Welcome to EngW 1101, Introduction to Creative Writing.
The idea of this introductory course is to explore the craft of writing in its multiple forms and to improve your critical skills and your ability to read as writers with the help of nine local visiting writers who will talk about the writing of poetry and prose, and of their own process of composition in a lecture on Wednesday. Fall semester’s visitors are Todd Boss, Katrina Vandenberg, Yuko Taniguchi, Julie Schumacher, Garrison Keillor, Alexs Pate, Patricia Hampl, Nicole Johns, Kate DiCamillo, Adam Hochschild.
The smaller sections—which will meet on a different day—will include discussions of the samples of writing by the visiting writers and the critique of peer work, but the main emphasis will be on your own writing: you will be asked to write and revise regularly, and to complete three creative portfolios through a progression of exercises in poetry, prose and narrative prose. Some of the areas that will be engaging you are: finding your material, writing from memory, invention and imagination, recognizing character, how to compose and why revision. None of the instructors will assume previous writing experience


