Instructor: Sara McAulay, Office TBA (we've moved to the Music Building!
Phone: 885-3476, email (best way to contact me): sara.mcaulay@csueastbay.edu.

Winter Quarter office hours: T 3:30 - 4, 8 - 8:30, W 5:30 - 6:30, Th 3 - 4..

Required Texts: Gardner, The Art of Fiction, others TBA.

This is a workshop in creative prose -- fiction and non-fiction, traditional and non-traditional -- taught at the graduate level. Seniors who have taken 4070 twice are also eligible; see the instructor.

I do not have a fixed syllabus for this course, as it is always to some degree tailored to the interests and projects of the workshop members This quarter's specific readings and short exercises will be posted on Blackboard before the second class meeting. Most students write short (or short-short) fiction, and we usually workshop two or three stories per class session. Styles range from the traditional to the experimental. Risk-taking is encouraged.

Each week a student leads the discussion of the assigned readings. In addition, students are assigned to lead discussion of other students' manuscripts (to be "primary respondants"). Each student prepares a detailed written critique of each manuscript under discussion.

A "Reading Journal" is required -- your responses to assigned readings, including student mss.

I'm a firm believer in the value of short writing exercises. I do them myself, and I give them to my students at all levels. For a description of some of these short assignments, click here.

We will make ample use of the Blackboard Forum for extending and developing class discussion as well as for questions, announcements and other course-related business.

REQUIRED WORK/GRADING

• Short exercises, as assigned;
• One - three works of original prose fiction (approx. 25 pp., new work*);
• Reading journal;
• Lead discussion of assigned reading from text;
• Primary response to student mss., as assigned;
• Written critiques of all student mss. (Several generous paragraphs of general comments, plus annotations on mss., to be returned to author.)

Exercises and story drafts to be distributed for discussion may be single spaced to save duplication costs -- but please make a double-spaced copy for me. In recent years, some students have started posting their stories on the web for others to download. Exercises that are not being duplicated for distribution should be double spaced. Final revised drafts must be double spaced, following the format you would use if you were submitting the work for publication.

Since this is a workshop, and meets only once a week, your attendance and participation are vital. You are allowed one unexcused absence. Use it wisely. You will be graded on the quality of your written work; on the thoroughness and perspicuity of your critiques, both written and oral, and of your journal; and on your participation in class and on the list.

My grading criteria are described here.