Creative Writing: Advanced Nonfiction Prose - You Had to Be There! (Capstone eligible)

Everything happens somewhere, of course. But, we often forget that to better understand an incident we need stronger descriptions of the location where it happens. Place is a crucial part of storytelling. The setting of a narrative can help move the story forward while working to establish mood and tone. In this workshop, we will examine how authors, and other artists, use setting to tell more engaging true stories. We’ll look at world-building techniques by Chappell Roan, Joan Didion, Kendrick Lamar, Toni Morrison, Jaquira Diaz, Edward P. Jones, James Joyce and many others. Discussions on the readings will help frame weekly generative writing prompts. Through collaborative-learning and constructive critique, students will have opportunities to engage with the art of revision on the levels of both sentence and overall structure. This workshop nurtures writers hoping to start new projects and those with a work in progress.