1. Announcement
SWARTHMORE POETRY AND FICTION WRITERS’ WORKSHOPS
The English Department announces the due dates for the Poetry and Fiction Writers’ Workshops for Spring 2008. A short sample of the writer’s work should be submitted to the department office on Monday, October 29 before 4:00 p.m.. Please see the bulletin board outside the department office, LPAC 202, for further details.
SWARTHMORE POETRY AND FICTION WRITERS’ WORKSHOPS:
SUBMISSIONS FOR SPRING 2008 DUE MONDAY OCTOBER 29
GUIDELINES FOR THE POETRY WORKSHOP, ENGLISH 070A:
Students interested in the Poetry Workshop, English 070A, led this year by Nathalie Anderson, should submit a brief printed sample of their writing – perhaps 5 poems, no more than 5 pages – to Carolyn Anderson in the English Department Office (LPAC 202) no later than Monday, October 29, at 4 pm. Please do not send your submissions via email.
The Poetry Workshop is limited to 12 members. Students who have taken this workshop in previous years are NOT eligible to apply (but WILL be eligible for the Advanced Poetry Workshop, English 070C, scheduled to be directed by Nathalie Anderson in the fall of 2008). Students who have taken Grendel’s Workshop (070D) or Lyric Encounters (070E) ARE eligible to apply for both the Poetry Workshop and the Advanced Poetry Workshop.
The catalogue describes this course as a class in which students write, read, translate, and talk about poetry. We will emphasize the discovery and development of each individual’s distinctive poetic voice, imagistic motifs, and thematic concerns, within the context of contemporary poetics. The workshop will meet once a week for four hours. Twelve students are admitted on the basis of a writing sample submitted during fall semester.
Final decisions about admission to the Workshop will be made by Monday, November 12 at 4 pm and will be posted on the bulletin board outside of the English Department office, LPAC 202.
Students may apply to both of the English Department’s creative writing workshops but if accepted to both may enroll in ONLY ONE per semester.
GUIDELINES FOR THE FICTION WRITERS’ WORKSHOP, ENGLISH 070B:
Students interested in the Fiction Writers’ Workshop, English 070B, led this year by Gregory Frost, should submit a brief printed sample of their writing (complete stories if possible, or excerpts up to a maximum of 5,000 words – no more than 15 double-spaced pages) to Carolyn Anderson in the English Department office, LPAC 202, no later than Monday, October 29, at 4 pm. Please do not send your submissions via email.
The Fiction Workshop is limited to 12 members. Students may take the Beginning Fiction Workshop up to two times (at the discretion of the instructors), and the Advanced Workshop once. In reference to this, please contact him at gfrost1@swarthmore.edu.
This workshop class focuses on the process of story writing itself. We’ll cover elements such as developing situations and characters, improving dialogue, selecting details, finding a critical voice, and working with different components of plot. We will look at how other authors handle these elements in their stories, and tackle them directly via exercises in order to apply them to our independent work. Classes will comprise lectures, exercises, readings and workshop-critiquing sessions of one another’s writing (expect to write 2 stories during the semester). The twelve students are admitted solely on the basis of the writing sample(s) submitted during fall semester.
Gregory Frost is widely acclaimed for his work as a writer of fantasy and science fiction, and students working in these fields are encouraged to apply; however, we want to emphasize that the Fiction Writers’ Workshop will not focus on these genres: rather, the course offers a more general grounding in the writer’s craft, covering character, plot, process and so forth as it applies to the creation of any and all fiction.
The first volume of GREGORY FROST‘s latest work, a duology entitled Shadowbridge, will be published by Del Rey (Random House) in January of 2008. He is also the author of Fitcher’s Brides, a recasting of the fairy tale of Bluebeard as a terrifying story of faith and power in 19th century millennialist New York State; The Pure Cold Light, a science fiction novel set in an alternate Philadelphia; as well as two works based upon the Ulster cycle of Irish mythology, the Taín Bo Cuailnge. Frost has been a finalist for nearly every major award in the fantasy field, including the Nebula, Hugo, James Tiptree and the World Fantasy Awards. Many of his best short stories are collected in Attack of the Jazz Giants & Other Stories from Golden Gryphon Press.
Final decisions about admission to the Workshop will be made by Monday, November 12 at 4 pm and will be posted on the bulletin board outside of the English Department office, LPAC 202.
Students may apply to both of the English Department’s creative writing workshops but if accepted to both may enroll in ONLY ONE per semester.
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