E 311C Intermediate Creative Writing: Nonfiction

Overview of Course

Students who take this course will write true stories drawn from their personal experience that utilize the basic building blocks of creative nonfiction—a strong narrative line, vivid characters, crisp dialogue, interlinked scenes, and vivid settings. Creative nonfiction with travel-related themes will be a central focus of the course, which will provide students with the opportunity to use writing as a tool to explore and interpret their global journey during Semester at Sea. Students will read work produced by their classmates as well as examples of creative nonfiction written by published authors and a guide to writing creative nonfiction, such as Lee Gutkind’s You Can’t Make This Stuff Up: The Complete Guide to Writing Creative Nonfiction. The course will emphasize the writing process, and all pieces written for the class will involve multiple drafts, writer’s workshops, and feedback from classmates. Students will also receive individualized feedback from the instructor, who has decades of experience as a writing instructor, an MFA in creative nonfiction, and a record of publishing books that utilize the techniques of creative nonfiction and travel writing. The course will provide students with a structured opportunity to develop their abilities as writers, to nurture their own original voice and style, to reflect upon their cross-cultural travels, and to become familiar with the techniques and conventions of creative nonfiction. By the end of the course, students will be able to compose vivid and engrossing creative nonfiction pieces that bring their own travel stories to life.