April 01, 2021 - MFA207 Setting and Character
Course Description: There's a distinction that's often made in discussions of place—that is, the difference between interior and exterior setting.
Course Length: 2 Weeks
Required Text: Creating Fiction: Instructions and Insights from Teachers of the Associated Writing Programs
April 01, 2021 - MFA375 Prose Poetry: INTRODUCTION
Course Description: This is the first in a series of eight (8) prose poetry workshops (poems lengthwise half a page to 3–4 pages).
Course Length: 2 Weeks
Required Text: The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Prose Poetry: Contemporary Poets in Discussion and Practice
April 06, 2021 - L303 The Great Gatsby
Course Description: Students read F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, participate in weekly topic discussions, and write a short response paper.
Course Length: 4 Weeks
Difficulty (1-5): 4
Required Text: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
April 08, 2021 - MFA152 Flash Fiction from Contemporary China
Course Description: Flash Fiction Workshop - Flash Fiction, or wei xing xiao shuo, as it is known in China today, also goes by the name of Minute Story, Pocket-Size Story, Palm-Size Story, and perhaps, in Qu's opinion, most accurately (for China at least) Smoke-Long Story, which promises to let the reader relish the sights and sounds of an entire make-believe world before he or she has time to finish one cigarette.
Course Length: 2 Weeks
Required Text: The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction: Tips from Editors, Teachers, and Writers in the Field
April 08, 2021 - MFA350 Understanding and Writing Poetry
Course Description: The language of prose and poetry seem to be half a world apart. Yet, the craft and structures overlap. Each uses mere words to paint scenes, to craft stories and thoughts so they feel alive and reach into the reader's heart. This course is intended to help all writers—whether beginning or intermediate or advanced, fiction, nonfiction or poets—better understand the whys and hows of using words.
Course Length: 16 Weeks
Required Text: A Poetry Handbook by Mary Oliver
April 15, 2021 - MFA376 Prose Poetry: On Discovery
Course Description: MFA376 is the second in a series of eight (8) prose poetry workshops (poems lengthwise half a page to 3–4 pages).
Course Length: 2 Weeks
Required Text: Required Text: The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Prose Poetry: Contemporary Poets in Discussion and Practice
April 29, 2021 - MFA053 Flash Nonfiction: POV and Structure
Course Description: MFA53 is the fourth in a series of flash nonfiction workshops (works under 2,000 words). Each of the series will use The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Nonfiction. Courses in the series may be taken in any sequence, though reading the text's Introduction is recommended for those who haven't taken MFA50 yet.
Course Length: 7 Weeks
Required Text: The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Nonfiction: Advice and Essential Exercises from Respected Writers, Editors, and Teachers
April TBD, 2021 - L230 Italo Calvino Short Stories
Course Description: Students participate in selected readings and topic discussions, and have the choice of writing a review, an analysis of a specific element of fiction or a biography of the author.
Course Length: 2 Weeks
Difficulty (1-5): 3
Text Provided: "Adventure of the Reader" and "All At One Point"
April TBD, 2021 - MFA052 Flash Nonfiction: Voice, Sound and Language
Course Description: MFA52 is the third in a series of flash nonfiction workshops (works under 2,000 words). Each of the series will use The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Nonfiction. Courses in the series may be taken in any sequence, though reading the text's Introduction is recommended for those who haven't taken MFA50 yet.
Course Length: 6 Weeks
Required Text: The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Nonfiction: Advice and Essential Exercises from Respected Writers, Editors, and Teachers
April TBD, 2021 - L231 Paul Yoon Short Stories
Course Description: Students participate in selected readings and topic discussions, write a short response essay and do a writing exercise.
Course Length: 2 Weeks
Difficulty (1-5): 4
Text provided:
“Once the Shore” by Paul Yoon
“So That They Do Not Hear Us” by Paul Yoon
Rumpus Interview with Yoon
April TBD, 2021 - MFA375 Prose Poetry: On Discovery
Course Description: This is the second in a series of 8 prose poetry workshops (poems lengthwise half a page to 3–4 pages). Each of the courses in the series will use The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Prose Poetry: Contemporary Poets in Discussion and Practice. Courses in the series may be taken in any sequence, though reading the text's Introduction is recommended for those who haven't taken MFA375 yet.
Course Length: 2 Weeks
Required Text: The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Prose Poetry: Contemporary Poets in Discussion and Practice
April TBD, 2021 - MFA208 Difficult Characters
Course Description: We must feel sympathy for a character, and here the word "sympathy" is not merely a synonym for "like," but more in terms of "understanding." If we as writers understand our characters, even the unlikable ones, if we understand their motivations, and convey this understanding to the reader, then perhaps we will come to understand something more about the mysteries of human behavior and aspiration, not the givens we already grasp, not the people and borders we know well.
Course Length: 2 Weeks
Required Text: Creating Fiction: Instructions and Insights from Teachers of the Associated Writing Programs
April TBD, 2021 - MFA703 Maps of the Imagination
Course Description: Writing is often discussed as two separate acts – though in practice they overlap. They differ in emphasis, but are by no means merely sequential. If we do well, both result in discovery. One is the act of exploration: some combination of premeditated searching and undisciplined, perhaps only partly conscious rambling. This includes scribbling notes, considering potential scenes, lines or images, inventing characters, even writing drafts. History tells us that exploration is assertive action in the face of uncertain assumptions, often involving false starts, missteps, and surprises. If we persist, we discover our story within the world of that story. The other act of writing we might call presentation. Applying knowledge, skill, and talent, we create a document meant to communicate and to have an effect on others. The purpose of a story or poem is not to record our experience but to lead the reader on a journey. At some point we turn from the role of Explorer to take on that of Guide.
Course Length: 8 Weeks
Required Text: Maps of the Imagination: The Writer as Cartographer
April TBD, 2021 - L211 Poe and Hawthorne Short Works
Course Description: Students participate in selected readings and topic discussions, and write a short response essay.
Course Length: 2 Weeks
Difficulty (1-5): 3
Text provided:
"Single Effect Theory" by Edgar Allan Poe
"The Oval Portrait" by Edgar Allan Poe
"Wakefield" by Nathaniel Hawthorne
"Young Goodman Brown" by Nathaniel Hawthorne
April TBD, 2021 - MFA153 Flash Fiction - The Myth-ing Link
Course Description: Flash fiction is difficult if not impossible to define – and should be allowed to remain so – because this type of writing is protean (able to change often and easily). It takes on various shapes and uses different strategies to achieve its goals. These shapes and strategies are two dissimilar to confine flash fiction to a too narrow or too specific definition. These short stories are endlessly metamorphosing as myths themselves. But I would tentatively define the best flash fiction as short short stories that manage to reveal the hidden, accentuate the subtle, and highlight the seemingly insignificant. The best offer insight and understanding of the human experience as they deepen and broaden reader awareness in a short space of text. These highly charged stories often go well beyond their surface details and manage to expand in the reading.
Course Length: 2 Weeks
Required Text: The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction: Tips from Editors, Teachers, and Writers in the Field
April TBD, 2021 - MFA403 Contemporary Writing Strategies
Course Description: Give your writing the strength to pull readers along by getting to the point and not wasting their time. Transport them to scenes using the personality and appropriate tone for the subject. Make your words dance with clear, well written sentences readers won’t have to read twice. MFA403 is a combination course and 2-week workshop. Students work toward a completed story, article or blog post. Though the course is primarily for nonfiction writers and journalists, writers will find the strategies useful for any form. MFA403 will help you get down to the business of professional writing.
Course Length: 8 Weeks
Required Text: A Writer's Coach: The Complete Guide to Writing Strategies That Work by Jack Hart
April TBD, 2021 - L200 Proust & Flaubert - Short Works
Course Description: Students participate in selected readings and topic discussions. Students have the choice of writing a review, an analysis of a specific element of fiction or a biography of the author. Selected works from the class will be included in our library for the benefit of future students.
Course Length: 2 Weeks
Difficulty (1-5): 4
Text Provided:
The Madeleine Episode from In Search of Lost Time
Proust - Portrait of a Writer and The Lemoine Affair
Flaubert - A Simple Soul
April TBD, 2021 - MFA209 Point of View Basics
Course Description: Point of view is one of the most basic elements in the craft of fiction. Through this medium, storytellers see, hear, feel, smell, taste, and from particular consciousnesses as well as from specific spatial and temporal perspectives. Since most contemporary fiction involves a growth of perception among characters and readers, the selection of viewpoint is crucial. Who is telling what story? Through this point of view the narrator shapes content.
Course Length: 2 Weeks
Required Text: Creating Fiction: Instructions and Insights from Teachers of the Associated Writing Programs
MAY
May 4, 2021 - L315 Midnight's Children - Rushdie
Course Description: Students read Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children, participate in weekly topic discussions, and write a short response paper.
Course Length: 8 Weeks
Difficulty (1-5): 4
Required Text: Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
May 6, 2021 - MFA314 Japanese Poetic Forms
Course Description: This course is intended as a workshop in the writing and sharing of Japanese poetic forms. Haiku is of course the most accessible to the Western writer; however, it is a form of greater depth than some of use have experienced. In addition to haiku, we will also practice the writing of tanka, renga, haibun, senryu, and haiku sequences. Finally, I hope also that this course will stimulate discussion of these forms and what they contribute to modern poetry. While this course is facilitated, the course will function as a workshop of equals, everyone reading and critiquing the work of peers. Some of us are new to these forms; others of us have played with the rhythms but have not seriously approached these poems as art; others have are more experienced. Nonetheless, we all have much to share.
Course Length: 6 Weeks
Difficulty (1-5): 3
Required Text: How to Haiku: A Writer's Guide to Haiku and Related Forms by Bruce Ross
2002/04 ISBN:0804832323 Trade Paper $12.95
Available at your local library or bookstore, or order online from Amazon. On June 27, 2014, only used books were available on Amazon, ranging from $3.00 to $13.
May 4, 2021 - MFA377 Prose Poetry: On Influence
Course Description: MFA377 is the third in a series of 8 prose poetry workshops (poems lengthwise half a page to 3–4 pages). Each of the courses in the series will use The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Prose Poetry: Contemporary Poets in Discussion and Practice. Courses in the series may be taken in any sequence, though reading the text's Introduction is recommended for those who haven't taken MFA375 yet.
Course Length: 2 Weeks
Difficulty (1-5): 4
Required Text: The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Prose Poetry: Contemporary Poets in Discussion and Practice
May 11, 2021 - L300 A Lesson Before Dying (Ernest Gaines)
Course Description: Students read Ernest Gaine's A Lesson Before Dying, participate in topic discussions, and write a short response paper.
Course Length: 4 Weeks
Difficulty (1-5): 3
Required Text: A Lesson Before Dying
May 12, 2021 - P166 Poetry Triggers - Line Breaks in Poetry
Course Description: The Poetry Triggers Workshops were developed by members of P123, the Senior Poets Workshop, to challenge and prompt poets to write, whether they are suffering from writer's block, desiring to explore and find new topics, seeking to expand their craftsmanship or simply looking for some writing exercises to get the creative juices flowing between longer courses. Feedback helps us grow as poets. In giving feedback, point out what works and what doesn't and give your reasons for feeling that way. Be kind in your comments, but truthful. Remember, we are all in this together so please don't set out to hurt. But do not lie either. Give as you hope to receive. Try to refer to specifics in the poem, i.e., word choices, use of metaphor or other poetic devices, musicality, clarity. Rewriting is an important part of the poetry writing process. Use our Rewriting Suggestions to help you polish your poems.
Course Length: 1 Week
Difficulty (1-5): 5
Required Text: None
May 20, 2021 - MFA378 Prose Poetry: On Definition
Course Description: MFA378 is the fourth in a series of 8 prose poetry workshops (poems lengthwise half a page to 3–4 pages). Each of the courses in the series will use The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Prose Poetry: Contemporary Poets in Discussion and Practice. Courses in the series may be taken in any sequence, though reading the text's Introduction is recommended for those who haven't taken MFA375 yet.
Course Length: 2 Weeks
Required Text: The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Prose Poetry: Contemporary Poets in Discussion and Practice
May 26, 2021 - P168 Poetry Triggers - Using Points of View in Poetry Part 1
Course Description: The Poetry Triggers Workshops were developed by members of P123, the Senior Poets Workshop, to challenge and prompt poets to write, whether they are suffering from writer's block, desiring to explore and find new topics, seeking to expand their craftsmanship or simply looking for some writing exercises to get the creative juices flowing between longer courses. Feedback helps us grow as poets. In giving feedback, point out what works and what doesn't and give your reasons for feeling that way. Be kind in your comments, but truthful. Remember, we are all in this together so please don't set out to hurt. But do not lie either. Give as you hope to receive. Try to refer to specifics in the poem, i.e., word choices, use of metaphor or other poetic devices, musicality, clarity. Rewriting is an important part of the poetry writing process. Use our Rewriting Suggestions to help you polish your poems.
Course Length: 1 Week
Difficulty (1-5): 4
May 27, 2021 - MFA211 The Art of Third Person
Course Length: 2 Weeks
Difficulty (1-5): 4
Required Text: Creating Fiction: Instructions and Insights from Teachers of the Associated Writing Programs
May TBD, 2021 - MFA154 Flash Fiction Point of View and Voice
Course Description: Flash Fiction Workshop - Point of View and Voice.
Course Length: 2 Weeks
Required Text: The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction: Tips from Editors, Teachers, and Writers in the Field
May TBD, 2021 - MFA210 The Art of First Person
Course Description: First person seduces. It mimics the insistent voice of the self-dramatized, the cathartic unstaged soliloquy of private diaries and journals, unintended for public consumption. But if we follow it into fiction, it becomes the voice of someone less familiar, even unknown, appearing with intimate urgency.
Course Length: 2 Weeks
Required Text: Creating Fiction: Instructions and Insights from Teachers of the Associated Writing Programs
May TBD, 2021 - L234 Barth and Borges (Form and Content)
Course Description: Students participate in selected readings and topic discussions, and write a short response essay.
Course Length: 2 Weeks
Difficulty (1-5): 4
Text Provided:
Borges and I
Garden of Branching Paths
Paris Review: Borges Interview
Paris Review: John Barth Interview
Lost in the Funhouse
Barth Meets Borges in the Funhouse
May TBD, 2021 - MFA211 The Art of Third Person
Course Length: 2 Weeks
Required Text: Creating Fiction: Instructions and Insights from Teachers of the Associated Writing Programs
