E 311C Intermediate Creative Writing: Nonfiction

Overview of Course

People have been traveling and writing about it for a long time. In the Western tradition, Herodotus’ Histories, written around 2500 years ago, is one of the earliest examples of travel writing. In the Eastern Tradition, Faxian’s 5th century account, Foguo Ji, of him traveling to India for sacred Buddhist texts is one of the oldest recorded travel narratives. As we travel the world surrounded by comforts in the MV World Odyssey, we’ll read some foundational nonfiction travel narratives, including those centered around ship-based exploration and from various countries on our itinerary. We’ll explore what we like and don’t like about these texts, analyzing them with an eye towards developing our own travel narratives. We’ll talk through and practice various narrative techniques, including description, dialogue, character building, points of view, integration of multiple languages, social critique, and imagery, among others. As we progress through the semester, sustained reading will give way to more focused writing in multiple nonfiction genres. Subsequent class periods will be devoted to workshopping each other’s writing as small groups and as a whole class, creating spaces for supportive dialogue to help each writer enhance their craft. Towards the end of the semester, students will compile their writing in a portfolio and share it to the broader ship audience via a public reading event.