Spring 2026 Course Atlas

Poetry & the Practice of Attention

Christle     Wednesday  1:00-3:45

NO APPLICATION REQUIRED

Description TBA

Pre-requisite: None

Students must attend the first class to remain enrolled in this workshop.

Sections:

ENGCW 271W-1     Duong     Monday 2:30-5:15

ENGCW 271W-2     Duong     Tuesday 2:30-5:15

Description TBA

Pre-requisite: none

Students must attend the first class to remain enrolled in this workshop.

Sections:

ENGCW 272W-1     Yanique          MW 10:00-11:45

ENGCW 272W-2     Skibell             Wednesday 2:30-5:15

Yanique's section:

Description TBA

Skibell's section:

Our course will serve as a workshop into the form and structure of fiction writing for the beginning student. We will be working in a round-table workshop format. We will learn by doing. Topics covered will include:  

1) scene work; 2) POV; 3) plot vs. narrative; 4) beginning near the end; 5) characterization;  6) dramatic action, etc.  

Writing: Each student will write three short stories for the workshop. The first will be 7-9 pages in length; the second 8-12. As a final project, each student will write a 3- to 5-page story for the final class.  

Workshop: We will read and discuss each other’s stories. Through the process of speaking intelligently and generously about other people’s work, one hones one’s own narrative and dramatic sense. Each class member’s work will be discussed twice. Everyone is expected to participate in the roundtable discussions generously and openly.  

Reading each other’s work: One of the greatest benefits of the workshop is getting feedback from one’s peers. I encourage you all to be generous with one another on this score. Make honest and full-hearted and generous comments on the one another’s manuscripts, and be prepared to throw yourself into the class discussions. Each of you will get back what you give to your peers in this regard. 

Grading: I don’t feel it’s right to grade young writers on the quality of their work. Evaluating creative work is subjective at best. And so our class will work on a 100-point grading system. Attendance at our 13 classes is worth 2 points each for a total of 26% of your grade. (Miss a class, lose two points. Arrive 30 minutes late, lose 1/6 of a point, etc.) Your 28 peer responses (turned in on time to an email address to be provided on the syllabus) are worth 1 point each for a total of 28% of your grade. These will be time-stamped and strictly counted. Each story is 10 points each, and your proof of attendance at two Creative Writing Reading Series events or other literary events is worth 2.5 points each. This totals 89 points, which equals a B.  

The other 11% of your grade is my subjective evaluation of your performance, in class and on paper. This means, in essence, that by doing 100% of the work, you are guaranteed a B. My evaluation of the final 11% will consider: manifest effort, progress made from beginning to end, attitude to the class and the work, and other such intangibles as level of engagement, intellectual inquiry, curiosity, generosity, pro-activity, consistency, a positive attitude, as well as a Bell Curve comparison to your peers. Some students take ownership of a workshop, others seem less involved. If you want an A, make sure you take ownership of the class and that you compare favorably to the most involved students.

Texts: none

Pre-requisite: any 200-level workshop

Writing sample: 10-15 pages of fiction (double-spaced), genre writing accepted

Sections:

ENGCW 370RW-1     Tolin       Tuesday 2:30-5:15

ENGCW 370RW-2     Tolin       Wednesday 2:30-5:15

Accepted students are required to attend the first class session; waitlisted students are not.

Inventing Time in Short Fiction

This course expands craft concepts introduced in introductory creative writing coursework with a special focus on the narrative possibilities of time. How might we maintain a short story’s necessary “intensity of focus” within a timeframe that spans centuries? How might a short story that takes place over the course of an hour give every detail heightened significance?

In addition to exploring the narrative pressures of different timeframes, we will look at stories that break linearity, gesturing toward the future and even using elements like time travel to negotiate the constraints of the short story form. Selections from contemporary short fiction authors like Venita Blackburn, Sean Vestal, Mariah Rigg, Jonathan Escoffery, Brenda Peynado, Steven Millhauser, Ted Chiang, and Sofia Samatar will be included in our studies.

Required texts or materials to be purchased:

All published texts will be provided as hard copies or digital PDFs. You will be responsible for printing your peers’ workshop stories.

Assessment:

Creative Writing (65%):

• Workshop Story #1, roughly 7-25 pages (15%)
• Workshop Story #2, roughly 12-30 pages (15%)
• Final Portfolio (30%)
• Prompts (5%)

Participation (25%):

• Peer Critiques (15%)
• Literary Citizenship (10%)

Presentation on a Published Story (10%)

Pre-requisite: any 200-level workshop

Writing sample: 3-4 poems on separate pages

Students must attend the first class to remain enrolled in this workshop.

Sections:

ENGCW 371RW-1       Ciano             Monday 2:30-5:15

ENGCW 371RW-2       Ciano             Tuesday 2:30-5:15

Section 1: FORMS

In this intermediate course, you will find a community of poets serious about their craft, hoping to deepen their engagement with the art of poetry. Through the shared sense of trust and endeavor provided by the workshop community, we will closely read the work of published poets and that of our peers as we draft new poems ourselves. To structure our in-class discussions and the weekly creation of new work, we will look closely at prosody and the resurgence of traditional forms in the work of contemporary American poets. As we try out various forms ourselves, we will situate our own poetic experiments in a centuries-long conversation extending to our present moment.

Texts:

American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin by Terrance Hayes    

I Do Everything I’m Told by Megan Fernandes    

Couplets: A Love Story by Maggie Millner   

Frank: Sonnets by Diane Seuss   

Rhyme’s Reason: A Guide to English Verse by John Hollander   

PDFs of other texts will be available on Canvas and provided in class.

Grading: 

Assignments for this course include one new poem each week, in-class exercises, feedback on your peers’ work, and the memorization and recitation of one poem from our class readings over the course of the semester. With my feedback, and the feedback of your classmates over the course of the semester, you will put together a portfolio of revised work as your final assignment, accompanied by an artist’s statement.

All students are required to attend the Creative Writing Program’s two readings this semester.

30% Attendance & Preparation

30% Weekly Poems

10% Recitation & attendance at program events

30% Final Portfolio (Revised poems and an artist’s statement) 

Section 2: ARCHIVES

In this intermediate course, you will find a community of poets serious about their craft, hoping to deepen their engagement with the art of poetry. Through the shared sense of trust and endeavor provided by the workshop community, we will closely read the work of published poets and that of our peers as we draft new poems ourselves. To structure our in-class discussions and the weekly creation of new work, we will look to poets whose work engages—both literally and metaphorically—with a sense of archive. The archival papers of each poet we read this semester are housed in the Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library here at Emory University. Beyond engaging with the works of the assigned poets, we will also visit their papers to look at drafts and ephemera to deepen a sense of the life of a poet. 

Texts:

Thrall by Natasha Trethewey   

Too Bright to See / Alma by Linda Gregg    

Blessing the Boats: New and Selected Poems 1988-2000 by Lucille Clifton   

Chronic by D.A. Powell    

Jelly Roll: A Blues by Kevin Young  

PDFs of other texts will be available on Canvas and provided in class.

Grading:

Assignments for this course include one new poem each week, in-class exercises, feedback on your peers’ work, and the memorization and recitation of one poem from our class readings over the course of the semester. With my feedback, and the feedback of your classmates over the course of the semester, you will put together a portfolio of revised work as your final assignment, accompanied by an artist’s statement.

All students are required to attend the Creative Writing Program’s two readings this semester.

30% Attendance & Preparation

30% Weekly Poems

10% Recitation & attendance at program events

30% Final Portfolio (Revised poems and an artist’s statement) 

Skibell         Monday       2:30-5:15

Students must attend the first class to remain enrolled in this workshop.

Pre-requisite: A or A- in Intermediate Fiction

Writing sample: 10-15 pages of fiction (double-spaced) 

Our course will serve as a workshop into the form and structure of fiction writing for the advanced student. We will be working in a round-table workshop format. We will learn by doing. Topics covered will include:

1) scene work; 2) POV; 3) plot vs. narrative; 4) beginning near the end; 5) characterization; 6) dramatic action, etc.

Copying Costs: Each author will be responsible for printing out a copy of the work discussed each week in class. All work must be double-spaced, legibly printed, page-numbered consecutively with the title and author’s name on the first page.

We will be doing some in-class writing. Bring the tools for this: pens, paper, etc.

Writing: Each student will write three short stories for the workshop. The first will be 8-10 pages in length; the second 9-13. As a final project, each student will write a 3- to 5-page story for the final class.

Typically, short stories concentrate on a small plot and a small cast of characters. 

Workshop: In workshop, we will read and discuss each other’s scenes. Through the process of speaking intelligently and generously about other people’s work, one hones one’s own narrative and dramatic sense. Each class member’s work will be discussed two times. Everyone is expected to participate in the roundtable discussions generously and openly.

Reading each other’s work: One of the greatest benefits of the workshop is getting feedback from one’s peers. I encourage you all to be generous with one another on this score. Make honest and full-hearted and generous comments on one another’s manuscripts, and be prepared to throw yourself into the class discussions. Each of you will get back what you give to your peers in this regard.

ALSO: Email me a copy of each of your 1- to 2-page responses at an email address to be provided on the syllabus. You MUST email me a copy of the response BEFORE the workshop, and please email the author in question AFTER the workshop.

Texts: none

Christle         Thursday       1:00-3:45

Students are not required to attend the first class to enroll in this workshop.  

Pre-requisite: A or A- in Intermediate Poetry

Writing sample required: 3-4 poems on separate pages  

This course is intended for students with a serious commitment to poetry, and a strong belief in their ability to learn among a community of people whose work will both overlap with and differ from their own. Students will strive for excellence and excitement in the regular composition and revision of new poems, as well as an ever-broadening sense of the possibilities of our art. In addition to posting poems for workshop, students will provide context for their creative work, sharing influential texts and ideas, in order to deepen the class’s collective ability to understand where their poems are coming from, and where they might be headed. Readings will include full-length poetry collections and essays on craft. Each student will be responsible for guiding discussion of one book (with a partner), and attendance at all Creative Writing Reading Series events is required.

Required Texts (subject to adjustment): 

Feeld by Jos Charles       

Bluff by Danez Smith       

Asphodel, That Greeny Flower & Other Love Poems by William Carlos Williams     

Glass, Irony & God by Anne Carson     

After Lorca by Jack Spicer     

Assessment:

Writing (40%)

15% Weekly poems 

15% Portfolio of revised poems 

10% Where you’re headed essay 

Reading (30%)

15% Comments/annotations on classmates’ poems 

7.5% Book introduction 

7.5% Pre-discussion responses to assigned readings

Participation (30%)

5% Memorization and recitation of a poem

15% Active engagement in discussions and other in-class activities 

5% Two individual conferences

5% Creative Writing Reading Series attendance 

Learning Outcomes:

In this course you will

• Deepen your understanding and practice of the choices poets make as they craft their work.
• Describe and analyze the effects of those choices in the poems of your classmates, published authors, and yourself.
• Gather contextual information and materials to enrich your reading of full-length poetry collections.
• Make your reading a generative source for your own work.
• Sustain regular habits of composing and revising new poems.
• Begin (or continue) to develop your sense of how your work might participate in poetry’s many conversations.
• Write beyond what you already know, growing stronger and more flexible in your creative work.
• Find new corners of your imagination.

Belflower/Pharel        Tuesday    2:30-5:30

Students must attend the first class to remain enrolled in this workshop. 

Pre-requisite: A or A- in Intermediate Playwriting

Writing sample: 10 pages of dramatic writing

Description TBA

Sections:

ENGCW 376RW-1 Nonfiction Magazine and Long-form Writing

Klibanoff       Tuesday       2:30-5:15

ENGCW 376RW-2 Creative Nonfiction: Memoir

Kornick        Thursday        2:30-5:15

Klibanoff's section:

Students must attend the first class to remain enrolled in this workshop. 

Pre-requisite: none, not open to first-year students

Writing sample: 6-10 pages of nonfiction or journalistic writing OR explain in a 3-page essay what motivates you to seek a course that emphasizes nonfiction/journalism. Students must provide some evidence they have done journalistic and/or nonfiction writing. 

This workshop is focused on long-form, nonfiction magazine and feature writing -- reading it, reporting it, writing it, and doing so in ways and by means that separate the exceptional from the pedestrian. This is nonfiction. Be prepared to be a reporter, to meet people face-to-face, to ask questions, to see and hear things with your own eyes and ears. We’ll have visiting experts on hand as we discuss where great ideas come from, how to be strategic in your reporting, the art of the interview, and crafting stories, then stories within stories. We're looking mostly at print, but we will see beyond the dead tree media at the growing opportunities for magazine-style writing and long-form narratives online. Ultimately, the goal of the course is for you to become a considerably wiser and more effective nonfiction story-teller, for which the basis is sound reporting. Students should budget for photocopying.

Text:

Storycraft: The Complete Guide to Writing Narrative Nonfiction, Jack Hart (2nd edition)

Assessment:

This course in magazine and feature writing requires students to report, report and report (which means interviewing people, conducting research, observing people, situations) and to write complete stories in a narrative, journalistic style that meets high standards for clarity, accuracy, story-telling and ethics. Students will be assessed primarily on their engagement in effective, ethical reporting (gathering of information) for magazine and feature stories, and on the overall development of their reporting skills; on the development of their narrative writing as they seek the ultimate goal: to produce publishable work; on class participation, and on the quality of their responses to assignments.

Kornick's section:

Students must attend the first class to remain enrolled in this workshop.

Pre-requisite: any 200-level workshop

Writing sample: 3-5 pages of nonfiction 

This class broadly considers the idea of memoir—writing the self—and how we shape personal stories into nonfiction that resonates with readers. Through weekly exercises, we’ll explore strategies to turn the self into a character, select the compelling details, and find structure for memories. By reading a range of personal essays and memoir excerpts, alongside craft essays on nonfiction, we’ll find models for telling one’s own story. We’ll experiment with narrative, lyric, and rhetorical approaches to personal nonfiction, and even consider the possibilities of autobiographical fiction. Along the way, we’ll navigate the problems that arise in memoir writing—from elusive details to embarrassment—and find sustaining ways to draw from our lived experiences in our writing.  

Texts:

The Contemporary American Essay by Phillip Lopate   

The Situation and the Story: The Art of Personal Narrative by Vivian Gornick    

Grading:

1. Participation & Preparedness (25%): The quality (not frequency) of verbal communication, engagement and preparedness in craft discussions of readings and workshop, attendance (mandatory), and written feedback to one another factor into this grade.

2. Workshop Submissions (30%): Each student will bring in two fully developed submissions (10-15 double-spaced pages) for workshop this semester. These pieces can be stand-alone personal essays or chapters of a longer memoir project. 

Workshop submission evaluation is based on (1) meeting page and prompt requirements, (2) how well the work engages with the elements of creative nonfiction we’ve discussed in class, and (3) whether students’ own craft as a writer is developing based on feedback.

3. Weekly Exercises (25%): On weeks students aren’t being workshopped, they will write a short piece of creative nonfiction (2-3 double-spaced pages) in response to a prompt inspired by that week’s reading. Weekly exercises should be early drafts and experiments; they will be evaluated based on engagement with the prompt.

4. Final Portfolio Revisions (15%): At the end of the semester, students will significantly revise one workshop submissions and two exercises based on instructor feedback, that of workshop, and the student’s own sense of how the work should evolve.

5. Final Portfolio Craft Statement and Process/Publishing Note (5%): Alongside the revisions, students will also turn in a 1-2 page, single-spaced reflective statement about where they are in their writing. At the end of this creative statement, students will also include a brief note (one paragraph) about the revision process, and what avenues (literary journals, agents, and/or popular outlets) students envision as a fit for the work, considering content, length, and audience.

All students are required to attend the Creative Writing Program’s two readings this semester.

NOTE: The other section of Screenwriting and Advanced Screenwriting taught by Professor Conway is offered through The Department of Film & Media and does not require an application -- you may register for those classes as normal. Do not include these classes on your application. Both of Conway's classes count as a workshop for Creative Writing majors.

Screenwriting: Writing the Short Film

Students must attend the second class to remain enrolled in this workshop.

Kras         Tuesday             2:30-5:15

Kras         Wednesday       2:30-5:15

Pre-requisite: any 200-level workshop or FILM 101/270

Writing sample: 2-5 pages in any genre, preferably narrative prose

Description TBA

ENGCW 389-1/FILM 385-2 Special Topics: Journalism in the Movies

Klibanoff        Wednesday      2:30-5:15

Description TBA

ENGCW 389W-1 Special Topics: Inside/Outside: Writing and Reading Archival Poetics and Eco-poetics

Yanique       MW   11:30-12:45

Students must attend the first class to remain enrolled in this workshop.

Pre-requisite: any 200-level workshop

Writing sample: TBA

In this course we will go inside, into artifacts and archives, to write poetry that arises from what other humans create and leave behind. We will also go out into nature to write poetry that comes out of the natural world. We will consider grass and rain as works of art worthy of poetic response.  We will consider human “stuff” as materiality worthy of poetic examination. We will experiment with poetic forms, as they may be relevant or inspirational. 

Texts:

Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry, Camille Dungy, ed.    

Wild Kingdom, Vijay Seshadri     

Kingdom Animalia, Aracelis Girmay    

Information Desk, Robyn Schiff  

Look, Solmaz Sharif        

Bellocq’s Ophelia, Natasha Tretheway     

Assessment:

Students will be assessed on four elements of the course: written comments/marginalia comments to fellows students, writing exercises, class participation, and poems, revisions (details will be on the syllabus). Each aspect of the class will be weighed equally at 25%. Students must perform with excellence on all elements of the course to receive an A. Excellence is defined by the professor.  Students performing very well will receive a grade on the B to B+ scale. Students performing well will receive a grade on the C+ to B- scale. Students performing mediocrely will receive a grade on the D to C scale. Students performing inadequately will be asked to leave the class or they will receive an F grade.

You may miss one class without excuse or consequence. Missing two classes will result in one half-reduction of your overall grade. Missing three classes will result in the one full reduction of your overall grade. Missing more than three classes will earn you an F, and removal from the class. If you have accommodations that makes this difficult for you, please speak to the professor before problems arise. 

No assignments are accepted late or by email unless clearly stated in the syllabus. Late assignments will be graded as a zero unless previous arrangement is agreed upon between student and professor. 

ENGCW 389W-2/FILM 385W-1 Special Topics: Adaptation for TV and Film

Kras            Thursday       2:30-5:15

Both accepted and officially waitlisted students must attend the second class to be enrolled in this workshop.   

Pre-requisite: any 200-level workshop

Writing sample: TBA

An advanced writing-intensive course adapting pre-existing material (such as public domain novels, short stories, or other intellectual property) for TV and film.