CW 06 — Find Your Writer's Voice
Quarter: Spring
Instructor(s): Marisa Handler
Date(s): May 3—May 4
Class Recording Available: No
Class Meeting Day: Saturday and Sunday
Grade Restriction: No letter grade
Class Meeting Time: 10:00 am—4:00 pm (PT)
Tuition: $480
Refund Deadline: Apr 26
Unit(s): 1
Enrollment Limit: 18
Status: Registration opens Feb 24, 8:30 am (PT)
Quarter: Spring
Day: Saturday and Sunday
Duration: 2 days
Time: 10:00 am—4:00 pm (PT)
Date(s): May 3—May 4
Unit(s): 1
Tuition: $480
Refund Deadline: Apr 26
Instructor(s): Marisa Handler
Grade Restriction: No letter grade
Enrollment Limit: 18
Recording Available: No
Status: Registration opens Feb 24, 8:30 am (PT)
We begin by discovering our voice; we study writing to develop our voice; we read in book reviews of a fresh voice, a strained voice, a confident voice. The writer’s voice: To what degree is it innate, to what constructed? How do we as writers cultivate a voice both authentic and compelling? In this course, we’ll bring a keen eye to issues surrounding the writing voice. We’ll explore how narrative voice influences or determines other craft elements, such as language and character. We’ll discuss how voice is itself a potent vehicle of meaning. And we’ll do exercises designed to enable you to cut out the literary and cognitive “deadwood” that may be obstructing your most authentic and compelling voice. We’ll be reading story and essay excerpts from Nathan Englander, George Saunders, Toni Morrison, David Foster Wallace, Annie Dillard, Jesmyn Ward, Sara Suleri Goodyear, and Barry Lopez. You will emerge from this course with a significantly stronger sense of your own writing voice, as well as how to render it effectively on the page.
MARISA HANDLER
Author
Marisa Handler is the author of the memoir Loyal to the Sky: Notes from an Activist, which received a Nautilus Gold Award. Her essays, fiction, journalism, and poetry have appeared in The Sun, Orion, Salon, Witness, Kosmos, and 580 Split. Handler received an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and numerous fellowships in creative writing, including a Fulbright and an Elizabeth George Foundation grant. Textbooks for this course:
There are no required textbooks; however, some fee-based online readings may be assigned.