As an initial creative prompt and means of ongoing inspiration, we will take up an ekphrastic approach to fiction and other genres. Students will respond to visual materials (photos, reproductions of artworks, etc.) with narratives that engage the imagery. The approach will allow us to explore both technical and aesthetic questions surrounding literary and visual representation. The use of painting/photographic materials will serve as a predicate for and be integrated with students’ writing.

This course will ask students to experiment with writing in a wide range of prose forms while being politically engaged in terms of subject matter. The written component will consist of a series of short pieces – fiction, narrative nonfiction, literary review, and political analysis – followed by a longer piece that draws on one of the above forms and serves as the student’s final project. The course will involve extensive reading in the above forms, including the works of John Keene, Edward P. Jones, Zadie Smith, Barbara Ehrenreich, John Berger, and Oscar Martinez, as well as selections from a range of contemporary left, anti-imperialist publications that ask urgent questions about our political present and future. Prerequisites: Intro of any genre for Writing concentrators, none for non-concentrators.