Spring 2024 Undergraduate Workshops

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.

* Note: Please check Albert for the most up-to-date scheduling. 

CRWRI-UA.815 Creative Writing: Introduction to Fiction & Poetry

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.

FICTION

CRWRI-UA.816.001 Intermediate Fiction Workshop
Jocelyn Lieu, Thurs 4:55pm - 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
George Foy,  R 2:00pm - 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.816.003 Intermediate Fiction Workshop
Elizabeth Gaffney, T 4:55pm - 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.816.004 Intermediate Fiction Workshop  
Sharon Mesmer, Thurs 4:55pm - 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.816.005 Intermediate Fiction Workshop
Jess Row, Fri 2:00pm - 4:45pm
Course description forthcoming.

CRWRI-UA.816.007 Intermediate Fiction Workshop
Jonathan Vatner, M 7:55pm - 10:40pm

The emphasis of this course is on the discovery, encouragement and development of each student's individual voice. The aim is to facilitate the clarity and momentum of their writing so their stories may gain a cohesive form without being forced into formulaic "perfection" of style or structure. Students will submit three stories or chapters of a novel during the course of the semester. (I will be meeting with them to discuss their work one-on-one the week after each of their submissions is workshopped.)

CRWRI-UA.816.008 Intermediate Fiction Workshop  
Charles Bock, F, 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.  

POETRY

CRWRI-UA.817.001 Intermediate Poetry Workshop 
Matt Rohrer, W 11:00am - 1:45pm
This course will thrust students headlong into the dark cobwebby interiors of the modern poem.  We’ll look closely at how modern poems became modern, looking at several revolutions in thinking about what poems are --- beginning in England in 1798, coming to Walt Whitman’s and Emily Dickinson’s America in the 1850s, stopping in Harlem in the 1920s and ending up online.  We’ll look at how modern poems are actually put together, considering such elemental concerns as image, voice, structure, etc.  We’ll cover three main themes: the Demotic; The Raw VS the Cooked; and the idea of Language as Material. And we’ll also write our own poems, sometimes with these examples as our models. 

CRWRI-UA.817.002 Intermediate Poetry Workshop 
Wo Chan, W 8:00am - 10:45am 
Course description forthcoming.

CRWRI-UA.817.003 Intermediate Poetry Workshop
Craig Morgan Teicher, T, 4:55pm - 7:40pm
Today, contemporary poetry is reaching to articulate its place among a new digital language that is often defined by new media art, net art, and new writing experiments that mirror the language-based technologies of the day. In other words, poetry is advancing to keep up with the times, and these advances occur through many types of expressions, including the innovations of new poetic forms and strategies: e.g. can your texting thread be a poem? can you make a love poem out of online dating site messages? In this class, we will study some of these new poetry strategies and use contemporary and historic models to propel writing experiments, such as: sampling, procedural writing, mixed media, visual (concrete) texts, collaboration, erasure, constraint, etc. The course also requires that you present your writing 2-3 times during the semester, participate in a collaborative project, and turn in a small "book" of your writing at the end of the term.

CRWRI-UA.817.004 Intermediate Poetry Workshop 
Jean Gallagher, 8:00am - 10:45am
The focus of the workshop will be weekly poems by workshop members. We’ll experiment with a number of ways to shape poems (including,  but not limited to, traditional forms),  practice rewriting them, keep daily journals  (which will include responses to outside readings),  listen closely to each other’s work, and provide observations  on what we hear. Workshop members will also attend poetry readings  or performances. Throughout, we’ll be engaging the generative energies of  attention and the pleasurable powers of the shaping imagination.

CRWRI-UA.817.005 Intermediate Poetry Workshop
Geoffrey Nutter, M, 9:30am - 12:15pm
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.    

CREATIVE NONFICTION

CRWRI-UA.825.002 Intermediate Creative Nonfiction Workshop
Zachary Sussman, R 4:55pm - 7:40pm
The Art of Food Writing 
Tell me what you eat and I’ll tell you what you are.

– Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, philosopher and gastronome

Ever since 1825, when Brillat-Savarin penned this famous maxim, writers and critics have approached food as a lens for analyzing complex matters of society, culture, politics, history, and personal identity. This class will provide a thorough overview of the various forms the genre encompasses today, including personal essay, memoir, investigative reportage, travelogue, restaurant review, celebrity profile, recipe, and more. As aspiring food writers, students will gain practical training in each step of the editorial process, from initial story development to crafting a pitch, research, reporting, composition, fact-checking, and revision. Readings may include pieces from outlets such as Saveur, Food & Wine, Bon Appétit, Taste, Eater, and others, and excerpts from the work of such authors as Eve Babitz, Anthony Bourdain, John Birdsall, M.F.K. Fisher, Mohammed Naseehu Ali, Zadie Smith, Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor, Priya Krishna, Nora Ephron, Rachel Khong, Ian Frazier, Jhumpa Lahiri,  Marcel Proust, Li-Young Li, Calvin Trillin, Tejal Rao, David Foster Wallace, and more. This apprenticeship will culminate in the production of a professional, feature-length article written in the genre of the student's choice, with the ultimate goal of submitting the final project for publication.

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.

FICTION

CRWRI-UA.820.001 Advanced Fiction Workshop
Marcelle Clements, W 11:00am - 1:45pm
In this intensive class, we will work at reaching the next level. We will talk about pacing and structure and the possibilities of form, how to create strong beginnings and endings, how to delineate character by using place and detail. We will work on sentences, paragraphs and stories. We will think and talk about how to temper boldness with discretion, emotion with restraint, and vice versa. Our class discussion is central to this enterprise, and participation is required, as are weekly assignments of writing and reading. 

CRWRI-UA.820.002 Advanced Fiction Workshop
Darin Strauss, M 2:00pm - 4:45pm
Course description forthcoming. 
CRWRI-UA.820.003 Advanced Fiction Workshop

Cris Beam, W 4:55pm - 7:40pm
Course decription forthcoming.

POETRY

CRWRI-UA.830.001 Advanced Poetry Workshop 
Maya C. Popa, F, 2:00pm - 4:45pm
In this course we will explore the incredibly wide-ranging field of contemporary poetry, as well as some of its sources and influences. Besides workshopping each other's poems, students will read books of contemporary poetry, as well as critical essays, and small groups will be assigned to give presentations on these to the class. We will discuss poems as writers, rather than as literature students, with a view to figuring 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 fully 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 
Miranda Field, W, 8:00am - 10:45am
In this course we will explore the incredibly wide-ranging field of contemporary poetry, as well as some of its sources and influences. Besides workshopping each other's poems, students will read books of contemporary poetry, as well as critical essays, and small groups will be assigned to give presentations on these to the class. We will discuss poems as writers, rather than as literature students, with a view to figuring 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 fully 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.830.003 Advanced Poetry Workshop 
Alex Dimitrov, M, 11:00am - 1:45pm
Course description forthcoming.

CREATIVE NONFICTION

CRWRI-UA.850.001 Advanced Creative Nonfiction Workshop
Marcelle Clements, R 11:00am - 1:45pm
In this intensive class, we will work at reaching the next level. We will talk about pacing and structure and the possibilities of form, how to create strong beginnings and endings, how to delineate character by using place and detail. We will work on sentences, paragraphs and stories. We will think and talk about how to temper boldness with discretion, emotion with restraint, and vice versa. Our class discussion is central to this enterprise, and participation is required, as are weekly assignments of writing and reading. 

INTENSIVE SEMINARS
These advanced workshops and craft seminars—taught by acclaimed poets and prose writers—are open to select NYU undergraduates. Seminars are limited to 12 students and provide intensive mentoring and guidance for serious and talented undergraduate writers.
Seminar applications are made available via the program's undergraduate listserv. All who enroll in the prerequisite CRWRI-UA 815 Intro to Prose & Poetry are added to the listserv; students may also contact creative.writing@nyu.edu to be added and receive all program announcements. 

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.
 

Update 11/10/22: Applications have closed. Rosters for Spring '22 are now being finalized. 

CRWRI-UA.861.003: Intensive Seminar in Fiction
Raven Leilani, Mondays 11:00am - 1:45pm
Raven Leilani’s debut novel Luster (2020) was awarded the Kirkus Prize, Dylan Thomas Prize, NBCC John Leonard Prize, VCU Cabell First Novel Prize, Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, among others. Her work has been published in Granta, The Yale Review, McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, Conjunctions, The Cut, and New England Review, among other publications. Leilani received her MFA from NYU and was an Axinn Foundation Writer-in-Residence. She was also selected as a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 honoree. In 2022 she served as the John Grisham Fellow at the University of Mississippi and teaches creative writing at NYU.

CRWRI-UA.861.004: Intensive Seminar in Fiction
Jeffrey Eugenides, Thursdays 11:00am - 1:45pm
Jeffrey Eugenides’s first novel, The Virgin Suicides, was published to major acclaim in 1993. It has been translated into thirty-four languages and made into a feature film. In 2003, Eugenides received the Pulitzer Prize for his novel Middlesex (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2002).  His third novel, The Marriage Plot (FSG, 2011), was a National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist and was named a Best Book of the Year by The New York Times Book Review, NPR, The New Republic, Publisher's Weekly, and numerous other publications. He taught creative writing at Princeton for many years before joining the NYU Creative Writing Program, and has been inducted into The American Academy of Arts and Letters.

CRWRI-UA.862.002: Intensive Seminar in Poetry
Terrance Hayes, Tuesdays 11:00am - 1:45pm
Terrance Hayes is an American poet and educator who has published seven poetry collections. His 2010 collection Lighthead won the National Book Award for Poetry in 2010.

CRWRI-UA.863.002: Intensive Seminar in Creative Nonfiction
Saïd Sayrafiezadeh, Wednesdays 11:00am - 1:45pm
Saïd Sayrafiezadeh is an American memoirist, playwright and fiction writer living in New York City. He won a 2010 Whiting Award for his memoir, When Skateboards Will Be Free.