- Campuses :
- Twin Cities
- Crookston
- Duluth
- Morris
- Rochester
- Other Locations
Graduate-level EngW courses are reserved first for MFAs in the writing program. If you are a graduate student in English or another department, please contact Kathleen Glasgow at kglasgow@umn.edu to discuss enrollment in an EngW course.
EngL 4612 Old English I
Instructor: Andrew Scheil
MWF, 10:10-11:00am
This course is an introduction to the rich language and literature of Anglo-Saxon England (circa. 500-1100). “Old English,” or as it is sometimes known, “Anglo-Saxon,” is the earliest form of
the English language; therefore, the primary course goal will be to acquire the ability to read
Old English texts in the original. No previous experience with Old English or any other
language is necessary or expected; undergraduates and graduate students from all
departments are welcome. For graduate students in English, Old English I may count for the
rhetoric/language/literacy distribution area. This course also fulfills the literary theory/
linguistic requirement for the undergraduate English major.
EngW 5102 Advanced Fiction
Instructor: MJ Fitzgerald
TH, 3:35-6:05 pm
This course is required for first-year fiction writers. This workshop is targeted to first year MFA students, community writers and graduate students who have a good deal of writing experience. The first aim is to give participants space and time to generate material. A second aim is to share drafts of stories with a group of peers in a formal and controlled setting, and a third is to encourage you to look for those among your classmates who may be potential long term readers of your writing. Many of you may be reading novels more frequently than you read stories; but stories are not novels in miniature, and a final very important aim of this class is to explore the range of the form. You will be asked to read, share and discuss a variety of stories throughout the semester. This course fulfills an out-of-genre workshop requirement for poets and nonfiction writers.
EngW 5104 Advanced Poetry Writing Workshop
Instructor: Peter Campion
W, 3:35-6:05 pm
This course is required for first-year poets. This course offers a chance to develop and hone your skills as poets, while generating new poems and working toward your eventual thesis. We’ll place special emphasis on each student’s unique development as a writer. During discussion of assigned reading, we’ll read the works of several poets in-depth, while working to understand the history of modern poetry in English, and speculating on our own responses to this history.
EngW 5106 Advanced Nonfiction Writing
Instructor: Regents’ Professor Patricia Hampl
M, 4:40-7:10 pm
This workshop is designed for advanced writing students working on literary nonfiction. This course is required for first year nonfiction writers. If you are not an MFA student, you may apply to the workshop IF there are open seats. Please contact Kathleen at kglasgow (at) umn (dot) edu for more details. The workshop will be organized principally around the work presented by members of the workshop for group discussion. In addition, there will be occasional assigned reading srelated to compositional matters, as well as brief writing prompts and exercises. The idea is to focus on your work, but also to open discussion to consider general compositional questions in literary nonfiction. There will be a first day assignment so please watch for that. The syllabus and calendar will be set on the first day as well. This course fulfills an out-of-genre workshop requirement for poets and fiction writers.
EngW 5205 Screenwriting
Instructor: Affiliate
TH, 6:20-8:50 pm
This course is for students interested in the craft of writing for film. No prior screenwriting experience is necessary. Students can expect to complete at least 50-pages of an original screenplay with at least one substantial revision by term’s end. Students will workshop screenplays, view a variety of films, and participate in class discussions. Students can expect assigned reading and additional written assignments. For MFAs: this course can fulfill an out-of-genre genre workshop requirement. Must be a junior or a senior with at least one 3000-level EngW writing course already completed OR a graduate student at the University OR a member of the community. Please contact Kathleen Glasgow for more information and permission to enroll: kglasgow (at) umn (dot) edu
EngW 5310 Reading as Writers
Instructor: Regents' Professor Madelon Sprengnether
W, 3:35-6:05 pm
Memoir and Memory will introduce you to some of the amazing work in cognitive neuroscience regarding the functions of memory formation, retention, retrieval, and degradation or loss. If memory is an unreliable narrator, as both postmodern theory and contemporary scientific studies indicate, how do we understand the writing of memoir—whether as readers or practitioners? The field of research on memory (and brain functioning in general) is exploding with new information. We will look at some of this research—in terms that a layperson can understand—and relate it to some classic and contemporary memoir writing. Some areas of memory formation that we will cover include: how new memories are laid down and retrieved; how diseases of the brain (such as stroke or Alzheimers) affect memory and personality; how trauma impacts the brain; and how normal processes of aging are involved in the ways we recall our life histories. For variety, we will view and discuss some films, each of which deals with the role of memory in self-construction and understanding. This course fulfills a literature/language requirement taken under the EngW designator. It will fulfill the "EngL" requirement if yuou register under the EngL 5090 cross-list.
EngW 8101 Reading Across Genres
Instructor: Ray Gonzalez
T, 3:35-6:05 pm
Introductory course for all new MFA students. The course introduces new students to one another, to faculty, and to program requirements and details. Mandatory for all new MFAs.
EngW 8180 Thesis Seminar: Multigenre
Instructor: Julie Schumacher
T, 3:35-6:05 pm
This course will set the foundation for and help shape what will be your MFA thesis in the spring of your last year. Students in the third-year are required to take this course in the fall semester.
EngW 8990 Thesis Credits
If you are entering your third year in the program in fall 2013, you will want to begin assembling your Thesis Committee in late spring 2013. Generally, students complete all four thesis credits with one faculty member in the spring of the third year (Thesis Director) and have one second reader. It is possible to complete thesis credits with two different faculty members during two semesters. Please let Kathleen know when you have selected a committee and need to register for thesis credits.
EngW 8110 Seminar in Fiction: Instructor: Charles Baxter T, 3:35-6:05 pm This course fulfills a seminar requirement OR a lit/language requirement (NOT the EngL requirement) OR EngW class of your choice.
EngW 8120 Seminar in Poetry Instructor: Peter Campion, W, 3:35-6:05 pm This course fulfills a seminar requirement OR a lit/language requirement (NOT the EngL requirement) OR EngW class of your choice.
EngW 8130 Seminar in Nonfiction Instructor: Ray Gonzalez, TH, 3:35-6:05 pm This course fulfills a seminar requirement OR a lit/language requirement (NOT the EngL requirement) OR EngW class of your choice.
EngW 5205 Screenwriting Instructor: Affiliate M, 6:20-8:50 pm This course can fulfill an out-of-genre workshop requirement OR an EngW class of your choice.
This course is for students interested in the craft of writing for film. No prior screenwriting experience is necessary. Students can expect to complete at least 50-pages of an original screenplay with at least one substantial revision by term’s end. Students will workshop screenplays, view a variety of films, and participate in class discussions. Students can expect assigned reading and additional written assignments. For MFAs: this course can fulfill an out-of-genre genre workshop requirement. Must be a junior or a senior with at least one 3000-level EngW or EngL writing course already completed OR a graduate student at the University OR a member of the community. Please contact Kathleen Glasgow for more information and permission to enroll: kglasgow at umn dot edu
EngW 5130 Topics in Advanced Creative Writing, cross-listed with EngL 5090 Readings in Special Subjects Instructor: Maria Damon, M, 4:40-7:10 pm 3:35-6:05 pm This course can fulfill a primary workshop requirement OR EngW 5130 Topics in primary/out-of-genre requirement OR a lit/language requirement OR EngW class of your choice. Please register under the EngL 5090 cross-list if you need to fulfill the EngL requirement.
NOTE: Any EngW course can fulfill the "Creative Writing Class of Your Choice" requirement for MFAs.
