INTRODUCTORY WORKSHOPS
This popular introductory workshop offers an exciting introduction to the basic elements of poetry and fiction, with in-class writing, take-home reading and writing assignments, and substantive discussions of craft. The course is structured as a workshop, which means that students receive feedback from their instructor and their fellow writers in a roundtable setting, and should be prepared to offer their classmates responses to their work. 4 points.
CRWRI-UA.815 Creative Writing: Introduction to Fiction & Poetry
Section 001, Dasia Moore, MW 9:30-10:45am Provisional Syllabus
Section 002, Aidan Noor, MW 12:30-1:45pm Provisional Syllabus
Section 003, Evelyn Kocak, MW, 8:00-9:15am Provisional Syllabus
Section 004, Susannah Greenblatt, MW 8:00am-9:15am Provisional Syllabus
Section 005, Clare Flanagan, MW 2:00-3:15pm Provisional Syllabus
Section 006, Christian Bodney, TR 8:00am-9:15am Provisional Syllabus
Section 007, Kimberly Rogers, TR 12:30-1:45pm Provisional Syllabus
Section 008, Lucy Ackman, TR 4:55pm-6:10pm Provisional Syllabus
Section 009, Timothy Michalik, TR 11:00am-12:15pm Provisional Syllabus
Section 010, Maslen Ward, TR 9:30-10:45am Provisional Syllabus
Section 011, Sara Sturek, TR 11:00am-12:15pm Provisional Syllabus
Section 012, Robyn Gill, TR 12:30-1:45pm Provisional Syllabus
Section 013, Valeria Tsygankova, TR 8:00-9:15am Provisional Syllabus
Section 014, Daniella Ndubuisi-Ike, TR 9:30-10:45am Provisional Syllabus
Secton 015, Caroline Waring, TR 4:55pm-6:10pm Provisional Syllabus
Section 016, J Spagnolo, TR 9:30am-10:45am Provisional Syllabus
Section 017, Cassandra Quayson, MW 9:30-10:45am Provisional Syllabus
Section 018, Matilde Huseby, MW 9:30am-10:45am Provisional Syllabus
Section 020, Kathryn Atwood, TR 3:30pm-4:45pm Provisional Syllabus
Section 021, Andrew Lorenzen, TR 2:00-3:15pm Provisional Syllabus
Section 022, Amy Lin, MW 11:00am-12:15pm, Provisional Syllabus
Section 025, Lisa Gerard, TR 4:55-6:10pm Provisional Syllabus
Section 026, Margaret Jameson, TR 2:00-3:15pm Provisional Syllabus
Section 027, Rosannie Then, MW 3:30pm-4:45pm, Provisional Syllabus
Click here for information about the Creative Writing Program's course offerings abroad at NYU's Accra, Buenos Aires, London, and Sydney sites.
INTERMEDIATE WORKSHOPS
The intermediate workshops offer budding prose writers and poets an opportunity to continue their pursuit of writing through workshops that focus on a specific genre. The workshops also integrate in-depth craft discussions and extensive outside reading to deepen students’ understanding of the genre and broaden their knowledge of the evolution of literary forms and techniques.
Prerequisite for fiction: CRWRI-UA 815, OR CRWRI-UA 9815, OR CRWRI-UA.816, OR CRWRI-UA 818/819, OR CRWRI-UA 9818/9819, OR CRWRI-UA 9828/9829, OR CRWRI-UA 860, OR COSEM-UA 118 or equivalent. Prerequisite for poetry: CRWRI-UA 815, OR CRWRI-UA 9815, OR CRWRI-UA.817, OR CRWRI-UA 818/819, OR CRWRI-UA 9818/9819, OR CRWRI-UA 9828/9829, OR CRWRI-UA.870, OR FRSEM-UA 388 or equivalent. Prerequisite for creative nonfiction: CRWRI-UA 815, OR CRWRI-UA 9815, OR CRWRI-UA 818/819, OR CRWRI-UA 9818/9819, OR CRWRI-UA 9828/9829, OR CRWRI-UA 825, OR CRWRI-UA.880 or equivalent. 4 points.
CRWRI-UA.816.001 Intermediate Fiction Workshop
Jocelyn Lieu, M 4:55-7:40pm
Stories that Matter. Why write fiction? This workshop course starts with the premise that we have stories within us that need to be told. These stories may be seeded by haunting experiences, people, images, moments from our lives, or moments from the news or our communities. They also may proceed from dreamed-to-life narratives unspooling in our imaginations that for us have all the immediacy of a film seen in a surround-sound theater. This course is an exploration of fiction craft with an emphasis on the production of stories that really matter—first to you, the writer, then, because they come from an authentic place in you, your readers. Student writing is our focus; class time also includes discussions of texts by contemporary and modern writers writing in or translated into English. Craft elements studied include the management of point of view, plot, structure, characterization, the handling of time, the use of telling detail to create fictional worlds, and syntax and diction as they contribute to that mysterious thing called voice. We also will look at how writers solicit our suspension of disbelief, whether within the densely referenced mirror-world of socially realistic fiction or the no-holds-barred atmosphere of the surrealist or fabulist narrative. The semester’s work begins with short weekly exploratory assignments, which build toward the drafting and revision of a 15-page story or series of short linked stories. Students interested in experimenting and taking creative risks in service of finding the best genre, form, structure, or voice for stories that matter to them are encouraged to join the course.
CRWRI-UA.816.002 Intermediate Fiction Workshop
Mohammed Naseehu Ali, T 4:55-7:40pm
In this intermediate fiction workshop, the primary focus will be on your writing. Most of the class time will be dedicated to discussing your work and exchanging critiques and ideas on how to improve a draft and also your writing skills in general. Through in/out-of-class writing, primary text and assigned readings, class discussions and presentations, we will examine the structure of the short story and the novel, as well as the basic elements of fiction such as characterization, dialogue, plot, theme, and viewpoint. Additionally, we will be taking an in-depth look at form and style, the role of humor in fiction, and lastly, the fundamental grammar and language of fiction writing. The secondary focus of this workshop will be on you, the writer. George Orwell once wrote that, "There are four great motives for writing," which he listed as sheer egoism, aesthetic enthusiasm, historical impulse, and political purpose. In 1980, another writer of lesser fame than Orwell, Arturo Vivante, also wrote: "One writes fiction in order to know." Using the above quotations as springboard for a class symposium, we will be asking ourselves two questions: (1) Why do we write? and (2) Why fiction in particular? During the first two weeks students will be encouraged to carry out a personal analysis of what motivates, inspires, or informs their writing. The goal of this exercise is to assist students in their continued effort to develop an original voice, language, and style that are unique to their personal aesthetics. And finally the fun part: we will discuss the use of eavesdropping as a writing tool. In my opinion, eavesdropping is the surest means for writers to put their fingers on the pulse of their contemporary environment. Some may disagree and may even think of this "art" as unethical. This and other topics will keep us busy and engaged throughout the semester..
CRWRI-UA.816.003 Intermediate Fiction Workshop
Maria Venegas, M 2:00-4:45pm
Course description forthcoming.
CRWRI-UA.816.004 Intermediate Fiction Workshop
Sharon Mesmer, Thurs 4:55-7:40pm
Is it possible to write, as novelist Clarice Lispector suggested, both "squalidly and structurally"? I say yes. Both ends of the trajectory are possible ... and necessary, really, in order to produce surprisingly inventive writing. In this workshop, we will explore and exploit the fertile (oftentimes untouched) mud of our imaginations through a series of five writing exercises paired with model texts, each utilizing a different prose form into which even the muddiest, most inchoate and problematic ideas, images and language can be flowed.
CRWRI-UA.816.006 Intermediate Fiction Workshop
Hannah Kingsley-Ma, W 2:00-4:45PM. This class will explore the craft of fiction in three different ways. The first will be brief talks that address a different element of craft in each class. The second will be by reading and dissecting (like writers) a broad range of contemporary fiction, from Etgar Keret to Yoko Ogawa to Raymond Carver to to James Baldwin to Aimee Bender to Toni Morrison. The third and most important component of the class will be workshopping student work with this question in mind: Where do I think this writer/story is trying to go? We will tailor our critiques toward the idea of helping the writer get there. We will have surprise guests by professional writers. We will eschew the idea that there is one way to write fiction. We will seek out the joy in our work and the work of others and will cultivate our personal, idiosyncratic voices. We will probably eat cookies during the last class.
CRWRI-UA.817.001 Intermediate Poetry Workshop
Geoffrey Nutter, M 11:00am-1:45pm. Surprising, disorienting, beautiful, lyrical, dream-like, fantastic, difficult, intense—a poem exists in a strange realm of ambiguity and can be all of these things at once. And poets in 14th century England, 10th century China, or 18th century Japan used the same raw materials as poets in 21st century America: dreams, strong or ambivalent emotions, the natural world, experience in its many forms, and language. In this class we will look with fresh eyes at some of the most amazing poems of the past, present, and future, asking not what they mean, but rather how they mean and what they do. We will also discuss the kinds of things that poems are uniquely capable of doing—those things that make poetry exceptional in the world of the creative arts. In other words, we will approach the reading of poems as writers of poems. Focused and rigorous discussions of our fellow students’ poems will further help us hone our craft.
CRWRI-UA.817.002 Intermediate Poetry Workshop
Rachel Zucker, W 2:00pm-4:45pm
Course description forthcoming.
CRWRI-UA.817.004 Intermediate Poetry Workshop
David Groff, T 11:00am-1:45pm
The Adventure of Poetic Voice
“Poetry is the liquid voice that can wear through stone.”—Adrienne Rich
Each of us humans has a distinctive voiceprint. So does every poet. In this workshop you’ll be encouraged to define and refine your emerging poetic voice. We’ll use the reading aloud of our poems to make observations and insights about them that lead us into the adventure of writing and revision. In class discussion, and through specific poetry prompts (all but one of them optional), we’ll explore ways to ignite the imagination and take poems to the often-startling places they ask to go. We’ll also read poets of diverse nationalities, races, eras, genders, and aesthetics, to discover how we can value their voices and find inspiration for our own poems.
Please be ready to share a new poem of yours each week, do assigned reading of work by published poets, provide generous written and in-class responses to poems by your fellow workshop participants, and present a final chapbook of your revised poems from the semester.
CRWRI-UA.817.005 Intermediate Poetry Workshop
Emily Skillings, M 2:00pm-4:45pm
Intermediate Poetry: Form as Attention
Poetry is a soul inaugurating a form. — Pierre-Jean Jouve
“Attention,” wrote philosopher Simone Weil, “is the rarest and purest form of generosity.” In this workshop, we will examine how attention informs how (and what) we notice, as well as the forms we create and inhabit. Poets will use the semester to develop their own private and shared practices, turning their attention toward poems, texts, and other artworks that will provoke their own constantly shifting poetics.
Some topics we might explore: neurodiversity and form; reading as writing; the leap; hacking writer’s block; strange images; inventing and borrowing forms; silence; the margin; benefits of inattention, digression, and distraction; somatics; the notebook; the unspeakable; rituals and routines; beginnings and endings; ekphrasis; stanza and line; the epistolary mode; the sonnet; creative revision; hybridity.
Enrolled students will write and revise a small portfolio of poems in response to weekly prompts and complete a longer self-guided project of 5-10 pages.
CRWRI-UA.825.001 Intermediate Creative Nonfiction Workshop
Maria Laurino, R 2:00pm-4:45pm
How do we create essays and memoir that move beyond the personal “I” to a universal eye? In this writing and reading workshop, we will explore the strategies of creative nonfiction, examining the roles of memory, reporting, and research in developing personal narratives. We will focus on creating concise, shapely, and texturally rich essays and memoir. The participatory classroom setting will allow us, in Michel de Montaigne’s words, to “reserve a back shop all our own”—a supportive, creative environment in which students participate in classroom exercises, write and revise their narratives, and critically discuss the work of essayists and memoirists, including Montaigne, George Orwell, Joan Didion, Patricia Hampl, Zadie Smith, Rebecca Solnit, Jonathan Lethem, and Geoff Dyer.
ADVANCED WORKSHOPS
Advanced workshops provide emerging writers with the opportunity to hone their individual voice and experiment with different aesthetical strategies in a genre-specific workshop taught by an eminent writer in the field. The workshops focus on innovative revision techniques, the development of a sustainable writing process, and the broadening of students’ literary knowledge of classical and contemporary masters. Each advanced workshop has a distinct emphasis and area of exploration—students are advised to pay close attention to the course descriptions, which are available online prior to registration.
Prerequisite for fiction: CRWRI-UA 816, OR CRWRI-UA 818, OR CRWRI-UA 9818, OR CRWRI-UA 9828, OR CRWRI-UA 820, OR CRWRI-UA 860 or equivalent. Prerequisite for poetry: CRWRI-UA 817, OR CRWRI-UA 819, OR CRWRI-UA 9819, OR CRWRI-UA 9829, OR CRWRI-UA 830, OR CRWRI-UA 870 or equivalent. Prerequisite for creative nonfiction: CRWRI-UA 825, OR CRWRI-UA 850, OR CRWRI-UA 880 or equivalent. 4 points.
CRWRI-UA.820.001 Advanced Fiction Workshop
Elizabeth Gaffney, M 4:55pm-7:40pm
In this advanced workshop, writers will take existing drafts of stories (or novel sections) and expand, revamp, revise, rebuild, them till they are polished, finished works. You might start with a complete manuscript you don't feel is successful-- something you began and abandoned because you couldn’t quite figure out how to solve its puzzles -- through multiple rounds of revision. We will look at the big picture issues -- structure, arc, point of view, character -- and the granular details of prose that are crucial for establishing voice and maintaining the fictional dream. Readings will include timely plague- and BLM- themed texts that illustrate essential craft topics: Gwendolyn Brooks’ out of print novel, Maud Martha, Danielle Evans’s Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self, Speech Sounds by Octavia Butler, Salvage the Bones by Jesamyn Ward, William Maxwell’s They Came Like Swallows, Katherine Anne Porter’s Pale Horse, Pale Rider, and Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice
CRWRI-UA.820.002 Advanced Fiction Workshop
George Foy, W, 2:00-4:45pm
The workshop's philosophy is based on the premise that when a writer picks up a pen or opens a laptop to start a story, he or she breaks the connection with “normal” time and space to enter a storyworld in which anything is possible. Such a world, if well constructed, will like other complex systems start to generate and follow its own rules and acquire independent life. We will of course discuss traditional issues in writing, such as where to find story subjects, how to gather, employ, grease and otherwise care for the nuts and bolts of your writing practice. But we will also explore microfiction, non-linear narrative, illustrated narrative, fiction as street theater, as well as traditional short stories. In past classes students have submitted stories written to self-destruct, narratives posted on street corners, images with fables enclosed..
CRWRI-UA.820.003 Advanced Fiction Workshop
Charles Bock, T 11:00am-1:45pm
Class is divided into short lectures, exercises, and workshop. Lots of time will be spent on technical stuff, how characters work, the way in which a story develops, language, structure, etc. We'll build from the basics. The first half of the class will be spent with a lecture and then some sort of exercise based on the lecture. Then workshops for the second half of the class. Workshops are structured so every student will comment on a story, and participation is a big part of a class. We care about improving stories and why they work and how they can be improved; we care about supporting our fellow students in their creative ventures and being daring and moving into uncharted narrative territories. There are weekly reading assignments that you are responsible for. When you come out from the other side of this thrilling little amusement park ride, the matter inside your fused together skull is going to have a better understanding of how fiction works. This class is recommended for inspired and motivated students.
CRWRI-UA.830.001 Advanced Poetry Workshop
Rachel Zucker, W 11:00am-1:45am
This course is designed to plunge students head-first into the world of contemporary poetry. Besides workshopping each others' poems, students will read a different book of contemporary poetry each week, and present it to the class. We will discuss the book as writers, not literature students; we'll want to figure out what each poet is doing, how he or she does it, and how we can do that. Writing exercises derived from the readings will help us get into the poets' heads. This is an advanced course, and students will be expected to do all of the reading, participate in the discussions, and generally contribute towards that elusive thing which is a workshop environment that is constructive and critical and ultimately generative for everyone. The goal of the course is for students to engage with the work of their peers and their contemporaries in a critical and hungry manner which will lead to a greater understanding of how their own poetry is working.
CRWRI-UA.830.002 Advanced Poetry Workshop
TBA., Tues 2:00pm-4:45pm
CRWRI-UA.830.003 Advanced Poetry Workshop
Catherine Barnett, Wed 2:00pm-4:45pm
In this challenging workshop, we'll invent and re-invent and dodge and entertain and investigate "the accursed questions" as a way to generate new material for poems and to read more deeply. We'll consider James Baldwin's notion that "the purpose of art is to lay bare the questions hidden by the answers" and push for that which is "not unforeseen enough." Through thinking about and playing with the resources of questions, we'll try to subvert conventional notions of what is important and unimportant; we'll try to redeem incongruities; discover the mysteries behind physical appearances; and find ways to apprehend the real without distorting "the incomprehensibility of the real." We'll consider what Yeats has said: "Only that which does not teach, which does not cry out, which does not persuade, which does not condescend, which does not explain, is irresistible." Students will be asked to write two poems every week and to respond generously and rigorously to each other's work. In addition, students will give a presentation on a poet/question of their choice and put together an anthology and a chapbook.
INTENSIVE SEMINARS
These advanced workshops and craft seminars—taught by acclaimed poets and prose writers—are open to select NYU undergraduates. Intensive seminars are limited to 12 students and provide intensive mentoring and guidance for serious and talented undergraduate writers. Each intensive seminar has a distinct emphasis and area of exploration—students are advised to pay close attention to the course descriptions, which are available online prior to registration.
Prerequisite for fiction: CRWRI-UA 815, OR CRWRI-UA 9815, OR CRWRI-UA 816, OR CRWRI-UA 818/819, OR CRWRI-UA 9818/9819, OR CRWRI-UA 9828/9829, OR CRWRI-UA 820, OR CRWRI-UA 860 or equivalent. Prerequisite for poetry: CRWRI-UA 815, OR CRWRI-UA 9815, OR CRWRI-UA 817, OR CRWRI-UA 818/819, OR CRWRI-UA 9818/9819, OR CRWRI-UA 9828/9829, OR CRWRI-UA 830, OR CRWRI-UA 870, OR FRSEM-388, or equivalent. Prerequisite for creative nonfiction:CRWRI-UA 815, OR CRWRI-UA 9815, OR CRWRI-UA 818/819, OR CRWRI-UA 9818/9819, OR CRWRI-UA 9828/9829, OR CRWRI-UA 825, OR CRWRI-UA 850, OR CRWRI-UA 880 or equivalent. Recommended prerequisite: CRWRI-UA 820 (for fiction), CRWRI-UA 830 (for poetry), or CRWRI-UA 850 (for creative nonfiction). Application required. 4 points.
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Applications are announced via the undergraduate listserv, to which Intro to Prose & Poetry students are added each semester. To be added to this listserv for all program announcements, please contact creative.writing@nyu.edu.
Applications: Please read all guidelines. Excerpts of longer projects are fine to submit, to show work you feel best represents your voice. *Note: For multiple applications, please send separate emails, for each instructor, to cwp.ug.awards@nyu.edu.* Applications are due by 11:59pm on Thursday, April 20, 2023 and rosters are tentatively expected to be finalized on Monday, April 11, 2023. (Tentatively means, we appreciate your patience!) We will announce any updates via the program listserv.
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CRWRI-UA 863.001 – Intensive Seminar in Creative Nonfiction
Saïd Sayrafiezadeh, Monday, 11am-1:45pm
CRWRI-UA 861.001 – Intensive Seminar in Fiction
David Lipsky, Tuesday, 11am-1:45pm
CRWRI-UA 862.001 – Intensive Seminar in Poetry
Matthew Rohrer, Wednesday, 11am-1:45pm
Apply here! Excerpts of longer projects are fine to submit, to show work you feel best represents your voice. *Note: For multiple applications, please send separate emails for each instructor, to cwp.ug.awards@nyu.edu.*
Applications are due by 11:59pm on Thursday, April 20 and rosters are tentatively expected to be finalized on Tues April 25. (Tentatively means, we appreciate your patience!) We will announce all updates via this email list.
We hope your semester's going well, and we wish you happy writing in all of our workshops.