Be a part of the history of writing and writers at The New School. From 1927 to 1931, the creative writing workshop evolved at The New School into what would become the first academic workshop in creative writing. Today, these signature workshops are still evolving—as we come together to devise the conditions for producing our most authentic work, and in The New School tradition, learn by doing. Intended for nonfiction writers, fiction writers, and poets, in this course students may work strictly inside a genre — whether poetry, nonfiction, or fiction — or may write across (and against) genres and may include other art forms and modes of expression. Please note - writing can engage visual elements, irrespective of genre, and either in explicitly creative (for instance, graphic fiction, graphic memoir, graphic poetry, etc.) or explicitly critical (for instance, art criticism, film criticism, music criticism, cultural criticism, etc.) dimensions. Come prepared for fresh adventures — as a reader: and, as a writer. Special attention is paid to the professional questions we share about publishing, collaboration, entrepreneurship, and building a life as an artist. This workshop is led by Professor Robert Polito, founder of the MFA in Creative Writing and the Writing & Democracy Honors Program at The New School, poet, biographer, essayist and critic and winner of the National Book Critics Circle in Nonfiction.