2008-2009
Fall 2008
Monday
MG Lord
CRWT230 200 – Creative Nonfiction Workshop
Call No. 20515
Room
Drosophila (Flies) on the Laboratory Wall: Writing Science As Culture
Increasingly, stories about scientists—and episodes in the history of science—are being told in creative nonfiction, as well as in plays, screenplays and novels. Often laced with memoir, these narratives are anything but dry. This course will explore the ways writers can locate scientific subject matter, research it, and make it their own.
Students will learn the nuts-and-bolts of writing for magazines such as Discover and Popular Science. They will also look at imaginative approaches to historical material, including David Leavitt’s The Indian Clerk, Michael Frayn’s Copenhagen, and Dava Sobel’s Longitude.
In addition to reading widely in the genre, students will submit short exercises, a pitch letter for a magazine-length story, and a 3,000-word article. At least half of each class will be a workshop.
Monday
Mary Yukari Waters
CRWT 262 200– Fiction Workshop
Call No. 12456
Room
This workshop is designed to guide creative writing students through the revision process. Each student's submission (either short story or novel excerpt) will be analyzed twice: first in a private session with the instructor and then, following revision, in a formal workshop. Classroom discussion will focus on workshop submissions as well as the work of published writers.
Tuesday
Rickerby Hinds
THEA264 200 – Playwriting Workshop
Call No. 20517
Room
This class is designed to have students complete a first draft of a full-length play through an in-depth examination of storytelling, the creation of well-rounded characters and the use of Aristotle’s Elements of Drama.
Wednesday
Tod Goldberg
CRWT299 002 – Thesis Workshop
Call No. 20283
Room
Designed for students working on their thesis, usually in the last two quarters of the program. Focuses on student work, with emphasis on bringing thesis projects to conclusion.
Wednesday
Stu Krieger
THEA299 002 – Thesis Workshop
Call No. 20290
Room
Designed for students working on their thesis, usually in the last two quarters of the program. Focuses on student work, with emphasis on bringing thesis projects to conclusion.
Wednesday
Stu Krieger
CRWT290 002 – Independent Study
Call No. 20291
Room
Research. Must have prior instructor consent and submit a Petition for Directed Study.
Wednesday
Alba Cruz Hacker
CRWT270 002 - Poetry Workshop
Call No. 20516
Room
In this workshop, we will engage in an intensive formal study of contemporary poetry with emphasis on style, structure, and form. The primary focus is the production of original work, stressing a goal towards publication. In that sense, the workshop environment operates similar to an editorial board which examines and dissects the technicalities and overall effectiveness of the poems being evaluated. You should come into class with a good understanding of poetry as an art form, a facility for thinking and writing in image and metaphor, and an ability to control and shape syntax. Attention will be given to improving already acquired skills as well as furthering your development of the line, sound texture, presentation of figures, and other aspects of the craft. It is assumed that at this level, you have a serious interest in the art of poetry, so I am also concerned with teaching you how to teach yourself through studying the work of other poets. As the adage goes, Good writers are good readers; thus, you are expected to do a great deal of reading from our anthology. Throughout the course, you will compose and fully revise no less than ten (10) original poems. In addition, each of you will read, analyze and present to the class one of the additional poetry collections assigned. To that end, we will have the awesome opportunity of studying the work of authors who straddle the borders of culture, place, race and language (some of which you may not be familiar with), such as Rhina Espaillat, Derek Walcott, Kwame Dawes, Judith Ortiz Cofer, Chris Abani, Nancy Morejón, B. H. Fairchild, and others.
Textbook: The Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry [paperback] ISBN 039332429X.
Note: I would recommend that you purchase the anthology from amazon.com or target.com since the price is considerably less and you will get a lot more for your money. We will concentrate on the Contemporary Poetry volume, but the box set, as a whole, should be a welcomed addition to your library for years to come (and it is cheaper to buy them both than to buy a single volume). As far as the individual author collections, please review the following list and choose the one that you would like to read, analyze and present to the class. Each person must choose a different collection. You can let me know via email which collection you will be discussing [acruz008@ucr.edu].
Thursday
Katherine Kinney
(NOTE: 7, 4 hour classes 5:30-9:30)
ENGL289 002 – War Literature Seminar
Call No. 20284
Room
War has tested the power of literature throughout the twentieth century, posing an ethical challenge to the efficacy of writing. How and why should war be written about? What is the relationship of testimony to imagination? What possibilities and dangers do war stories pose? We will begin with the trenches of WWI as a test case: reading works written during and in the immediate aftermath of the war and re-imaginings of it decades later. We will then turn to two elaborately structured novels about WWII and the Vietnam War respectively: Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five and Tim O’Brien’s In the Lake of the Woods, which call attention to their own literary devices even while insisting on the terrible truth of historical events. We will end with two very different, more personal works: Thuy Le’s first person novel about the daughter of a South Vietnamese soldier who brings his family to the United States, and Anthony Swofford’s very literary memoir of the first Gulf War, Jarhead.
Requirements: Active, well-prepared participation in seminar, two five page papers, and a final project.
Readings: Poetry by Wilfred Owen, Rupert Brooke, Siegfried Sassoon, and Robert Graves; Paul Fussell, The Great War and Modern Memory; Robert Graves, Goodbye to all That; Pat Barker, Regeneration; Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms; Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five; Tim O’Brien, In the Lake of the Woods; Thuy Le, The Gangster We Are All Looking For; Anthony Swofford, Jarhead. One or two critical or historical essays will be assigned each week.
October 25 and November 1st
Ernie Rios
CRWT290 202– Video Production Workshop (One Unit Workshop)
Call No. 20285
Room
This workshop is an intense immersion into the theory, history, and practice of video production. At the onset of the workshop, students will discuss readings and view films that explore the fundamental theories of production. Because the goal of this workshop is to combine theory and practice, there will be a balance between both. Therefore, during the second half of the two-day course, students will work individually and in groups, through which they will gain production experience by planning, filming, and editing their own short video projects.
Before the beginning of the workshop, students will be expected to present a treatment for a short five-minute-or-less video project. Due to the intensity of the workshop, students should expect to produce their projects utilizing UCR-Palm Desert Graduate Center as their primary filming location. Two production crews will be formed by the instructor and students will make a decision as to the short video project they would like to produce from those presented. This project will help students better understand camera shots, angles and movement techniques, casting and directing actors, basic lighting, sound, and editing. The final projects will be screened at the end of the workshop.
No textbook required. Students will be provided with handouts and reading material prior to the start of the workshop.
Winter 2009
Tuesday
Stu Krieger
THEA266 – SCREENWRITING
Call No.
Room
A comprehensive introduction to the craft of screenwriting with a primary focus on the production of original work. Each student will write a minimum of 60 pages of a screenplay, based on their own idea, supplemented by a detailed outline of the project intended to lay out the remaining scenes. Each students work will be read, discussed and critiqued on a weekly basis by the entire class.
Wednesday
Stu Krieger
THEA267 – Writing for the Family Audience
Call No.
Room
An introduction to the demands and challenges of writing film and television projects designed for the family audience. Students will learn about, and write short papers on, the development process of three of the instructor’s produced family film projects. They will also create and idea for a general-audience project of their own and will complete a detailed outline and first act screenplay of that project.
Juan Felipe Hererra
CRWT270 – Poetry Workshop
Call No.
Room
Rob Roberge
CRWT262 – Fiction Workshop
Call No.
Room
Rob Roberge is the author of More Than They Could Chew and a teacher at the UCLA Extension Writer’s Program. He also wrote, directed and edited the short movie Honest Pete. Along with writing, he collects and repairs both quack medical devices and old crappy guitars. He resides in Desert Hot Springs.
Mary Yukari Waters
CRWT262 – Fiction Workshop
Call No.
Room
Spring 2009
John Briggs
ENGL289 – Literature Seminar
Call No.
Room
Professor of English and Interim Director, UCR Writing Program. My research interests fall into six general areas: Renaissance Literature (especially Shakespeare), the history of Rhetoric, the works of Francis Bacon, the writings of Abraham Lincoln, the pedagogy of composition, and the California school reform movement. I have written a book on the confluence of science and rhetorical theory in Bacon's writings, and I am currently completing a book on Lincoln's pre-Civil War and literature in American higher education. As Director of the Inland Area Writing Project, Director of the UCR Basic Writing Program, and one of the framers of the statewide Subject A examination, I have been deeply involved in monitoring and participating in California's school reform efforts for the past twenty years.
Deanne Stillman
CRWT230 – Creative Nonfiction
Call No.
Room
William Rabkin
THEA266 – Screenwriting Workshop
Call No.
Room
William Rabkin’s television career began twenty years ago with a spec script for Spenser for Hire. He has written for over twenty different television programs and worked as a producer, director, showrunner, creative consultant, and story editor. His most recent scripts have been for the shows Monk and Psych. He is also the co-author of Successful Television Writing (Wiley, 2003).
Rob Roberge
CRWT262 – Fiction Workshop
Call No.
Room
Rob Roberge is the author of More Than They Could Chew and a teacher at the UCLA Extension Writer’s Program. He also wrote, directed and edited the short movie Honest Pete. Along with writing, he collects and repairs both quack medical devices and old crappy guitars. He resides in Desert Hot Springs.
Mary Yukari Waters
CRWT262 – Fiction Workshop
Call No.
Room
Maurya Simon
CRWT270 – Poetry Workshop
Call No.
Room
Maurya Simon is the author of The Enchanted Room and Days of Awe (Copper Canyon Press, 1986, 1989), Speaking in Tongues (Gibbs Smith, 1990), which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, and The Golden Labyrinth (University of Missouri Press, 1995). A fifth volume, A Brief History of Punctuation, was published in a limited edition by the fine letter-press book publisher, Sutton Hoo Press, in 2002. Simon’s sixth volume, Ghost Orchid (Red Hen Press, 2004) was nominated for a 2004 National Book Award in Poetry. A new, limited edition, letter-press collection of ekphrastic poems, WEAVERS, based on the paintings of Los Angeles artist Baila Goldenthal, was published by Blackbird Press in October 2005, and Simon’s eighth volume of poems, The Mapmaker’s Art, is forthcoming in 2006-07. Simon was the recipient of a 2002 Visiting Artist Fellowship from the American Academy in Rome, a 1999-2000 NEA Fellowship in poetry, a University Award from the Academy of American Poets, the Celia B. Wagner and Lucille Medwick Memorial Awards from the Poetry Society of America, and a Fulbright/Indo-American Fellowship in Bangalore, South India. Simon has been a fellow at Hawthornden Castle in Edinburgh, Scotland, and at the Baltic Centre for Writers and Translators in Visby, Sweden, as well as a lecturer at Lund University in Sweden. Her poems have appeared in The New Yorker, Poetry, TriQuarterly, The Southern Review, The Kenyon Review, The Georgia Review, The Gettysburg Review, Grand Street, Agni, Ploughshares, Shenandoah, The Los Angeles Times Book Review, the New England Review, and in more than forty anthologies. Simon’s poetry has been translated into French, Rumanian, Spanish, and Farsi. Maurya Simon teaches in the Creative Writing Department at the University of California, Riverside. She lives in the Angeles National Forest of the San Gabriel Mountains, in Southern California.