended with analysis; and, later, opinion commentary. The stories – posted to a closed website - will be workshopped in class.
The prime goal of this course is to help students develop political writing skills - most importantly, a respect for factual reporting, context and perspective, and informed opinion. This course will explore the daunting challenges that political journalists face when writing about polarizing topics for polarized audiences - while grappling with the thorny issues of “objectivity” and “balance,” the cultural influences of snark and irony, and the fog of “fake news.”
This course is designed to be timely, so we’ll closely monitor breaking stories - particularly about the presidential campaign - as they arise.
English 514.640
Writing Experiments
Davids
T 4:30-7:30
A workshop course devoted to cultivating experimental approaches in your writing. Practitioners of prose, poetry, and mixed-genre writing—as well as students who are new to any of these genres—are all welcome. We will test the boundaries of form and language as we hone our skills, experiment with new tools, read a number of writings by authors who break the rules, and explore what taking risks can teach us about our craft.
English 516.640
Writing and Remembering: A Memoir Workshop
Watterson
R 5:30-8:10
Writing and Remembering: A Memoir Workshop is designed to help students connect with their own minds, imaginations, and experiences, as well as with the world around them. We will read and discuss personal narratives by a wide range of writers, including James Baldwin, Jeanette Winterson, Ta-Nehisi Coates, John McPhee, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and Toni Morrison. We’ll look at “fact,” “fiction,” and “truth” in life and literature. We’ll also examine how a memoir can shine light on how we live on this earth, especially in the context of larger issues—from slavery to gender discrimination, disabilities to racism, and class bias to sexism—as viewed through a personal lens. A memoir is a slice of the author’s life usually examined in first person. The more personal the story, the more universal it becomes. In addition to in-class writing, students are expected to: maintain a practice of focused free writing (10-15 minutes daily), generate creative responses (2-3 pages weekly) to assigned books, essays, stories, films and speakers, participate in workshop discussions and peer review, and write and revise two to three personal essays or book chapters during the semester. If you have any questions about this course, please email kwatters@sas.upenn.edu.