In this workshop, students sharpen their skills as storytellers, drawing from their own experience and linking their narratives to larger, timely themes--mixing the personal and political. Three student works are carefully critiqued each week. Assigned readings explore race, class, immigration, gender, and war, among other subjects, and include short essays, memoir, reportage, multimedia/collaborative projects, and travel writing by Svetlana Alexievich, Maya Angelou, Katherine Boo, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Teju Cole, Molly Crabapple, Roxane Gay, Marwan Hisham, Randa Jarrar, Chang-Rae Lee, Valeria Luiselli, Alia Malek, Haruki Murakami, V.S. Naipaul, Joe Sacco, Cheryl Strayed, Ocean Vuong, Liao Yiwu, and others. This Riggio Writing & Democracy Honors course is open to all undergraduate students. (Please note: Some of the readings may change.)