Writers on Writing (ENGL 285) will be back this coming spring quarter, adapted for HYBRID learning and still a great and fun way for
HOW DO THEY DO IT? WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?
WRITERS ON WRITING (ENGL 285)
Spring 2022 Tues/Thurs 12:30-2:20 Hybrid Professor Maya Sonenberg
- VLPA, 5 Credits
- Lectures and Readings by UW Creative Writing faculty and other fiction writers, poets, and nonfiction writers
- Opportunities for small group work & feedback on your writing
- Assignments: brief responses to the talks, short creative writing exercises
- Questions? Ask me! mayas@uw.edu
- More info about me: https://mayasonenberg.com/ & https://english.washington.edu/people/maya-sonenberg
Student Endorsements
- “If I had taken this class as a 1st year, I would be a creative writing major. It’s SO COOL.”
- “In other creative writing classes, it can be intimidating if you have little to no experience…. But this course leaves more room for rough drafts, so it’s a great intro.”
- “The variety of prompts & speakers did a great job of pulling me just slightly out of my comfort zone, enough to learn quite a bit without being stressed out.”
- “Everyone should be able to benefit from creative writing—from self-exploration to enhanced perception of the world to increased overall writing ability—they should, of course, take this class.”
- “Eye-opening in many ways—especially the different stories being shared.”
students to earn 5 VLPA credits.
This is a great class for majors who harbor a secret—or not so secret!—love of reading and writing, or those who are just curious about how poets and novelists create their work. In past years, I’ve had students from nearly every major and ranging from freshman to senior. I’ve enjoyed working with all of them!
This spring, the class will meet mostly in person (depending, of course, on what the situation is with COVID-19 and the administration’s decisions). Needing to meet remotely last year allowed me to bring in visitors from around the US, and we will continue to have at least some Zoom sessions with visiting writers, while some local writers will come meet with us in-person. This large class will be broken into smaller pods to provide a sense of community, to share and receive feedback on their own experiments in writing poetry, fiction, and memoir, and to discuss issues raised by the assigned readings. Depending on student interest, I may be able to create some virtual groups for students who want to meet remotely. The default, however, will be in-person groups. On their own time, students will watch recordings of a wide variety of writers lecturing or reading from their work, read widely, and participate in online discussion forums.