Creative Writing
Program Overview
Behind every good writer is an exceptional reader. Behind every exceptional writer is a brilliant observer. Behind every brilliant writer is a child of the world, invested with all their senses, quizzical, analytical, brave. These are our goals, in this class as well as in our lives as working artists. We seek to be exceptional, brilliant, brave and in order to achieve these goals we will have to learn how to be diligent and driven. We will have to learn the principles of craft--when to utilize them and when the break their rules--and we will have to lean the principles of our own aesthetics--our strengths, our crutches, our habits. In this class, we will experiences literature, that of our classmates and of contemporaneous and past masters, from the perspective of writers instead of solely as students. Our understanding will be that, much as T.S. Eliot describes in his metaphorical sculpture garden, the process of literature is an ongoing conversation as apt to be affected by what has come before as by what will happen in the future. Over the course of the year, our voices will become increasingly knowledgeable and nuanced in order to contribute to that conversation. As Samuel Beckett once said, "Try again. Fail again. Fail better."
CW III, Application of Figurative Language: The student will acquire the ability to apply advanced principles of figurative language within the three major writing genres: Poetry, Fiction and Creative Non-Fiction.
CW IV, Literary Forms: The student will apply knowledge acquired in Creative Writing III—Application of Figurative Language to the study of historic and contemporary forms in American Literature.
CW V, Longform Writing: The student will apply knowledge acquired in Creative Writing III—Application of Figurative Language and Creative Writing IV—Literary Forms to the drafting, creation, editing and analysis of a “completed” book length work of poetry, fiction or creative nonfiction.
CW VI, Careers in Publishing: Students in this course will study advanced principles of publishing, building on the basic principles explored in Creative Writing III and Creative Writing IV through publication projects and experience as Readers, Genre Editors or Design Editors for Crashtest, the Creative Writing department’s online magazine for high school age writers and artists. They will also fundraise for, organize and conduct the Fine Art Center Reading Series for that academic year.
