Oscar H. Casares

Instructor:  Casares, O & Moore, L            Areas:  n/a

Unique #:  35080-35110            Flags:  Writing

Semester:  Fall 2013            Restrictions:  n/a

Cross-lists:  n/a            Computer Instruction:  n/a

Prerequisites: E 603A, RHE 306, 306Q, or T C 603A.

Description: This course is an introduction to the three major genres of creative writing: fiction, poetry, and the personal essay. Students will be evaluated on work in all three genres. Short, frequent writing assignments (blog posts, sketches, and single poems) will allow students to practice their craft throughout the semester, and will culminate in longer pieces in each genre.

Prof. Casares will teach an introduction to reading and writing literary fiction. During the semester we will study a variety of stories from the textbooks, looking at the different techniques the writer used, and then eventually discussing your own short stories in this same manner. The goal is to make you a more critical reader while you gain a greater appreciation for what goes into developing an effective story, all of which is designed to improve your writing skills. Note: We will be discussing only literary fiction and not genre fiction (science fiction, vampire stories, romance, suspense, etc.). Prof. Casares will spend time at the beginning of the semester explaining the differences between the two forms, but if you hoped to write genre fiction this may not be the right course for you. There are no exceptions to this rule.

Prof. Moore will teach poetry writing, focusing on the building blocks of poetic craft (line, sound, and stanza) as well as broader issues of voice, tone, diction, and subject matter. We will read and analyze a variety of classic and contemporary poems, seeking to become better readers in order to become better writers.

Profs. Casares and Moore will collaborate to teach the art of the personal essay. Different from the persuasive or analytic essay you write for other classes, the personal essay is a literary genre related to memoir and autobiography. We will read outstanding examples of the form and practice casting our own experiences as literature in essays of our own.

This course will also introduce students to the basic practice of the creative writing class, the workshop. Every student will have the opportunity to have at least one assignment workshopped, either by the T.A. and members of your section, or by the professor and your T.A. in front of the whole class. Students will be able to choose between these options.

Texts: Janet Burroway, Imaginative Writing: The Elements of Craft, Pearson/Longman (3rd edition) ISBN 0205750354

Kim Addonizio, Ordinary Genius: A Guide for the Poet Within (Norton, 2009), ISBN 0393334163

Dean Young, Elegy on a Toy Piano (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2005), ISBN 0822958724

Requirements & Grading: Short story: 15% of final grade; Suite of 3-5 poems: 15% of final grade; Personal essay: 15% of final grade; Character sketch: 5% of final grade; Plot sketch: 5% of final grade; Poem #1: 5% of final grade; Poem #2: 5% of final grade; Personal Essay proposal: 5% of final grade; Weekly blog posts: 15% of final grade; Participation and attendance: 10% of final grade.

LITERATURE FOR WRITERS/The Role of Place in Literature

This course focuses on literature that has a distinct sense of place, which can include not only the geographical setting but also the historical influences on a particular region.  Because this is a course designed for creative writers, we will place special emphasis on the literary techniques used to create this sense of place within the text.  Some of the writers we will read include Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Issac Babel, Gina Berriault, Joan Didion, Daniyal Mueenuddin, Breece D’J Pancake, Katherine Anne Porter, and Juan Rulfo.

Requirements

Regular attendance.  Students will write response papers dealing with the techniques various writers have used to establish their narrative worlds.  Participation in class discussion is critical to the final grade.

Instructor:  Casares, O            Areas:  IV / U

Unique #:  35435            Flags:  Writing

Semester:  Spring 2013            Restrictions:  n/a

Cross-lists:  n/a            Computer Instruction:  No

Prerequisites: English 325F.

Description: This course is designed for students who have already taken Fiction Writing (325F) and have a serious interest in writing fiction. Since the class is primarily a workshop, we will discuss student work for the majority of the semester.

Texts: (Tentative) Fiction: A Pocket Anthology, Ed.: Gwynn

Requirements & Grading: You are required to write 2-3 short stories (each 6-12 pages) that will be discussed in a workshop setting. For all the other student work discussed in class, you will be responsible for writing detailed critiques (1-2 pages). Attendance is required. There will be no final exam.

Classroom participation, 30%
; Three Stories, 70%.

Instructor:  Casares, O & Moore, L            Areas:  n/a

Unique #:  34760-34790            Flags:  Writing

Semester:  Fall 2012            Restrictions:  n/a

Cross-lists:  n/a            Computer Instruction:  n/a

E 315F and 318L (Topic 1: Fiction) may not both be counted.

E 315P and 318L (Topic 2: Poetry) may not both be counted.

Prerequisites: E 603A, RHE 306, 306Q, or T C 603A.

Description: This course is an introduction to the three major genres of creative writing: fiction, poetry, and the personal essay. Students will be evaluated on work in all three genres. Short, frequent writing assignments (blog posts, sketches, and single poems) will allow students to practice their craft throughout the semester, and will culminate in longer pieces in each genre.

Prof. Casares will teach an introduction to reading and writing literary fiction. During the semester we will study a variety of stories from the textbooks, looking at the different techniques the writer used, and then eventually discussing your own short stories in this same manner. The goal is to make you a more critical reader while you gain a greater appreciation for what goes into developing an effective story, all of which is designed to improve your writing skills. Note: We will be discussing only literary fiction and not genre fiction (science fiction, vampire stories, romance, suspense, etc.). Prof. Casares will spend time at the beginning of the semester explaining the differences between the two forms, but if you hoped to write genre fiction this may not be the right course for you. There are no exceptions to this rule.

Prof. Moore will teach poetry writing, focusing on the building blocks of poetic craft (line, sound, and stanza) as well as broader issues of voice, tone, diction, and subject matter. We will read and analyze a variety of classic and contemporary poems, seeking to become better readers in order to become better writers.

Profs. Casares and Moore will collaborate to teach the art of the personal essay. Different from the persuasive or analytic essay you write for other classes, the personal essay is a literary genre related to memoir and autobiography. We will read outstanding examples of the form and practice casting our own experiences as literature in essays of our own.

This course will also introduce students to the basic practice of the creative writing class, the workshop. Every student will have the opportunity to have at least one assignment workshopped, either by the T.A. and members of your section, or by the professor and your T.A. in front of the whole class. Students will be able to choose between these options. 

Texts: Janet Burroway, Imaginative Writing: The Elements of Craft, Pearson/Longman (3rd edition)

Requirements & Grading: Short story:  20% of final grade

Suite of 3-5 poems:  20% of final grade

Personal essay:  20% of final grade

Character sketch:  5% of final grade

Plot sketch:  5% of final grade

Poem #1:  5% of final grade

Poem #2:  5% of final grade

Personal Essay proposal:  5% of final grade

Weekly blog posts: 10% of final grade

Participation and attendance:  5% of final grade

This fiction workshop is designed for graduate creative writing students in the English Department and the Michener Center for Writers.  As they pertain to your work, we will cover issues dealing with character, narration, plot, setting, structure, rhythm, language, and clarity.  Though you should walk away from each workshop with plenty of useful feedback, the goal of this studio-based course is for you to learn how to read and, ultimately, edit your own work.

Students will hand in three significant pieces of work, either short stories or sections of a novel, at scheduled times throughout the semester.  Manuscripts must be turned in a week prior to the scheduled workshop, while longer pieces—over 25 pages in length—need to be submitted at least ten days ahead of time.  Unless your story or excerpt has undergone a complete overhaul, this should be new work that has not been discussed in a workshop. Please note that we will be discussing only literary fiction, which means no genre-based material will be accepted.  While most workshops focus on short fiction, I encourage students to submit excerpts from longer pieces.  Students must also write a detailed critique for every workshop story, as well come to class prepared to discuss the work.

The texts for the class include workshop stories and various handouts (e.g., stories and essays), which we will discuss in class.

(Graduate students from disciplines other than Fiction, including those within either MFA program, must submit a fiction writing sample to the instructor before registering for the course.)

Prerequisites: E 603A, RHE 306, 306Q, or T C 603A.

E 315F and 318L (Topic 1: Fiction) may not both be counted.

E 315P and 318L (Topic 2: Poetry) may not both be counted.

Description: This course is an introduction to the two major genres of creative writing. Students will be evaluated on work in both genres.

Prof. Casares will teach an introduction to reading and writing literary fiction. During the semester we will study a variety of stories from the textbooks, looking at the different techniques the writer used, and then eventually discussing your own short stories in this same manner. The goal is to make you a more critical reader while you gain a greater appreciation for what goes into developing an effective story, all of which is designed to improve your writing skills. Note: We will be discussing only literary fiction and not genre fiction (science fiction, vampire stories, romance, suspense, etc.). Prof. Casares will spend time at the beginning of the semester explaining the differences between the two forms, but if you hoped to write genre fiction this may not be the right course for you. There are no exceptions to this rule.

 Prof. Moore will teach poetry writing, focusing on the building blocks of poetic craft (line, sound, and stanza) and introducing both regular poetic forms (such as sonnet, sestina, villanelle, pantoum, ballad, heroic couplets, and blank verse) and open forms or free verse. We will also explore issues for poets such as voice, tone, diction, and subject matter. Students will be participating in the Fall Symposium of the Texas Institute of Literary and Textual Studies, entitled “Poets and Scholars.” Visiting poets will include Harryette Mullen, Evie Shockley, Lyrae Van Clief Stefanon, and Dante Michaux.

Most of the writing in the course will be critiqued in a workshop setting with TAs leading the student discussion. 

Texts: Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft (7th Edition), Janet Burroway and Elizabeth Stuckey-French, Pearson/Longman; The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction (Shorter 7th Edition), Richard Bausch and R.V. Cassill, W.W. Norton.

The Making of a Poem: A Norton Anthology of Poetic Forms, ed. Mark Strand and Eavan Boland, W.W. Norton; Sleeping With the Dictionary: Poems, by Harryette Mullen; Love, Death, and the Changing of the Seasons, by Marilyn Hacker.

Requirements & Grading:

Short story: 20% of final grade

Group of 3-5 poems: 20% of final grade

Third writing project (second short story or second group of poems): 20% of final grade

Portfolio: 20% of final grade

Students will be graded on a final writing portfolio, in which work from earlier in the semester has been revised and re-submitted. Portfolio may consist of: One short story and 3-5 poems; Two short stories; 8-10 poems.

Participation, pop quizzes, and skill as a workshop participant: 20% of final grade.

E 325 (Topic 1: Creative Writing: Fiction) and 325F may not both be counted.

Prerequisites: C L 315, E 603B, 316K, or T C 603B.

Course Description: This Creative Writing course focuses on the mechanics (structure, narrative voice, dialogue, character development, etc.) within selected fiction, allowing you to study the different elements you will use later as you write your own short stories.

Texts: Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft, Janet Burroway and Elizabeth Stuckey-French, Pearson/Longman (Publisher); The Elements of Style, Strunk & White; Various Handouts.

Grading: You are required to write two short sketches (3-4 pages) and two short stories (each 6-10 pages) that will be discussed in a workshop setting or individual conference. As part of your Class Participation grade, you will read each other student drafts and write peer reviews. For the student work discussed in class, you will be responsible for writing detailed critiques (1-2 pages). I will also provide written feedback that should help you to revise certain assignments. The Final Portfolio will include your original and revised stories, along with a selection of your critiques of other student stories.

Attendance is required. There will be no final exam.

Classroom participation/Sketches/Quizzes/Written Critiques: 30%; 2 Stories + Final Portfolio: 70%.

Prerequisites: English 325F.

Course Description: This course is designed for students who have already taken Fiction Writing (325F) and have a serious interest in writing fiction. Since the class is primarily a workshop, we will discuss student work for the majority of the semester.

Texts: (Tentative) Fiction: A Pocket Anthology, Ed.: Gwynn

Grading: You are required to write three short stories (each 6-12 pages) that will be discussed in a workshop setting. For all the other student work discussed in class, you will be responsible for writing detailed critiques (1-2 pages). Attendance is required. There will be no final exam.

Classroom participation, 30%
; Three Stories, 70%.

E 325 (Topic 1: Creative Writing: Fiction) and 325F may not both be counted.

Course Description: This Creative Writing course focuses on the mechanics (structure, narrative voice, dialogue, character development, etc.) within selected fiction, allowing you to study the different elements you will use later as you write your own short stories.

Texts: Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft, Janet Burroway and Elizabeth Stuckey-French, Pearson/Longman (Publisher); The Elements of Style, Strunk & White; Various Handouts.

Grading: You are required to write two short sketches (3-4 pages) and two short stories (each 6-10 pages) that will be discussed in a workshop setting or individual conference. As part of your Class Participation grade, you will read each other student drafts and write peer reviews. For the student work discussed in class, you will be responsible for writing detailed critiques (1-2 pages). I will also provide written feedback that should help you to revise certain assignments. The Final Portfolio will include your original and revised stories, along with a selection of your critiques of other student stories. Attendance is required. There will be no final exam. Classroom participation/Sketches/Quizzes/Written Critiques: 30%; 2 Stories + Final Portfolio: 70%.

 Prerequisites: Nine semester hours of coursework in English or rhetoric and writing.

This course is designed for MA or MFA graduate creative writing students. As a studio course, the emphasis is on the fiction you write for the workshop. Students hand in three significant pieces of work, either short stories or sections of a novel, at scheduled times throughout the semester.  Please note that we will be discussing only literary fiction, which means no genre-based material will be accepted.  Though most workshops focus on short fiction, I encourage students to submit excerpts from longer pieces.  Students must also write a detailed critique for every workshop story, as well come to class prepared to discuss the work. 

The texts for the class include workshop stories and various handouts (stories/essays). Students will read from the handouts and write short response papers, 2-3 pages in length.

(Graduate students from disciplines other than Fiction, including those within the MFA program, must submit a fiction writing sample to the instructor before registering for the course.)

Course Description: This Creative Writing course focuses on the mechanics (structure, narrative voice, dialogue, character development, etc.) within selected fiction, allowing you to study the different elements you will use later as you write your own short stories.

Texts:

• Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft , Janet Burroway and Elizabeth Stuckey-French, Pearson/Longman (Publisher)
• The Elements of Style, Strunk & White
• Various Handouts

Grading: You are required to write two short stories (each 6-10 pages) that will be discussed in a workshop setting. For all the other student work discussed in class, you will be responsible for writing detailed critiques (1-2 pages). The Final Portfolio will include your original and revised stories, along with a selection of your critiques of other stories. Attendance is required. There will be no final exam. Classroom participation/Quizzes: 10%; Written Critiques: 20%; 2 Stories + Final Portfolio: 70%.

Prerequisites: Nine semester hours of coursework in English or rhetoric and writing.  

For more information, please download the full course syllabus.

E 325: WRITING BORDER NARRATIVES—W (34710)
MAS 374: (35945)

COURSE DESCRIPTION  

This Creative Writing course uses the personal essay a way to examine our relationship with the U.S.-Mexico Border.  Joined for nearly 2,000 miles, from San Diego, California to Brownsville, Texas and from Tijuana, Baja California to Matamoros, Tamaulipas, these borderlands offer us an opportunity to explore their points of difference and find greater relevance where they converge.  Since the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe in 1848, the international boundary has meant different things to different people, as it continues to do so today.

We will spend the first part of the course reading about the border, as well as learning about the personal essay in its various forms.  For the remainder of the course students will write their own personal essays having to do with their experiences or perspectives on the border. These narratives can be drawn directly from experiences of life on or near the border, or they can be drawn indirectly via the experiences of a family member or friend so long as the student/writer maintains some personal connection to the essay.  Each student will write two original essays, one of which will be discussed in a workshop setting and the other which will be discussed in a conference with the instructor.

We will use three basic steps to develop your creative writing abilities.  The first step is for you to learn how to read like a writer, being aware not only of the content, but also the mechanics behind an essay—scene development, narrative structure, sensory details, etc.  Learning to identify these elements will help you understand how to make use of them in your own work.  You will have at least one assigned reading, either an essay or historical document, for most of our class meetings.  For the early part of the course, you will also read various sections of the textbook dealing with the craft of non-fiction.  From time to time you can expect a short pop quiz over these reading assignments. 

The second step is for you to learn how to critique essays within a workshop setting.  By critically examining someone else’s writing you will discover the strengths and weaknesses in your own work.  The idea is to develop your editing skills so that you can then further develop your own writing, in and out of this class.

The final step is for you to actually write essays that apply the skills we have discussed.  After each critique of your work, you should have several ideas on how to improve the original draft.

Since this course is part workshop, your participation in the class discussion is critical to your final grade.

Note: We will consider only creative non-fiction, which means you will be asked to use more of the literary techniques discussed in the text and during class, as opposed to the more traditional approach followed in a typical research paper.

TEXTS

Imaginative Writing: The Elements of Craft, 3^rd Edition, Janet Burroway, Publisher—Pearson Longman

Puro Border: Dispatches, Snapshots & Graffiti from La Frontera, Ed. Crosthwaite and Byrd, Publisher—Cinco Puntos Press

Course Packet: Writing Border Narratives
     Available at Jenn’s Copy & Binding
     2200 Guadalupe St. (lower level)

Recommended:  Spanish/English dictionary
                         The Elements of Style (4^th Edition), Strunk & White

Students with Disabilities:

Students with disabilities may request appropriate academic accommodations from the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement, Services for Students with Disabilities, 471-6259.

For more information, please download the full syllabus.

TBD