TEACHING
In my classes, students, as apprentices acquiring a craft, read and discuss writing by master authors. Practicing with prompts and exercises, they discover by doing. In work-shopping, they learn from each other. At the end, they are equipped with skills to continue working on their projects.
UPCOMING CLASSES
The Loft Literary Center
Open Book
1011 Washington Avenue South, # 200
Minneapolis, MN 55415
(612) 379-8999
Education Catalog Online: www.loft.org
The Art of Creative Nonfiction
Tuesdays, 10 am – noon, 12-Week Class, January 26 – April 13, 2010
Tell all the Truth but tell it Slant / Success in Circuit lies…” So says Emily Dickinson. In this course we’ll learn how to “slant” our observations of the world, to tell the truth, but in a manner more creative than simple recording. We’ll learn through the skillful use of artistic techniques—vivid imagery, scenes, metaphors, dialogue, and rhythms of language—to use our distinctive voices to tell our experiences. We’ll read authors such as Joan Didion, Patricia Hampl, Scott Russell Sanders, E.B. White, mentors showing us how to write about what matters in families and the physical world, in history and the arts. We’ll experiment with form—personal and lyric essay, memoir and reportage—and learn to provoke, persuade, and move our readers. By the end of the course, students will share a polished piece of writing with the class. The instructor will give written feedback on up to 20 pages of student writing. Please obtain a copy of the 2004 version (red cover, includes a Part IV Anthology) of the book, Tell It Slant, by Brenda Miller and Suzanne Paola, published by McGraw Hill.
30% DISCUSSION OF TOPICS AND READINGS
35% IN-CLASS WRITING
35% SHARING WRITING
We Like Short Shorts!
Wednesdays, 7:30 – 9:30 p.m. 6-Week Class, January 27 – March 3, 2010
Less is more. In this class we’ll discover what that means, writing short shorts (fewer than 1000 words). We’ll read examples crossing over genres—flash fiction, sudden nonfiction, prose poems—from a variety of writers, including Anne Carson, Lydia Davis, Stuart Dybek, Dave Eggers, Jamaica Kincaid, W.S. Merwin, Mary Oliver, Bruce Holland Rogers. We’ll analyze their work in terms of maximizing an effect with a minimum of words. We’ll discuss the essentials of good storytelling—developing plot, character, dialogue, point of view, image and metaphor—always with word economy in mind. We’ll do many exercises leading to several polished pieces and will thoughtfully critique all stages of our writing. Plan for fun in this experimental, imaginative form, which according to Vestal Review, “engages your mind not only for the short duration of its read, but for a long time after.” Small copy fee.
30% DISCUSSION OF TOPICS AND READINGS
35% IN-CLASS WRITING
35% SHARING WRITING
Let’s Go Formal!
Tuesdays, 6:00 - 8:00 p.m. 4-Week Class, April 27-May 18, 2010
Let’s play with technique. For its own fun and to discover what our poems want to be. As Mary Oliver says: “The more familiar the subconscious is with the patterns, the details of form, the more likely the real work, the first approaching line of words, will arrive —will select itself— properly.” In this course we’ll read formal poetry from past and present poets who will serve as examples and models for us. We’ll imitate such writers as William Shakespeare, Gerard Manley Hopkins and W. H. Auden, as well as Elizabeth Bishop, Marilyn Hacker and Diane Wakoski. We’ll experiment with sonnets, villanelles, sestinas, and ballads; we’ll work with these traditional forms and add our own new twists. We’ll complete many exercises leading to several polished poems and will thoughtfully critique ourselves in all stages of our writing. We’ll celebrate at the end with a reading of our work. Small copy fee.
30% DISCUSSION OF TOPICS AND READINGS
35% IN-CLASS WRITING
35% SHARING WRITING
Workshops
An experienced leader, I enjoy directing seminars or workshops for students of all ages, writing groups of all types, and book clubs of all styles.
Editing and Consultation
I edit and critique manuscripts for writers of all levels. Working in consultation with the author, I offer feedback and suggestions for changes to craft and structure, charging $35 – $45/hour, depending on specific needs and time constraints.
