Courses: Spring 2021
All CWL courses 4 credits unless noted otherwise. FLM courses 2-3 credits.
NB: Spring semester begins Monday, February 1, 2021. The first day of Saturday classes will be February 6, 2021.There will not be a Spring break this semester. Last day of the semester is May 19, 2021.
GRADUATE COURSES IN SOUTHAMPTON
Stony Brook Southampton: Chancellors Hall or Carriage House (Technology Center)
239 Montauk Highway; Southampton, New York 11963
CWL 560.S01 (Class #53265) Topics in Literature: Shakespeare, Paul Harding
Mondays 6:05 – 8:55 pm, 4 credits
Online
We will give close readings to 3 or 4 or 5 (give or take) of William Shakespeare’s
plays. The plays will be considered in their historical and religious contexts, their
place in the emergence of modern literary English, but most of all for their sheer
artistry. We will read as writers studying a master. (Shakespeare is, after all, perhaps
the greatest of writers, even though everyone says he is.) With Hamlet as a kind of
given centerpiece, we will decide as a class what other plays we might like to read
from a list of likely and less likely candidates, such as King Lear, The Winter’s
Tale, Measure for Measure, Othello, The Tempest, Coriolanus, Macbeth, Richard II (or
III), Pericles, etc. Depending on our collective disposition, we can delve more deeply
into fewer plays, or look to broaden our repertoire with a larger number of titles.
We will also consider other period works such as William Tyndale’s English translations
of the Bible and John Foxe’s Acts & Monuments.
CWL 582.S01 (Class #53231) Practicum in Publishing & Editing, Lou Ann Walker + CWL
Faculty
Tuesdays, 11:30 am – 2:20 pm, 1‐ 4 credits
Online
Under the guidance of editors and advisors, students will be exposed to the hands-on
process of editing and publishing TSR: The Southampton Review.
CWL 510.S02 (Class #53194) Forms of Fiction: The Long Arc, Susan Scarf Merrell
Tuesdays, 1:15 – 4:05 pm, 4 credits
Online
This class will look at your book-in-progress from beginning to end. A group of writers,
each of whom is already embarked on a longer work, will come together as a team of
crack investigators to examine structure, arc, and character, with an eye to creating
whole and cohesive literary works. Full first draft preferred but open to anyone
with 100 pages and a view of the entire scope of the work (after discussion with instructor).
CWL 535.S01 (course #53264) Writing in Multiple Genres: Assembling the Narrative,
Amy Hempel
Tuesdays, 5:45 – 8:35 pm, 4 credits
Online
Assembling a story through vignettes instead of a linear narrative—this workshop will
encourage writing from real experience, reportage, or imagination, using the fractured
form successfully deployed in works such as Mary Robison’s novel Why Did I Ever, Abigail
Thomas’s memoir Safekeeping: Some True Stories from a Life, and stories by Bret Anthony
Johnston, Rick Moody, and Christine Schutt. Plan to write a lot, in short takes.
CWL 580.S01 (Class #53233) Practicum in Arts Administration, Christian McLean
Wednesdays, 11 am – 12:30 pm , 1‐4 credits
Online
Students learn the essentials of arts administration by assisting in the coordination
of reading and lecture series, planning and administering conferences, or other writing
and arts administration activities.
CWL 581, S01 (class #53266) Practicum in Teaching Writing, Julie Sheehan and Molly
Gaudry
Thursdays, (SOLAR will read: 9:45 – 12:35. Actual time: 10 am – 12:50 pm) (Stony Brook
Main campus, Melville N3060), 3 credits
Students train to teach in undergraduate or secondary school classes. This course provides hands-on experience and instruction in the basics of writing pedagogy, including designing writing assignments, sequencing assignments, motivating writing, writing skill development, and evaluating writing. Students will also be given a preliminary overview of the major theories driving composition pedagogy.
(You need permission of the director and at least 6 program credits to take this class.)
CWL 535.S02 (Course #56214) Writing in Multiple Genres: You Call That a Book?! Roger
Rosenblatt
Thursdays, 1:15 – 4:05 pm, 4 credits
Online
When you write a book of 75-90 pages, inevitably someone will ask: “You call that
a book?!“ But you can do a lot in a relatively short space (I’ve done two 90-page
books), if you choose a subject that suits its constraints.
For this course, you
will write such a book. It may be fiction (a short novel or novella); poems around
a theme or a place; essays around a theme or a place; a memoir of a portion of a life;
a meditation in movements or parts; a play; a film script; a collection of fables,
or adages, or notions; or a hybrid built of a variety of forms. It may be anything
you like, but it has to work within its limitations. Richard Wilbur said the strength
of the genie comes from its living in a bottle. Think of your book as the bottle.
At first, we’ll spend some time just talking over your proposed projects, with the
class chipping in ideas and cautions. Then the rest of the term will consist of your
producing pages that the group will discuss. If all goes well (and why would it not?),
by the end of the term you’ll have a compete piece of work that you can present to
editors or friends or agents, and hear them say, “You call that a book?!”
CWL 510, S.01 (Course #53229) Forms of Fiction: Dystopian Fiction, Kaylie Jones
Thursdays, 5:45 – 8:40 pm, 4 credits
Online
Dystopian novels present grim views of the world’s possible futures, holding up a
mirror to society and forcing us to reflect on the issues that plague the world today
and throughout history. We will be reading a variety of dystopian novels written throughout
the last two centuries, with a focus on the writer’s craft (world-building, tension-building,
character development), as well as ways in which authors explore contemporary themes
in their own work. Students will also be given an opportunity to write the opening
scenes/chapters of their own dystopian novels, which will be workshopped in class.
For some students, this will be an attempt at exploring an entirely new genre. You
are invited to let your imaginations run wild.
Readings: Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale or Oryx and Crake; Octavia Butler’s Dawn: Lilith’s Blood, Book One, or Parable of the Sower: Book One of The Earthseed Series; Philip K. Dick: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?; N.K. Jemisin’s The Fifth Season: Book One of The Broken Earth Trilogy; Ernst Junger, Eumeswil; Ursula K. LeGuin, The Dispossessed; Cormac McCarthy, The Road; Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Player Piano or Cat’s Cradle; Yevgeny Zamyatin, We.
Thesis—CWL 599 (1 – 6 credits)
You will need your Thesis Planning Form on file and approval of your thesis advisor
to register. However, if you have not yet settled on an advisor or focus for your
thesis, you can enroll in Pre-Thesis Planning for 1 credit. Students in Pre-Thesis
will be completing the Thesis Planning Form by the end of the semester.
Schedule based in Southampton:
.V01 #53232 Sheehan
.V02 #53201 Bank
.V03 #53240 Black
.V04 #53241 Jones
.V05 #53242 Marx
.V06 #53243 Handley Chandler
.V07 #53244 Hegi
.V08 #53245 Harding
.V09 #53246 Merrell
.V10 #53247 Minot
.V11 #53248 Reeves
.V12 #53249 Walker – Pre-thesis Planning, 1 cr.
.V13 #53250 Hempel
.V14 #53251 Rosenblatt
.V15 #53255 Gaudry
.V16 #53256 Brandeis
.V18 #53257 Walker
Stony Brook Manhattan
535 8th Avenue between 36 & 37th Streets, 5th floor
CWL 520.S60 (Course #53267) Forms of Poetry: The Art of the Line, Molly Gaudry
Mondays, 2:20 – 5:10 pm , 4 credits
Online
What is a poetic line and where does it break most beautifully? most suspensefully?
most interestingly? How is it that a single line can read like a new line entirely
when it’s coupled with another, or gets entangled in a trio? To enjamb or not to enjamb?
To true rhyme, half rhyme, sight rhyme, or hide your rhyme? Why use a long line if
a two-foot line gets there faster? In this course, we’ll immerse ourselves in the
art of the poetic line. We’ll read and discuss a diverse range of contemporary poets,
and we’ll devote much of our time to writing and workshopping your own poems, with
careful attention paid, of course, to each line’s relationship to the whole. This
course is open to all. Those who have rarely considered the line will find it to be
a useful primer, and those more comfortable with the line and its possibilities will
further develop and refine their craft.
CWL 560.S60 (Course #53263) Topics in Literature: The Short Story, Susan Minot
Mondays, 5:20 – 8:10 pm, 4 credits
Online
Alice Munro said, the short story is “an important art.” Jorge Luis Borges commented,
“I find that in a short story you get just as much complexity and you get it in a
more pleasurable way as you get out of a long novel.” Focus in this seminar will be
on the various modes of the short story as executed by its masters. Style, structure
and content are handled differently by each artist and in class discussions, we will
explore the varieties of storytelling and discover the many versions of the greatness
of this form, with attention to the short short, as well as to poetry. Students will
write weekly assignments of the stories read, and submit imitative work once. Reading
will include: Anton Chekhov, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Raymond Carver, Karen Russell,
Flannery O'Conner, Georges Saunders, Shirley Jackson, John Cheever, Samantha Hunt,
Ernest Hemingway, Lorrie Moore, Jorge Luis Borges, Anne Carson, Lydia Davis, Franz
Kafka, Amy Hempel, Samuel Beckett.
CWL 540.S60 (Class #53289) Forms of Creative Nonfiction: Ways of the Memoir, Lou Ann
Walker
Wednesdays, 5:20 – 8:10 pm, 4 credits
Online
We could even retitle this course “Life: A Story.” In addition to reading new masters
of the memoir form, you’ll be writing in order to discover themes in your life. We'll
be touching on narrative subjects such as the reliability of memory, point of view,
tackling the accuracy of dialogue, as well as how to portray other characters in your
life—memoir is not just about the “I.” You’ll be surprised at how much you can accomplish
during this semester.
Our reading list will be finalized at the beginning of the class depending on what will be most useful to you as writers, but some of the works we’ll be considering include: The Yellow House by Sarah M. Broom; Out of Egypt by André Aciman; Educated by Tara Westover; The Tender Bar by J.R. Moehringer; The Color of Water by James McBride; Hunger of Memory by Richard Rodriguez; Memorial Drive by Natasha Trethewey; When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanith; I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou; Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates; Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah.
CWL 540.S61 (#56215) Forms of Creative Nonfiction: Humor Writing, Patricia Marx
Tuesdays, 2:20 – 5:10 pm, 4 credits
Online
“Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility.”—James Thurber
“Comedy has to
be based on truth. You take the truth and you put a little curlicue at the end.”—Sid
Caesar
“Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall into an open sewer
and die.”—Mel Brooks“. . .An amateur thinks it's really funny if you dress a man up
as an old lady, put him in a wheelchair, and give the wheelchair a push that sends
it spinning down a slope towards a stone wall. For a pro, it's got to be a real old
lady.”—Groucho Marx“What is comedy? Comedy is the art of making people laugh without
making them puke.” —Steve Martin
“You know, crankiness is the essence of all comedy.”—Jerry
Seinfeld
“Analyzing humor is like dissecting a frog. Few people are interested and
the frog dies of it.” –E.B. White
“Patty Marx is the best teacher in the Creative Writing Program.”—Patricia Marx
One of the above quotations is false. Find out which one in this humor-writing workshop,
where you will read, listen to, and watch comedic samples from well-known and lesser-known
humorists, and complete weekly writing assignments. Students already working on projects
are welcome to develop them.
CWL 510.S60 (class #53290) Forms of Fiction: Modern Phantoms, Genevieve Sly Crane
Wednesdays, 2:20 – 5:10 pm
Online
There are no white sheets or rattling chains here. Instead, the dead gossip about
their neighbors, dirty their hosts’ living room furniture, run up the phone bill,
and interfere on date night. Their messages are sometimes silly, often oblique, and
frequently painful, forcing the living to address the things they would rather leave
buried. This course encourages critical reading and creative writing with the occasional
gnashing of teeth. Participants will be encouraged to examine what it means to be
haunted in the present day. Ultimately, does it benefit us to conquer our own phantoms?
Or is it better for us to give them a seat at our table?
CWL 500.S60 (Class #53258) Introduction to Graduate Writing, Paul Harding & Carla
Caglioti
Wednesdays, 5:20 - 8:10 pm, 4 credits
Online
A seminar that introduces students to one another, the faculty, the program in Creative
Writing and Literature, and to issues in contemporary writing. Offered in conjunction
with the “Writers Speak” lecture series. Students will attend the regular series of
readings sponsored by the Writing program and meet at weekly intervals under the direction
of a faculty advisor to discuss and write about topics raised in the lecture series,
as well as issues generated from seminar discussions and assigned readings. Please
note: CWL 500 is a requirement and we encourage you to take this course in your first
year.
FLM 550.S60 (Class #53283) Teaching Practicum, Karen Offitzer
Thursdays, 2:20 – 5:10 pm, 3 credits
Online
This is a weekly seminar in teaching at the University level, with special emphasis
on teaching in the creative arts, specifically creative writing and filmmaking. This
course plunges into the basics of pedagogy, exploring learning styles, discovering
a teaching philosophy, designing syllabi for undergraduate courses, creating assignments
and rubrics for grading assignments, and practicing these skills in a classroom setting.
You’ll get hands-on experience and mentoring through visits to undergraduate classes
and teaching opportunities, and will gain an understanding of what works best for
helping undergraduate students learn. Particular focus will be on discussing issues
that arise when teaching creative endeavors such as writing and filmmaking.
CWL 535.S60 (Course #53268) Writing in Multiple Genres: Creating Stories When You
Can’t Stay Silent, Matthew Klam
Saturdays, 12:00 – 2:50, 4 credits
Online
Most writers need multiple drafts, and when the work succeeds it does so because the
author is entangled, involved, a little obsessed. Creative writing, both fiction and
nonfiction, uses all sorts of techniques and tools, uses the intimacy and intensity
of great memoir, the confessional power of a first person essay, the disruptive surprise
of humor. It uses lists, and stretches of pure dialogue, and plenty of straight up
reportage and hard-won observation. The best writing can and should come right at
us, should defy our expectations. It can be structured in a classical or experimental
way, or a mix of approaches to fit the subject.
We'll look at examples of the form by fiction writers and non fiction writers like
by Jo Ann Beard, Jon Krakauer, Justin Torres, Adam Haslett, Jhumpa Lahiri, Mary Karr,
Mary Gaitskill, Kiese Laymon, John Jeremiah Sullivan, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, and
many others. We'll examine their structure in the way a carpenter might study a beautiful
house. We'll look at half page essays and eyewitness accounts, masterworks of longform
journalism, essays, chapters of books, comics by Allison Bechdel and Adrian Tomine,
sections of plays, and whatever else inspires us. How is it that some writers are
able to create real character development and tension in a few lines or pages? We'll
talk about that too. In this class we'll write, read, and discuss, while also workshopping
your pieces-in-progress in a helpful, constructive manner.
Thesis—CWL 599 (1-6 credits)
You will need a Thesis Planning Form on file and approval of your thesis advisor to
register. However, if you have not yet settled on an advisor or focus for your thesis,
you can enroll in Pre-Thesis Planning for 1 credit. Students in Pre-Thesis will be
completing the Thesis Planning Form by the end of the semester.
Schedule based in Southampton:
.V01 #53232 Sheehan
.V02 #53201 Bank
.V03 #53240 Black
.V04 #53241 Jones
.V05 #53242 Marx
.V06 #53243 Handley Chandler
.V07 #53244 Hegi
.V08 #53245 Harding
.V09 #53246 Merrell
.V10 #53247 Minot
.V11 #53248 Reeves
.V12 #53249 Walker – Pre-thesis Planning, 1 cr.
.V13 #53250 Hempel
.V14 #53251 Rosenblatt
.V15 #53255 Gaudry
.V16 #53256 Brandeis
.V18 #53257 Walker