English 642: Creative Nonfiction Workshop.   Spring 2010 .  W3-6 pm.  Richard Terrill 

BEYOND MEMOIR

Creative nonfiction is a broad genre which includes memoir, personal essay, travel, nature writing, some environmental or science writing, personal criticism, literary journalism, and more.  Yet in academia, the genre has become almost synonymous with the first of these categories: memoir.

In this class, students will try their hands at writing beyond memoir.  They will write 1) a short piece written not from memory, but on an activity or observation or research carried out with the idea of writing about it—i.e., go somewhere, do something, read something, or think about something.  2) A personal essay or personal narrative/memoir that links personal experience to a larger story or stories, to ideas, and/or to elements in the broader culture, the world outside the self.  3) A profile of a person or persons (not family members), and/or deep description of a place or the culture of a place: a workplace, a place in the natural or physical world, a locale, a community (in any sense of that word).

Texts:

Dillard, Annie.  “Total Eclipse”  (hand out)   20 pages.

Solnit, Rebecca.  A GUIDE TO GETTING LOST.  (purchase)  209 pages.

“Written as a series of autobiographical essays, her book draws on emblematic moments and relationships in her own life to explore issues of uncertainty, trust, loss, memory, desire, and place.  While deeply personal, her stories link up to larger stories, from the captivity narratives of early Americans to the use of the color blue in Renaissance painting, not to mention encounters with tortoises, monks, punk rockers, mountains, deserts, and the movie Vertigo.”  (book jacket)

Kidder, Tracy.  MOUNTAINS BEYOND MOUNTAINS: THE QUEST OF DR. PAUL FARMER, A MAN WHO WOULD CURE THE WORLD  (purchase)  301 pages.

“The central character of this marvelous book is one of the most provocative, brilliant, funny, unsettling, endlessly energetic, irksome, and charming characters ever to spring to life on the page.”  Jonathan Harr

“This story is remarkable, and Kidder's skill in sequencing both dramatic and understated elements into a reflective commentary is unsurpassed.”  Library Journal