January 2025
Introduction to Creative Nonfiction
Margaret Deli PhD, Preceptor in Expository Writing, Harvard University
This is a workshop-based course for students interested in creative nonfiction: reading it, discussing it, and writing it for yourself. The course is based on a simple premise: good readers make good writers. We read and discuss texts by the likes of Zadie Smith, James Baldwin, and Joan Didion, helping to hone students' knowledge and appreciation for the craft of writing.
Spring 2025
Story Development
Shelley Evans MFA, Screenwriter
This workshop introduces the unique challenges of longform storytelling, and helps writers develop strategies for approaching long projects, either screenplays or novels. Many writers are drawn to the page by character or language or theme, but story is the scaffold on which movies and novels depend. Over the course of the semester, we learn to work creatively with the tasks of story building. We begin with ideas where and how do we find them? What kinds of ideas can carry a story? How can you turn a wobbly idea into one that works? We then consider character who does the story belong to? How do their desires, problems, and drives give the story its essential energy? Then we turn to story development and structure, the primary work of the course: how do you keep an idea alive for two-hundred pages, or two hours? What elements help a story build energy and momentum, and deliver us to a satisfying close? We explore these essential story energies using writing exercises, examples from film and literature, and the shared experience of working writers.
Spring 2025
Introduction to Fiction Writing
Ben Parson MFA, Preceptor in Expository Writing, Harvard University
A workshop for writers with little or no experience in writing fiction. The course focuses on elements of fiction including narrative voice, dialogue, character, point of view, description, and structure. Students are asked to read and discuss fiction by major writers, to critique each other's work, and to write and revise at least one short story. Requirements also include several short writing exercises.
Fall 2024
Introduction to Fiction Writing
William Holinger MA, Director, Secondary School Program, Harvard Summer School
A workshop for writers with little or no experience in writing fiction. The course focuses on elements of fiction including narrative voice, dialogue, character, point of view, description, and structure. Students are asked to read and discuss fiction by major writers, to critique each other's work, and to write and revise at least one short story. Requirements also include several short writing exercises.
Fall 2024
Beginning Poetry: Listening to Lines
David Barber MFA, Author
This intensive workshop offers students the opportunity to develop their aptitude and affinity for the practice of poetry. Students follow a structured sequence of writing assignments, readings, and exercises aimed at cultivating a sound working knowledge of the fundamental principles of prosody and the evolving possibilities of poetic form. There is a special emphasis on listening to lines and saying poems aloud, in concert with an eclectic assortment of audio archives. Another principal focus is the verse line through time, as we turn for instruction and inspiration to what the critic Paul Fussell calls the "historical dimension" of poetic meter and poetic form. The collective goal of the course is to create the conditions for reading and writing poems with a stronger sense of technical know-how and expressive conviction as well as a renewed appreciation for why poetry matters.
Fall 2024
Beginning Screenwriting
Susan Steinberg PhD, Filmmaker, Writer
This is a workshop for those who wish to learn the foundations and processes for writing feature-length motion picture screenplays. Adaptations, documentary, and television scripts may be written with the instructor's permission. Topics covered include concept and theme development, dramatic structure, plot, character arc, dialogue writing, the use of visual language, and writing in format. By the semester's end, students produce a full feature film treatment and complete act one of their film in script format. Class meetings consist of presentation and discussion of work, writing exercises, brief lectures, film, and script analyses. At the semester's end, actors do readings of script segments.
Spring 2025
Intermediate Screenwriting
Susan Steinberg PhD, Filmmaker, Writer
This is a course for fiction film, television, and documentary scripts in which students complete or add significantly to a work-in-progress or start a new script if they wish. In addition to producing a work portfolio and increasing their writers' skills, the course focus is exploring and developing and students' writing process and unique voice. The course is designed to enable participants to work on fundamental elements crucial to excellence in dramatic writing such as theme, script voice and tone, character drive and character arc, script structure and designing principle, and scene structure. Students who wish to start a new script or work in an experimental form may do so with the instructor's permission. Students produce 30-40 new script pages in format and a 1-4 page treatment for a completed or new script, as well as the script's log line and tag line. Students are encouraged to write a complete script over the semester, if they wish, but students who wish to do so must arrange a special writing schedule with the instructor.
Prerequisites: Students should have completed an introductory class in fiction or dramatic writing or a beginning screenwriting course with a satisfactory grade, and/or have independently written a treatment/outline and at least 30 pages for an original script, or written fiction on an independent basis. Students who have not taken screenwriting, but have taken other fiction writing courses, or who have written fiction works or poetry and wish to enroll should contact the instructor.
January 2025
Humor Writing
Ian Shank MFA, Preceptor in Expository Writing, Harvard University
This is an intensive workshop for creative writing students looking to seriously invest in their craft. Over the course of the semester, students draft five mini-essays (1-2 pages each) inspired by an author or comic technique studied in class, and then expand and substantively revise one or two of these drafts to include in a final portfolio (10 pages). As part of the final revision process, students identify an online humor publication in consultation with the instructor that is aligned with the spirit of their work, and then pitch and/or submit at least one piece from their final portfolio for consideration.
Prerequisites: A beginning-level creative writing course or permission of the instructor.
Spring 2025
Fundamentals of Fiction
Tracy L. Strauss MFA, Preceptor in Expository Writing, Harvard University
This intensive, immersive course is designed for graduate-credit students with strong writing skills and an interest in becoming fiction writers but little formal experience, students who would like to develop a solid foundation in story and scene structure before embarking on an advanced fiction writing course. The first part of the course focuses on a close analysis of plot and structure in several short stories and novels. Students then apply these techniques and methods to generate and shape their own ideas, build a solid narrative foundation, and use scene structure to craft a dramatic story. Using Janet Burroway's Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft, students explore and learn the fundamentals of character, dialogue, showing versus telling, and point of view. By the end of the course, students complete a short story or the first chapter of a novel (about 15 to 20 pages of fiction), which is workshopped in class.
Fall 2024
Fundamentals of Fiction
Tracy L. Strauss MFA, Preceptor in Expository Writing, Harvard University
This intensive, immersive course is designed for graduate-credit students with strong writing skills and an interest in becoming fiction writers but little formal experience, students who would like to develop a solid foundation in story and scene structure before embarking on an advanced fiction writing course. The first part of the course focuses on a close analysis of plot and structure in several short stories and novels. Students then apply these techniques and methods to generate and shape their own ideas, build a solid narrative foundation, and use scene structure to craft a dramatic story. Using Janet Burroway's Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft, students explore and learn the fundamentals of character, dialogue, showing versus telling, and point of view. By the end of the course, students complete a short story or the first chapter of a novel (about 15 to 20 pages of fiction), which is workshopped in class.
Spring 2025
Fundamentals of Dramatic Writing
Jennifer Rapaport MFA, Visiting Assistant Professor, Film and New Media Studies, Wheaton College
This course is designed for students with strong writing skills who have an interest in writing plays and/or screenplays, but little formal experience. The course introduces basic principles of dramatic writing and provides a foundation for advanced playwrighting and screenwriting courses. Using both plays and screenplays as study texts, we elucidate the elements of dramatic writing and consider how those elements work differently in different mediums. Plays and screenplays are similar but not the same both genres create narrative using character and dialogue, but plays lean more heavily on the inner life and voice of characters, while screenplays unfold in the external world, building stories with images and action. Weekly exercises guide students through the process of developing different kinds of scripts assessing potential story ideas, doing pre-draft character and backstory exploration, finding structure, and writing scenes. By the end of the semester, students have completed a short outline and the first twenty pages of a play or screenplay, which are workshopped in class.
Fall 2024
Fundamentals of Dramatic Writing
Shelley Evans MFA, Screenwriter
This course is designed for students with strong writing skills who have an interest in writing plays and/or screenplays, but little formal experience. The course introduces basic principles of dramatic writing and provides a foundation for advanced playwrighting and screenwriting courses. Using both plays and screenplays as study texts, we elucidate the elements of dramatic writing and consider how those elements work differently in different mediums. Plays and screenplays are similar but not the same both genres create narrative using character and dialogue, but plays lean more heavily on the inner life and voice of characters, while screenplays unfold in the external world, building stories with images and action. Weekly exercises guide students through the process of developing different kinds of scripts assessing potential story ideas, doing pre-draft character and backstory exploration, finding structure, and writing scenes. By the end of the semester, students have completed a short outline and the first twenty pages of a play or screenplay, which are workshopped in class.
Spring 2025
Advanced Fiction: Writing the Short Story
Elizabeth Ames MFA, Writer
This is an intensive workshop in the craft of writing short fiction for students who have read widely among past and contemporary masters of short fiction and who are accomplished in the elements of prose composition (mechanics, syntax, and structure). Students are expected to produce two new short stories (10 to 20 pages each) and to revise them during the term.
Prerequisites: A beginning or intermediate fiction writing course or permission of the instructor. Students should bring a 10-page sample of their work to the first class.
Fall 2024
Advanced Fiction: Writing the Short Story
Lindsay Mitchell MFA, Senior Editor, Harvard Magazine
This is an intensive workshop in the craft of writing short fiction for students who have read widely among past and contemporary masters of short fiction and who are accomplished in the elements of prose composition (mechanics, syntax, and structure). Students are expected to produce two new short stories (10 to 20 pages each) and to revise them during the term.
Prerequisites: A beginning or intermediate fiction writing course or permission of the instructor. Students should bring a 10-page sample of their work to the first class.
Spring 2025
Advanced Fiction: Writing the Short Story
Lindsay Mitchell MFA, Senior Editor, Harvard Magazine
This is an intensive workshop in the craft of writing short fiction for students who have read widely among past and contemporary masters of short fiction and who are accomplished in the elements of prose composition (mechanics, syntax, and structure). Students are expected to produce two new short stories (10 to 20 pages each) and to revise them during the term.
Prerequisites: A beginning or intermediate fiction writing course or permission of the instructor. Students should bring a 10-page sample of their work to the first class.
Fall 2024
Writing a Nonfiction Book
Christina Thompson PhD, Editor, Harvard Review, Harvard College Library
This is a course for people who are embarked on a book-length work of nonfiction: biographers, memoirists, historians, journalists, science writers, and others who are writing for a non-specialist audience. Students should have a clearly formulated book idea or, ideally, be already working on a project. In the course we talk about voice, structure, audience, and how to pitch projects to agents and publishers. We also read samples from a wide variety of nonfiction books.
Prerequisites: At least one creative writing class; preferably beginning or advanced narrative (or creative) nonfiction.
Spring 2025
Writing a Nonfiction Book
Christina Thompson PhD, Editor, Harvard Review, Harvard College Library
This is a course for people who are embarked on a book-length work of nonfiction: biographers, memoirists, historians, journalists, science writers, and others who are writing for a non-specialist audience. Students should have a clearly formulated book idea or, ideally, be already working on a project. In the course we talk about voice, structure, audience, and how to pitch projects to agents and publishers. We also read samples from a wide variety of nonfiction books.
Prerequisites: At least one creative writing class; preferably beginning or advanced narrative (or creative) nonfiction.
Fall 2024
Advanced Fiction: Writing the Novel
Elizabeth Ames MFA, Writer
This is an advanced fiction-writing course. Class meetings run mainly as workshops: students respond to one another's novel excerpts. We also discuss process, as well as elements of fiction that relate to the novel. Students are expected to produce two new chapters (10 to 20 pages each) and to revise them during the term.
Prerequisites: Students should have successfully completed other fiction-writing courses and begun writing a novel when the semester begins.
Fall 2024
Advanced Fiction: Writing the Novel
Elisabeth Sharp McKetta PhD, Writer
This is an advanced fiction-writing course. Class meetings run mainly as workshops: students respond to one another's novel excerpts. We also discuss process, as well as elements of fiction that relate to the novel. Students are expected to produce two new chapters (10 to 20 pages each) and to revise them during the term.
Prerequisites: Students should have successfully completed other fiction-writing courses and begun writing a novel when the semester begins.
Spring 2025
Advanced Fiction: Writing the Novel
Thomas Wisniewski PhD, Associate of the Department of Comparative Literature, Harvard University
This is an advanced fiction-writing course. Class meetings run mainly as workshops: students respond to one another's novel excerpts. We also discuss process, as well as elements of fiction that relate to the novel. Students are expected to produce two new chapters (10 to 20 pages each) and to revise them during the term.
Prerequisites: Students should have successfully completed other fiction-writing courses and begun writing a novel when the semester begins.
Spring 2025
Advanced Fiction: Writing the Novel
William Holinger MA, Director, Secondary School Program, Harvard Summer School
This is an advanced fiction-writing course. Class meetings run mainly as workshops: students respond to one another's novel excerpts. We also discuss process, as well as elements of fiction that relate to the novel. Students are expected to produce two new chapters (10 to 20 pages each) and to revise them during the term.
Prerequisites: Students should have successfully completed other fiction-writing courses and begun writing a novel when the semester begins.
Spring 2025
Advanced Fiction: Writing Suspense Fiction
Chris Mooney MA, Author
Learn how techniques used in suspense fiction structure, pace, tension, and plot can be applied to your own writing. In addition to studying the bestselling works of both commercial and literary writers of suspense, students complete weekly writing assignments and participate in writing workshops.
Prerequisites: An introductory and/or intermediate fiction course or permission of the instructor. Students should bring to class either a work in progress or an idea for a novel or short story.
Fall 2024
Advanced Fiction: Writing Suspense Fiction
Chris Mooney MA, Author
Learn how techniques used in suspense fiction structure, pace, tension, and plot can be applied to your own writing. In addition to studying the bestselling works of both commercial and literary writers of suspense, students complete weekly writing assignments and participate in writing workshops.
Prerequisites: An introductory and/or intermediate fiction course or permission of the instructor. Students should bring to class either a work in progress or an idea for a novel or short story.
Fall 2024
Advanced Memoir
Brian Pietras PhD, Preceptor in Expository Writing, Harvard University
This course is intended for experienced writers of memoir who want to produce publishable work. A perennially popular genre, memoir transforms real-life experiences into art. In the first half of the course, we study the work of great memoirists, ranging from canonical favorites (such as Virginia Woolf, James Baldwin, and E.B. White) to emerging and experimental voices (including Alex Marzano-Lesnevich and Carmen Maria Machado). In the second half, we use what we have learned about scene, exposition, character, point of view, and voice to produce new work. Students may write chapters from a memoir project or standalone personal essays.
Prerequisites: One creative writing workshop.
Fall 2024
Advanced Creative Nonfiction
Kurt Pitzer MFA, Author
This is a writing workshop in which students focus on producing creative nonfiction worthy of publication. What is creative nonfiction? The best definition is simply: true stories, well told. The term encompasses a variety of forms: narrative nonfiction, literary journalism, memoir, personal essay, and the cousin of poetry often referred to as lyrical nonfiction. Students are encouraged to experiment with forms and styles that are new to them. This course follows a workshop format. The instruction students get is in highly detailed feedback, both verbal and written, in response to submitted work. The instructor leads the discussion and offers pointers on topics such as structure and voice. We adhere to a strict standard of using only material that is true. With this understanding, we borrow tools of fiction: techniques of voice, character development, plot, scene, and dialogue. The course is appropriate for fiction and nonfiction writers, poets, journalists, and students of these disciplines who are keen to improve their craft.
Prerequisites: An introductory writing course or permission of the instructor.
Fall 2024
Advanced Screenwriting
Wayne Wilson MFA, Screenwriter
In this advanced screenwriting workshop, students watch films and episodic television excerpts and discuss the work of workshop members. During the course, students present two 20- to 30-page acts from their screenplays for class discussion. The final project is a revision of one of these two workshop submissions.
Prerequisites: CREA E-45 or the equivalent, or permission of the instructor. Students should e-mail a sample of their own screenwriting (ten pages or fewer) to Mr. Wilson before the first class.
Fall 2024
Advanced Fiction: Writing the Middle Grade and Young Adult Novel
Mary Sullivan Walsh BA, Author and Freelance Editor
This is an intensive workshop for writers interested in developing a middle grade or young adult novel. During each class meeting, we workshop chapters of students' novels-in-progress, focusing on elements of craft (character, point of view, dialogue, and plot). In addition, by reading and analyzing sections of work by such exemplary novelists as Angie Thomas, Lois Lowry, and Kwame Alexander, students learn to read like writers and to develop their own voices. Students are expected to have completed approximately 40 pages and a working synopsis of their novel by the end of the course.
Prerequisites: A ten-page writing sample to be submitted to mlswalsh@g.harvard.edu before classes begin.
Spring 2025
Advanced Fiction: Writing the Middle Grade and Young Adult Novel
Mary Sullivan Walsh BA, Author and Freelance Editor
This is an intensive workshop for writers interested in developing a middle grade or young adult novel. During each class meeting, we workshop chapters of students' novels-in-progress, focusing on elements of craft (character, point of view, dialogue, and plot). In addition, by reading and analyzing sections of work by such exemplary novelists as Angie Thomas, Lois Lowry, and Kwame Alexander, students learn to read like writers and to develop their own voices. Students are expected to have completed approximately 40 pages and a working synopsis of their novel by the end of the course.
Prerequisites: A ten-page writing sample to be submitted to mlswalsh@g.harvard.edu before classes begin.
Spring 2025
Advanced Fiction: Writing Fairy Tales
Katie Beth Kohn MA
Fairy tales have inspired authors for centuries and we are still very much under their spell. In the first part of this course, we study classic as well as contemporary fairy tales, including works by Helen Oyeyemi, Neil Gaiman, Margaret Atwood, and Kelly Link. In the second part, students workshop their own original prose fiction fairy tale, which may be a piece of short-form fiction or an excerpt from a longer work in progress. Throughout, we explore how fairy tales have encouraged authors to develop their own style and voice, even as they seem to speak in a language all their own.
Prerequisites: A beginning creative writing course or permission of the instructor.
Spring 2025
Advanced Playwriting
Bryan Delaney MA, Playwright and Screenwriter
This course is intended for students who have some experience with playwriting or dramatic writing in general so that they can refine the skills they have already acquired and take them to the next level. Topics covered include techniques for approaching the first draft, in-depth characterization, dramatic structure, conflict, shaping the action, language and dialogue (including subtext, rhythm, imagery, and exposition), how to analyze students' own work as playwrights, dealing with feedback, the drafting process, techniques for rewriting, collaboration (with directors and actors) and the business of the art working with theaters, agents, literary managers, and dramaturges. The focus of the course is more on what might be called the classical principles of dramatic writing rather than the more avant-garde approaches to the art.
Prerequisites: Ideally, students come to the first class with an idea for a one-act play to write throughout the course, although this is not mandatory, as the first class explores techniques for generating ideas.
Fall 2024
Advanced Fiction: Writing Horror
Katie Beth Kohn MA
How do authors achieve the spine-tingling, bone-chilling, nightmare-inducing effects of great horror fiction? In addition to studying works of classic and contemporary horror, students in this course complete two works of short fiction before workshopping and presenting a final work. Throughout, we consider the diversity of the genre, from the gothic romanticism of Bram Stoker and Nathaniel Hawthorne to the paranoiac parables of Shirley Jackson and Ira Levin as well as the blockbuster works of Stephen King. We also pay considerable attention to emerging voices in the genre, studying selected works from Tananarive Due, Paul Tremblay, Carmen Maria Machado, Otessa Moshfegh, Emily Carroll, and Iain Reed. For final works, students are invited to workshop standalone works of short form fiction or selections from larger projects (novels, anthologies, scripts) provided these works are developed and drafted during the course.
Prerequisites: A beginning-level creative writing course or permission of the instructor.
Spring 2025
Advanced Memoir: Mythic Structures
Elisabeth Sharp McKetta PhD, Writer
Both myth and memoir share a structure: somebody goes into the woods and comes out wiser about the ways of the world, emerging with an elixir (real or symbolic) to bring healing and hope. In sharing a memoir with readers, we share our lessons, the morals of our stories, the keys to our versions of happily ever after. Yet memoir writers often get stuck choosing which stories (from all of the stories we have lived) to include. In this course, we study myths and fairy tales, and write memoirs. We read short memoirs by writers who use these imaginary stories as a framework to examine their own lives, including Linda Grey Sexton, Sabrina Mark, Alexander Chee, and Michael Mejia. Students borrow structure from the great pool of myth and fairy tale lore and then fill in their stories with the particulars of their human-sized lives. Using mythic structure to help shape ordinary life events helps writers to combine universal themes with their own true voice: a way to write our lives and make it matter. Students must craft new material for this course or develop new material for an existing project, such as a chapter in a longer memoir.
Prerequisites: A beginning-level creative writing course or permission of the instructor.
Fall 2024
Advanced Poetry: Learning from Poets
Jodi Johnson PhD, Preceptor in Expository Writing, Harvard University
This is a course for advanced creative writers in all genres who wish to develop their voices by studying the work of such poets as Seamus Heaney, Robert Lowell, Terrance Hayes, and Elizabeth Bishop, writers widely held to be masters of sonics, line quality, phrasing, description, and invention. We also read Helen Vendler's Coming of Age as a Poet, a book that traces the development of several poets working in the direction of their first mature poem. With weekly critical and poetic readings, as well as writing assignments and a final portfolio of poetry and other creative work, this course shows students how to develop their voices as they immerse themselves in the work of some of the greatest guides in the history of the art.
Fall 2024
Advanced Fiction: Writing the Novella
Thomas Wisniewski PhD, Associate of the Department of Comparative Literature, Harvard University
Before the novel was the novella. In length, the form offers what Edgar Allan Poe defines as the ideal duration of literary art it can be read in a single sitting and, in unity of effect, what Ian McEwan has called the perfect form of prose fiction. With a long literary history, the novella remains today a popular genre in literary publishing. This course offers students the chance to study and practice the art of the novella. We read masterful examples of the form and discuss texts with the eye of a writer attentive to elements of craft: dramatic structure, tone, point of view, suspense, prose style, rhythm, characterization, and plotting. Students draft and workshop two sections of their own novella. The writers' workshop is at the heart of what we do, as we gather twice weekly to critique work-in-progress. Working in this genre pushes students to write with economy and to polish their sentences as they aspire towards the virtues of excellent prose fiction: precision, economy, clarity, and urgency. The course concludes with a conversation about publishing possibilities for novella writers.
Prerequisites: A beginning-level creative writing course or permission of the instructor.
Fall 2024
Advanced Fiction: Writing Science Fiction
Ben Parson MFA, Preceptor in Expository Writing, Harvard University
This is an intensive workshop that explores the speculative worlds of science fiction. Science fiction tasks us with asking the question, what if? It is a genre that demands consideration of modern crises, injustices, and anxieties through the lens of future or imagined realities. In this course, we learn how to apply this lens and refract the ambiguity of human experience, and we seek inspiration from the writing of authors like N.K Jemison, Ursula K. Le Guin, Ted Chiang, and Karen Lord. Drawing lessons from close readings and discussions, students produce their own creative works and hone their craft in a supportive workshop environment. By the end of the course, students have produced at least two pieces of short fiction or two chapters of a longer work.
Prerequisites: A beginning-level creative writing course or permission of the instructor.
Fall 2024
Advanced TV Writing: Comedy Sketch Writing
Hugh Fink BFA, Writer and Producer
In this course, students develop comedy sketch-writing skills by studying the work of masters of the genre and by drafting and revising the components of a professional submission packet: evergreen topical jokes, fake commercials, conceptual pieces, and original comedic characters. We analyze the comedic structure and use of escalation in classic sketch templates (television and film parodies, political satire, and digital shorts), as well as sketches written for iconic productions, including Saturday Night Live, Key and Peele, and The Chappelle Show. In workshop, students experience the professional pitching and rewriting process as they refine their comedic voice. Students also have the opportunity to visit and study in the television comedy capital, Hollywood, where they meet with professional distinguished comedy writers, participate in a writing workshop, and attend the taping of a current comedy television series, schedule permitting.
Prerequisites: A beginning-level creative writing course or permission of the instructor.
January 2025
Advanced Fiction: Writing the Literary Underworld
Elisabeth Sharp McKetta PhD, Writer
In many works of literature and film, the hero or heroine must leave the ordinary world and descend to an underworld, a place tied up with our most essential beliefs about culture and psychology. In this underworld, the protagonist must face mortality and gain knowledge to bring back to the world of the living. In this course, we explore underworlds in prose, poetry, and film, possibly including but not limited to Karen Russell's Swamplandia!, Grace Dane Mazur's Garden Party, Katherine May's Wintering, Homer's Odyssey, Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away, and Disney's Coco. Drawing upon the great literary pool of underworld traditions, students write their own stories about descents (both literal and metaphorical), creatively depicting the other world, the risks faced, and the knowledge gained. Students produce a complete short story, a chapter of a new work, or a new chapter for a work in progress.
Prerequisites: A beginning-level creative writing course or permission of the instructor.
Spring 2025
Advanced Creative Nonfiction: The Narrative Voice
Kurt Pitzer MFA, Author
A strong narrative voice is essential to all compelling creative writing. This workshop, which focuses sharply on point of view, is for memoirists, essayists, and writers of creative nonfiction who wish to develop their own distinct narrative voices. Students are encouraged to experiment with narrative styles outside of their custom, and to use humor, digression, and other techniques to hook readers and editors. As we review each other's work, we discuss how the selection of detail is an expression of the narrator's psychology. What's driving the telling of the story? What are the hidden narrative motivations that are keys to its theme? We draw inspiration from creative nonfiction masters such as Virginia Woolf, Lia Purpura, Katherine Boo, Charles D'Ambrosio, Brent Staples, and Joan Didion.
Prerequisites: A beginning-level creative writing course or permission of the instructor.
Fall 2024
Advanced Fiction: Fact to Fiction
David Freed ALM, Novelist and Journalist
From exercising a keen eye for detail to crafting clean, succinct prose, the skills required of a professional journalist can prove invaluable in writing fiction. This highly participatory course explores how learning to think like a news reporter, doggedly pursuing facts and truth, can help achieve authenticity and credibility when constructing creative short stories. Students write and hone their own short stories while studying the work of journalists whose news careers provided the foundation necessary to produce memorable, critically acclaimed fiction.
Prerequisites: A beginning-level creative writing course or permission of the instructor.
Fall 2024
The Art of the Pitch
Catherine Eaton MFA, Director and Writer
You have an idea or you have created a brilliant piece of work: a novel, a screenplay, a concept for a TV series, maybe even a scripted nonfiction podcast. Now what? How do you convince others to jump on board to buy or create or collaborate or publish or produce your story? How do you move it out of your desk drawer or hard drive or imagination and into the world? In this course, we break down the making of a pitch into its core elements generating the idea, developing the story, and stress-testing the material as we practice strategies for producing pitch materials and for pitching your project, in the room, to a live audience. Students write and revise two treatments: one for a work they have created and one for an idea they have yet to develop. Students build one look book and one pitch deck and do three live pitches. Students develop an insider's perspective on industry practices and etiquette, essential knowledge for anyone interested in the business of creation.
Prerequisites: An advanced creative writing course or the equivalent, or permission of the instructor.
Spring 2025
What Writers Can Learn from Shakespeare
Joyce Van Dyke PhD, Lecturer in Extension, Harvard University
This is a course for playwrights, fiction writers, and screenwriters. The course explores specific techniques of William Shakespeare's character creation, with the aim of enlarging our own technical repertoire as contemporary writers. Techniques include the most important thing to know about how Shakespeare builds his characters (developed by John Barton), using key-words and key-rhythms in a character's language, why writers should obscure a character's motives, Frank Kermode's concept of Shakespeare as a virtuoso of openings, making minor characters spicy, and the creative use of stereotypes. Course work for individual students culminates in a major writing project in the student's chosen genre (for example, a play, screenplay, piece of short fiction, or piece of long fiction). There are weekly writing exercises on the character techniques discussed in class; these exercises are the same for everyone, regardless of the genre of their writing project. The writing project and the weekly exercises comprise the portfolio to be turned in at the end of the course. Course requirements include reading several Shakespeare plays (including Much Ado About Nothing, Hamlet, and Measure for Measure), weekly writing assignments, and the major writing project.
Prerequisites: Experience with playwriting, screenwriting, fiction writing, or permission of the instructor.
January 2025
Genre Fiction
Katie Beth Kohn MA
What distinguishes the market for genre fiction from other literary markets? How might writers working both within and beyond existing genres learn to think with genre in order to navigate their intended marketplaces or better understand their own work? This course offers the opportunity to apply the framework of genre fiction from traditional genres (for example, mystery, romance, science fiction, or horror) to emerging subgenres and markets (for example, new adult fiction) to an original creative work of fiction, nonfiction, or dramatic writing. During the course, students draft and revise an original creative project of 15 to 20 pages and are invited to workshop either standalone works or selections from larger projects. Projects need not fit cleanly into a single traditional or well-known genre; experimentations with genre are welcome. While curiosity regarding emerging trends in genre and mass-market fiction is encouraged, knowledge of genre theory is not required.
Spring 2025
Advanced Creative Writing Seminar: A Sense of Place
Thomas Wisniewski PhD, Associate of the Department of Comparative Literature, Harvard University
How to create a sense of place? This seminar focuses intensively on setting in fiction and nonfiction. To that end, we study how writers evoke place vividly on the page in a range of published works. Students submit 15-20 pages of original fiction or nonfiction to the workshop a short story or novel or memoir excerpt and may draw on a project in progress. There are additional exercises drawn from the techniques studied in class, and students submit a revised portfolio at the end of the semester. Students must be admitted degree candidates in the Master of Liberal Arts (ALM), creative writing and literature to enroll in this course.
Fall 2024
Advanced Creative Writing Seminar: Point of View
Leah De Forest MFA, Writer
This seminar focuses intensively on point of view in fiction. We examine close third, limited omniscient, omniscient, first person, first-person direct address, and second person point of view (POV) in a range of published works, with an eye to how these techniques work and how and why we might use them on the page. This is an opportunity for students to solidify their knowledge and build new POV skills. Never tried omniscience or direct address? Here is your chance. Students submit 10-20 pages of original fiction (a short story or novel excerpt; students may draw on a project in progress) for workshop, and there are exercises on the techniques we study. At the end of the semester, students submit a revised version of their short story or novel excerpt and give a class presentation on the use of point of view in their work. Students must be admitted degree candidates in the Master of Liberal Arts (ALM), creative writing and literature to enroll in this course.
Fall 2024
Precapstone: Building the World of the Book: Fiction
Katie Beth Kohn MA
In this course, students engage in a series of structured creative writing exercises that make it possible for them to delve deeply into their characters what they look like, what they want and need, and how they interact with the world in which they live as they structure the imaginative world of their fiction. Students draft the first chapter of their capstone novel or the first story in their capstone collection (15-20 pages). Students also write a plan for their projects (5-10 pages) in which they create a roadmap of their book, bringing the plot and key characters into focus and defining the audience for their stories.
Prerequisites: Registration is limited to officially admitted candidates in Master of Liberal Arts, creative writing and literature, who are in their penultimate semester. Prospective candidates and students with pending admission applications are not eligible. Candidates must be in good academic standing and in the process of successfully completing all degree requirements except the capstone, CREA E-599, which they must enroll in the upcoming spring term as their one and only final course with the same instructor (no other course registration is allowed simultaneously with the capstone). Candidates are allowed to complete the summer residency after the capstone. Candidates who do not meet these degree requirements are dropped from the course.
Fall 2024
Precapstone: Building the World of the Book: Fiction
Elizabeth Ames MFA, Writer
In this course, students engage in a series of structured creative writing exercises that make it possible for them to delve deeply into their characters what they look like, what they want and need, and how they interact with the world in which they live as they structure the imaginative world of their fiction. Students draft the first chapter of their capstone novel or the first story in their capstone collection (15-20 pages). Students also write a plan for their projects (5-10 pages) in which they create a roadmap of their book, bringing the plot and key characters into focus and defining the audience for their stories.
Prerequisites: Registration is limited to officially admitted candidates in Master of Liberal Arts, creative writing and literature, who are in their penultimate semester. Prospective candidates and students with pending admission applications are not eligible. Candidates must be in good academic standing and in the process of successfully completing all degree requirements except the capstone, CREA E-599, which they must enroll in the upcoming spring term as their one and only final course with the same instructor (no other course registration is allowed simultaneously with the capstone). Candidates are allowed to complete the summer residency after the capstone. Candidates who do not meet these degree requirements are dropped from the course.
Fall 2024
Precapstone: Building the World of the Book: Fiction or Nonfiction
Leah De Forest MFA, Writer
In this course, students engage in a series of structured creative writing exercises that make it possible for them to delve deeply into their characters what they look like, what they want and need, and how they interact with the world in which they live as they structure the imaginative world of their fiction or nonfiction. Students draft the first chapter of their capstone novel, memoir, or nonfiction book, or the first story or essay in their capstone collection (15-20 pages). Students also write a plan for their projects (5-10 pages) in which they create a roadmap of their book, bringing the narrative arc and key characters into focus and defining the audience for their work.
Prerequisites: Registration is limited to officially admitted candidates in Master of Liberal Arts, creative writing and literature, who are in their penultimate semester. Prospective candidates and students with pending admission applications are not eligible. Candidates must be in good academic standing and in the process of successfully completing all degree requirements except the capstone, CREA E-599, which they must enroll in the upcoming spring term as their one and only final course with the same instructor (no other course registration is allowed simultaneously with the capstone). Candidates are allowed to complete the summer residency after the capstone. Candidates who do not meet these degree requirements are dropped from the course.
Fall 2024
Precapstone: Building the World of the Book: Fiction or Nonfiction
Thomas Wisniewski PhD, Associate of the Department of Comparative Literature, Harvard University
In this course, students engage in a series of structured creative writing exercises that make it possible for them to delve deeply into their characters what they look like, what they want and need, and how they interact with the world in which they live as they structure the imaginative world of their fiction or nonfiction. Students draft the first chapter of their capstone novel, memoir, or nonfiction book, or the first story or essay in their capstone collection (15-20 pages). Students also write a plan for their projects (5-10 pages) in which they create a roadmap of their book, bringing the narrative arc and key characters into focus and defining the audience for their work.
Prerequisites: Registration is limited to officially admitted candidates in Master of Liberal Arts, creative writing and literature, who are in their penultimate semester. Prospective candidates and students with pending admission applications are not eligible. Candidates must be in good academic standing and in the process of successfully completing all degree requirements except the capstone, CREA E-599, which they must enroll in the upcoming spring term as their one and only final course with the same instructor (no other course registration is allowed simultaneously with the capstone). Candidates are allowed to complete the summer residency after the capstone. Candidates who do not meet these degree requirements are dropped from the course.
Spring 2025
Capstone: Developing the Manuscript: Fiction
Katie Beth Kohn MA
This course is meant to follow CREA E-597, in which students built the imaginative world of their books and produced the first story or chapter of them. In this workshop, students write two additional chapters or stories, or approximately 30 pages of new work. The capstone project in total should be about 50-60 pages the equivalent of a thesis. Students submit the entire manuscript the plan and the three chapters developed during both the precapstone and capstone courses at the end of the second semester, but instructors read and comment on only the two new chapters.
Prerequisites: Registration is limited to officially admitted candidates in the Master of Liberal Arts, creative writing and literature. Candidates must be in good academic standing, with only the capstone and the on-campus summer residency left to complete (no other course registration is allowed simultaneously with the capstone), and have successfully completed the precapstone course, CREA E-597, with the same instructor in the previous fall term. Candidates are allowed to complete the summer residency after the capstone. Candidates who do not meet these requirements are dropped from the course.
Spring 2025
Capstone: Developing the Manuscript: Fiction
Elizabeth Ames MFA, Writer
This course is meant to follow CREA E-597, in which students built the imaginative world of their books and produced the first story or chapter of them. In this workshop, students write two additional chapters or stories, or approximately 30 pages of new work. The capstone project in total should be about 50-60 pages the equivalent of a thesis. Students submit the entire manuscript the plan and the three chapters developed during both the precapstone and capstone courses at the end of the second semester, but instructors read and comment on only the two new chapters.
Prerequisites: Registration is limited to officially admitted candidates in the Master of Liberal Arts, creative writing and literature. Candidates must be in good academic standing, with only the capstone and the on-campus summer residency left to complete (no other course registration is allowed simultaneously with the capstone), and have successfully completed the precapstone course, CREA E-597, with the same instructor in the previous fall term. Candidates are allowed to complete the summer residency after the capstone. Candidates who do not meet these requirements are dropped from the course.
Spring 2025
Capstone: Developing the Manuscript: Fiction or Nonfiction
Leah De Forest MFA, Writer
This course is meant to follow CREA E-597, in which students built the imaginative world of their books and produced the first story or chapter of them. In this workshop, students write two additional chapters or stories, or approximately 30 pages of new work. The capstone project in total should be about 50-60 pages the equivalent of a thesis. Students submit the entire manuscript the plan and the three chapters, stories, or essays developed during both the precapstone and capstone courses at the end of the second semester, but instructors read and comment on only the two new chapters.
Prerequisites: Registration is limited to officially admitted candidates in the Master of Liberal Arts, creative writing and literature. Candidates must be in good academic standing, with only the capstone and the on-campus summer residency left to complete (no other course registration is allowed simultaneously with the capstone), and have successfully completed the precapstone course, CREA E-597, with the same instructor in the previous fall term. Candidates are allowed to complete the summer residency after the capstone. Candidates who do not meet these requirements are dropped from the course.
Spring 2025
Capstone: Developing the Manuscript: Fiction or Nonfiction
Thomas Wisniewski PhD, Associate of the Department of Comparative Literature, Harvard University
This course is meant to follow CREA E-597, in which students built the imaginative world of their books and produced the first story or chapter of them. In this workshop, students write two additional chapters or stories, or approximately 30 pages of new work. The capstone project in total should be about 50-60 pages the equivalent of a thesis. Students submit the entire manuscript the plan and the three chapters, stories, or essays developed during both the precapstone and capstone courses at the end of the second semester, but instructors read and comment on only the two new chapters.
Prerequisites: Registration is limited to officially admitted candidates in the Master of Liberal Arts, creative writing and literature. Candidates must be in good academic standing, with only the capstone and the on-campus summer residency left to complete (no other course registration is allowed simultaneously with the capstone), and have successfully completed the precapstone course, CREA E-597, with the same instructor in the previous fall term. Candidates are allowed to complete the summer residency after the capstone. Candidates who do not meet these requirements are dropped from the course.