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.
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