CW 170 — Reading as a Writer: A One-Week Intensive
Quarter: Summer
Instructor(s): Jonah Willihnganz
Date(s): Jun 23—Jun 27
Class Recording Available: No
Class Meeting Day: Monday - Friday
Class Meeting Time: 12:30—5:30 pm (PT)
Tuition: $670
Refund Deadline: Jun 16
Unit(s): 2
Enrollment Limit: 22
Status: Open
Quarter: Summer
Day: Monday - Friday
Duration: 5 days
Time: 12:30—5:30 pm (PT)
Date(s): Jun 23—Jun 27
Unit(s): 2
Tuition: $670
Refund Deadline: Jun 16
Instructor(s): Jonah Willihnganz
Enrollment Limit: 22
Recording Available: No
Status: Open
One of the best ways to become a skilled writer is to become a skilled reader. In this immersion seminar, you will learn to read in a way you were probably never taught in literature courses—not as a critic but as a craftsperson, an apprentice in the guild. You will learn how to X-ray any piece of writing, from its design to its prose, so that you can make its strategies your own. Examining contemporary masters like Joan Didion, and George Saunders, you will learn, for example, what makes a particular physical description effective, how to advance plot with dialogue, and how to subtly develop a piece’s insight. Since the aim of skilled reading is skilled writing, you will try out techniques in short exercises, but we will not critique manuscripts. We will discuss traditional and experimental approaches to fiction and creative nonfiction. And we will look at design elements (like plot, point of view, and image systems) and prose elements (patterns that help produce narrative voice, style, and tone). Other authors we will consider include Tobias Wolff, Zadie Smith, Louise Erdrich, Colum McCann, Lorrie Moore, Tommy Orange, Ocean Vuong, Miranda July, and Jhumpa Lahiri.
JONAH WILLIHNGANZ
Director, Stanford Storytelling Project
Jonah Willihnganz has taught writing and literature at Stanford since 2002. He is a lecturer in the Schools of Education, Medicine, and Humanities and Sciences at Stanford, and he is the co-founder of the LifeWorks Program for Integrative Learning. Willihnganz has published fiction, essays, and literary criticism, and his research focuses on how stories and storytelling can heal the mind. He received an MFA from Hollins University and a PhD in English from Brown. Textbooks for this course:
(Required) Alice LaPlante, Method and Madness (ISBN 978-0393928174)
(Required) Francine Prose, Reading Like a Writer (ISBN 978-0060777050)
(Required) Francine Prose, Reading Like a Writer (ISBN 978-0060777050)