Fundamentals of Creative Nonfiction

This intensive workshop-style course is for strong writers who wish to write creative nonfiction—that is, nonfiction prose that makes use of literary techniques to tell true stories—but who have little formal experience with the genre. We read exemplary works of creative nonfiction by such writers as Zadie Smith, James Baldwin, and Joan Didion, with the aim of using in our own writing what we observe in theirs. Over the course of the semester, students draft, workshop, and revise a substantial (15- to 20-page) stand-alone essay or chapter of a longer work as well as complete several shorter writing assignments.