Writing & Democracy Multi-Genre Workshop This class will have two components: reading and workshop. In the seminar portion, we will read broadly across genres to expand our understanding of craft and form. As well as reading traditionally published short fiction, essays, and poetry, we will delve into the possibilities of incorporating research, archival work, collage, translation, mixed-media and graphic image into our creative work. Our objective is to create a toolkit of approaches to creative writing, such that all students will end the term with a set of tools for revising and strengthening existing drafts and generating new work. Weekly reading assignments will be determined according to the needs and interests of the class, though students can expect to read authors including Aisha Sabatini Sloan, Anne Carson, Claudia Rankine, Paisley Rekdal, and Namwali Serpell. Our workshop will be structured and guided by Liz Lerman’s principles of critical response. Over the course of the term, students will submit at least three pieces for workshop and feedback. Our workshop will be guided by curiosity, deep listening, and collaboration. Throughout, we'll discuss ways of making our writing more expansive, in every direction—diving deep into the intellectual and emotional perspective of the individual author as well as one's relationship and interconnectedness to the world.