Conference sign up times

Monday, October 3
1:00 Josh Spear
1:20
1:40 Sam Haimann
2:20 Jen Theesfeld
2:40

Tuesday, October 4
3:15  Ashley Sgro

Wednesday, October 5
2:00 Catherine Rothweiler
2:20 Lauren Frisoli
2:40 Kathryn Jackson
3:00 Aydin Reyhan
3:20 Neiha Bhandari

Thursday, October 6
12:30 Will Barbieri
12:50 Nicole Dreste
1:10 James Pompeo
1:30 Brian DeJoy
3:15 Alison DiGiacomo

Ashley = suggest some times and we will see what we can do.

9/29 - who you are and what you (won't) write about

We started class with a 5 part prompt that sets writers up to reflect on their emotional connections to their writing, and to do some reckoning between who they say they are to themselves -and what their writing suggests.  You did some good, honest work on this one - if it was useful, dig into it some more in your journal.


You spent the rest of class looking at Rodriguez writing, and thinking about what you might like to hear/ask/think about in response to the focus of his writing. You raised thoughtful questions - both about content and his writing life, and even if you don't ask them  - they may enrich your "listening."   The details of the event are: 


Hearts and Hands: Creating Community in Troubled Times, Tuesday, October 4, at 1:45 p.m. in Wilkins Theatre., Luis J. Rodriguez, award-winning poet, activist and bestselling author of Always Running: La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A., will share his personal story of using education and the power of words to lift himself out of poverty and despair in the barrio of East L.A.


Sign up sheets

You also signed up for conferences on Essay 1, and for a "spot" for the Open Mic on the National Day of writing.  The conference list is available as a separate post (you can also use this list to look up the last names of individuals in your group so you can comment on your blogs.)


For Tuesday:
Blog 7:   Post Essay 1.  Even though we don't meet as a class - the essays are due Tuesday before class.  Those of you who signed up for conferences on Monday - please post your essay sometime Sunday so I can do some thinking about it before your conference.


Write: Provide some feedback to your group.  Yeah, they are somewhat random.  You are welcome to read and comment on as many classmates' drafts as you like - spend some time with your group.


Jen, Sam, Alison 
Aydin,  Nicole, Ashley, Cathryn
Amanda, Will,  Lauren, Brian
Josh, Neiha, James, Kathryn


Provide readerly feedback that dentifies what interests you, what you would more (or less) of;  and anything that left you with questions.  

9/27/2011

Family stories
The writing journal prompt for today was to document + think about some of the stories your family tells -about you or each other.  Family stories that come up at particular occasions (holidays, birthdays, when you bring home new friends, when you go to particular places), in response to certain kinds of interactions, or that seem to accompany specific, recurring events or conversations (when you leave home or come home, when you mention your car, your choice of career, your current significant other) - can be emblematic.  They can stand for both how the storyteller thinks about the person in the story, and they can represent unstated family relationship and patterns for relating to one another.  They can connect to fears, jealousies, unfilled wishes, and a host of other assumptions & feelings that are only partially conscious  - or that might never be talked about directly.  Good material for figuring out relationships.

Workshop your ideas
Some of are still at the brainstorming stage - some of you have written your whole essay.  Today's workshop was about getting some feedback from peers in terms of what to do next with your text.

Blog 6:  Do some more writing for Essay 1.  Write about what every you talked about with your group - or - if they said it was wonderful and there is nothing left to work on => take a look at the model essays (in your text) or the assignment sheet and think about how you can make your essay more focused, more artful, or more like the kind of CNF we have been reading.
Read:  Luis Rodriquez will be speaking on October 4 and we will attend his talk.  In class Thursday we will talk about his work - and spend some time thinking about what kinds of questions you might like to hear him address.
Forward to Always Running
Excerpt from Always Running

Good class today - sorry we did not get to the Nye (108).

In class on Thursday we will talk about Rodriguez, you will sign up for conferences on Essay 1, and we will talk some more about the reading on October 20.

See you Thursday!

September 22: Draft Essays 1 & 2

We talked through the assignment sheet for Essays 1 &2 => the "I" essays, and the process for writing them.

You then turned to your writing journal and looked for repeated topics, patterns in interest, recurring characters or references as a way to identify issues, ideas, topics that you might be lurking at the back of your mind as important - even though you might not have thought of them.  You then did some freewriting, listing, exploring - and I think I spoke individually with everyone in class today - to map out both the stories/events that will be the "action" of your essay, and the "aboutness" that will direct the focus/reflection/concept you are exploring.  It sounded to me like you had some great ideas, and I am very eager to read your writing!

We then talked about John McPhee's essay "The Patch."   I chose it as an elegant example of a segmented essay with more or less three storylines - the frame story, the story he tells his father, and "the facts" about fish - each of which serves a different function in the narration.  The title, and the heading under the title were chosen to set the scene for these narrations - and together - they told a story within a story = and offered McPhee's reflections on one part of his relationship to his father, his regard for impersonal medicine, and fishing the patch. If I didn't make it clear in class today - I love this essay.

For next class:
Read: Nye, 108 (I think that's the right page - whatever I said in class - the essay about moving to Palestine.)
Blog 5: Brainstorming for your first essay = do some writing to develop either your concept/focus (what you will write about); some of the stories/events (actual writing you might use to create "scenes" or the "action" of your piece); planning, or just random freewriting with a little of each to get you started,


In class, you will use the blog writing to do some workshopping and get some support & ideas.   We will also use a discussion of Nye to continue to talk about how creative nonfiction is "built."  Have fun and see you on Tuesday.

September 20 - segmented essays & Luis Rodriguez

Luis Rodriguez will be speaking at Kean on Tuesday, October 4 at 1:45, and we will be attending as a class. On Thursday, September 29 - we will be discussing his writing. Check out his web site + work of your choice.  I will bring a copy of Always Running to class this Thursday to pass around - and will make it available in the Writing Center.


I will be reading blogs 1-4 inclusive this weekend.  We've taken the first couple of weeks to get used to the routines for posting and feedback -and I think we've got it down.  During these first couple of weeks, I gave feedback for late posts - but beginning with Blog 5 - if a blog is not posted on the due date - that can be one of the blogs you skip (you can miss 3 with no compromise to your grade).  


In class you did some writing about experiences that changed you.  I used discussion of your stories to belabor the point that creative nonfiction has to have both a story (the telling of a compelling experience or happening) and a "point" (the concept, reflection, or realization that the essay is "about").  As in McPhee or Simic (though his concept is in the title)  - while you do not necessarily need to state your idea straight out - it must be there, clearly, in all its depth and complexity.  Thank you for your brave contributions to the class discussion.  I am REALLY looking forward to reading your essays.  


In class on Thursday we will go over the assignment sheet for the first essay.  It is posted to the right if you are interested in reading it before class.


Read: John McPhee, “The Patch,” The New Yorker, February 8, 2010, p. 32 – available through Kean University Library databases


Blog 4: (due by class Thursday):  Either write about how & why the "sections" in the assigned readings (Cofer, Simic &/or) Atwook "worked" => or, brainstrorm some ideas for how you might use segments in an essay you might write.    

Interesting classification for segmented essays

In his essay "Collage, Montage, Mosaic, Vignette, Episode, Segment," Robert Root names segmented structures in terms of the relationships between their sections. The following listing is taken from his essay, with a few modifications.

• juxtaposition - arranging one item alongside another item so that the comment back and forth on one another
• parallelism - altermating of intertwining one continuouse strand with another (a present tense strand with a past tense strand, a domestic strand with a foreign strand, etc)
• patterning - choosing an extra-literary design and arranging literary segments accordingly (for example, using the structure of/associations with the seasons, a musical piece, preparing a meal as the sequential frame for an essay)
• accumulation - arranging a series of segments or scenes or episodes so that they add to or enrich or alter the meanings of previous segments with each addition, perhaps reinterpreting earlier segments
• journaling - actually writing in episodes or reconstructing teh journal experience in drafts (this approach may include notes, earlier versions of the essay, reflections on how to revise earlier sections, etc.)

No Class September 15

I am sick and will not be on campus today.

I really want to spend some time on the segmented essays - and I am thinking we will just do Thursday's class on Tuesday - and figure out how to go from there.

I am really sorry to miss our class - see you next week.

September 13: Kidder, Lopate + Lott - Defining CNF

The three essays you read for today presented their authors' perspectives on what CNF does and how it works.  Pay attention to their descriptions since they define the "moves" you will be expected to make in your essays for this course.
At the beginning of class,  you did some writing to explore your identity as a character - and then you read some of the pieces and we speculated about what a reader might infer about the persona in the writing.  We noticed that the narrator's identity could be portrayed through behavior within the story itself, or stated directly through first-person declarations or reflections.


We spent the rest of the class discussing the Lott's definition of CNF.  I asked you to notice both the points he made about what CNF did -and the form he used to make his points.  In particular, I pointed out how he used segments and a "refrain" => to state and "re-cap" the points in his definition.    You might also notice that the points were (in a way) cumulative, going from what might be understood as the most concrete and obvious (we write to keep the past from slipping away) - to the most abstract => that we are accountable for the truths we create in writing.  The structure + organization help to create the essays force and movement (it would be very different if he began with accountability & ended with "to record the past").  Look at the principles he used (and describes) = and think about how you might use them in your work.


For class Thursday:


In our next class we will look at essays that  use sections or segments. 
Read: Cofer, 83; Simic, 166; Atwood, 288
Blog 3:  Use your reflections on the readings and today's class discussion to develop your definition of CNF: what do Kidder and Lopate suggest about the writer's relationship to CNF?  How does Lott define creative nonfiction add to their perspectives?  How are their definitions similar to or different from your definition(s)?

September 8 = "I" and "Eye" essays

Associations to place.  We started class with a visualization exercise to connect to "felt" experiences associated with place. I talked you through a visit to  remembered places using techniques derived from work in active dreaming. In discussion of the writing you developed from this, we noticed that you tended to go to places from childhood,  particularly the homes of grandparents, that many of you went to rooms or buildings, that the kinds of places you went to often were "good" or "safe" places (though some of them had an 'edge' to them).  I also asked you to note whether beginning with a visualization worked to "prime the pump" of images and ideas to write about.   Good writing!  And I am hoping some of you noticed/experienced something of interest - something that might later play into a reflection or an essay.


Exploring strategies for writing creative nonfiction.  We spent the rest of the class looking at the three "eye" essays "Secret Ceremonies of Love and Death," Whast he said there," and "Graven Images."  You worked in groups to identify each essay's central  concept, the descriptive, narrative elements that developed that concept - and the relationship between the development of an idea & the narrative, descriptive sometimes "plot-driven" features that articulate the idea.   


In our twenty five second discussion of how "I" essays were different from "eye" essays you pointed out that "I" essays (memoir, reflective writing) is more grounded in the writer's sensibility and that the subject of the essay is some aspect of the author's self, and that  "eye" essays (literary journalism, and descriptive writing such as travel writing)  have a more objective (outside the self) focus - generally a reflection on the way the world is.  


For Tuesday:
Read:  Kidder, 67; Lopate,69; Lott, 194
Blog 2:  Develop a definition of creative nonfiction - what it does, how it works, what it is good for.  You may incorporate your observations from the sample "I" & "eye" essays we have discussed so far - and the ideas presented by Kidder, Lopate, & Lott.


 In class on Tuesday - you will continue to explore definitions of creative nonfiction. 


I will be reading over + replying to your first blog post over the weekend.  You will have comments before class on Tuesday. 

September 6

We will meet in CAS 113 for the rest of the term.


Blogs:  You set up your blogs - and sent me your blog address.  I have posted links to all blog s on my Class Blog list at the right - and will update as the last several come in.  Feel free to copy the URLs and create your own link list.  If you aren't sure how to do that - we will take a minute at the beginning of class to review any remaining questions about blogs.


Early memories: Journal wiring took you back to your earliest memories.  Like the introduction to an essay or the opening scene of a novel - early memories can provide interpretive foundations for subsequent experiences.  What comes after is lived in terms of what comes before.  After we told stories, we summed up some of the patterns in the kinds of stories we told: about "pain" (bee stings); about "firsts," most were told from within that peculiar sensibility of childhood that is unaware of others watching and judging, and most were associated with family.  As we move through the different prompts - do some thinking about patterns in how we respond to certain questions.  CNF writers often write from within the mainstream answers - but with a fresh or startling perspective = the common theme connects to the audience, the freshness gives us all something to think about.


Grealy, Danticat, & Koestenbaum.  We didn't really get through this discussion - but we got a start.  In discussing what the essay was about - we noticed that there were two distinct "abouts" :1)  the sequence of events or "what happened"; and 2) the interpretative reflections on what those events/descriptions/experiences "meant".  As you re-read, re-consider these pieces, think about how (and why) the authors move between telling and reflecting.  And think about the purpose of each move.


As we analyzed Grealy - we noticed that like an essay - it placed clues to its "aboutness" in places similar to an "regular" essay.  This is not the only way to write CNF - but it is a common approach.  We also noticed that what the essay was about was not stated directly - that it was literary in the sense that its meaning unfolded through inference, images, and symbols.  


We also noticed that Grealy and Koestenbaum were "segmented" => written in "chunks" of several paragraphs that hung together in terms of focus.  This is a common strategy in CNF.  These sections operated like mega-paragraphs.  If you look at how these sections are organized - you will see other "moves" authors make to present the kind of "idea stories" characteristic of CNF.  Think about how the authors used/structured the sections in terms of "telling" and "reflecting" - then notice where you got bored - and where you lost yourself in the story.  What is the correlation?  Which parts drew you in?  Where did you withdraw?


We also  noticed - just as the class was ending - that although, after the opening section, following sections seem to be mostly chronological - in a larger sense the organizing principle of the essay is not about accurately representing the sequence of what happened to her.  Rather - the essay is in a LOGICAL (rather than chronological) order that uses selected experiences to develop an idea - a concept - a realization.    So for your first blog - 


For next class:
Read:  Lowry, 48; Vowell, 130; Bellow, 176 => we will use  these essays to continue discussion about what CNF is - and how it works.


Post Blog 1:  Do some writing about the idea or focus that organizes Grealy's essay.  What point is she making?  What sequence of ideas does she move through?  How do her stories serve as "points" in her "argument"?    Where does she move to direct statements (reflections) and why?   


This is your first blog and I am hoping you will use your post to do some thinking about what creative nonfiction is - and how it is built.  If you have a brilliant (or even an average) insight - put it out there!  


Thanks for your good stories - and see you on Thursday.

September 1

Today you shared some of your experiences with writing. I appreciated your stories - and your willingness to put them out there.   It is definitely taking a risk to tell stories to strangers - and when you are writing there is always the potential that a "stranger" will read your work; hopefully this class is going to be a safe place to explore and test stories you want to send out into the world.  It is a brave thing to be a writer.


We used that discussion to point out one of the basic features of creative nonfiction = the movement between detailed, specific narrative and reflective commentary. So that's a start.   We will spend the first couple weeks of the course digging into what CNF is, how it is built, how it works, and what "moves" produce what kinds of effects.


For class Tuesday, we will meet in the computer lab on the first floor of CAS, next to the snack machines  - near the Writing Center.


Read:  Grealy, 23; Danticat, 89; Koesterbaum, 154 (in your text book) + check out the course blog
Write:  send me an email from the account you want to use for the course
And:  Bring your writing journal to class


Great class and see you on Tuesday.