Intermediate Writing in Prose

This workshop-based course focuses on the writing and editing of short fiction and memoir. Students attempt several different approaches to writing and publication. Through guided writing prompts, group seminars and workshop exercises, students will learn how to receive and provide generative and respectful feedback of each other’s work. Students will write weekly reflections, creative responses, and present multiple revisions of their own work. By the end of this course, students will have learned the process of working from a draft, through editing and publication of a chapbook. Students will participate in workshops, editorial work, writing weekly and creative reflections. They will also read and respond to contemporary works including fiction, memoir, essay and graphic novel. The goal of this course, as Mattilda Sycamore Bernstein teaches, is to “edit and edit and edit until the writing sings… to exchange sentences and build a structure that can hold us”. In these few months together, we will write as practice, as editing, as revision, and community-making.