Class Descriptions

(NOT ALL COURSES OFFERED EVERY SEMESTER).

EG 280 Introduction to Creative Writing
This class will introduce students to the process and techniques of creative writing. Students will experiment with various types of writing, including the writing of fiction and poetry. Class readings will expose students to various writing styles and provide examples of the successes and strategies of other writers. Class time will be spent discussing the writer's craft, the assigned readings, and student writing. 

EG 380 Fiction Writing
Through writing exercises, students in this course will learn to craft dialogue, scene, memory, and detail.  By applying these skills, students will write several short stories throughout the semester, each developing particular aspects of prose fiction.  Students should expect to read and discuss contemporary short fiction, to write prose exercises and their own original short stories, and to learn about and participate in workshopping. 

EG 385 Poetry Writing
This beginning workshop-oriented class focuses specifically on the craft and process of poetry writing from a poem's initial draft to its advanced revision.  Students spend time discussing the poet's craft, assigned readings, and other students' writing.  Readings, class discussions, and student presentations act to familiarize students with various writing styles and aesthetic issues.

EG 580 Advanced Fiction Writing
Through various "forms" of  fiction, (the epistolary, the Gothic, the romance, the childhood memory, etc.) students will learn the history and genesis of literary forms and how to apply these to their own contemporary short fiction. Class will consist of workshop and discussion of student writings and assigned readings. Coursework will consist of writing exercises, critiques, readings of notable authors, and extensive revision of students' own fiction. 

EG 585 Advanced Poetry Writing
This advanced workshop-oriented class will focus extensively on the craft and process of poetry writing. A goal of this course is to help students develop a sense of self-consciousness about their writing and technique. Readings from selected authors and various topics in poetics will help students better understand current writing styles and aesthetic issues. Class time will be spent discussing student writing, the poet's craft, and the assigned readings. 

EG 587 Topics in Creative Writing: Comedy Writing
This class introduces students to the fundamentals of comedy, from its classic models to its most modern applications, with the aim of enabling students to do two things: first, to write and perform (or to have performed by proxy) and original comic piece, live, at the end of the semester, and second, to be able to write comedy for specified occasions and performers. Writing exercises and stand-up delivery will train students in comedic technique. Analyses of filmed, written, and audio-recorded comedy will provide the context and background for the students' own original creative work.

EG 587 Topics in Creative Writing: Playwriting

This workshop-oriented class will focus on the craft and process of playwriting from a play's initial draft to its advanced revision and performance. One class goal will be for students to write one act and full length plays. Class readings will help make students familiar with traditional and experimental forms, current writing styles and aesthetic issues. Class time will be spend discussing the playwright's craft, the assigned readings, and student writing. Time permitting, the class will also conduct staged readings of class plays.

EG 588 Seminar in the Literary Magazine
This class focuses on the production of the literary magazine, Flint Hills Review. Students produce the magazine, receiving hands-on training from initial manuscript selection to the production of the print copy. Students also become familiar with the latest technology used to generate the page layout and camera-ready copy. Class discussions and selected readings  center on traditions and theories regarding the history and production of the literary magazine.

EG 588 Studies in Creative Writing: Script Writing
New listing.  Check back later for further details.

EG 780 Seminar in Creative Writing
This dynamic workshop-style seminar designed for graduate students and advanced creative writing minors (fiction writers, poets, nonfiction writers) will focus on advancing a writer's self-consciousness about craft and on movements of contemporary writing. While much of the class focus will be on providing informed criticism of student writing, students will also be responsible for developing writing projects of their own choosing, for participating in and leading class discussions, and for making presentations on selected contemporary authors and aesthetic issues. 
 

Selected Literature Offerings Fulfilling C.W. Minor:

EG 540 Nature and Wilderness in American Literature
This class examines the themes and textual representations of "Nature" and "Wilderness" in the American Literary Tradition.  Discussion will focus on defining America's Nature Writing tradition, its recurring ideologies and oppositions, the changing perceptions toward the environment, and the interrelationships between texts and authors.  This course also seeks to make students familiar with ecocriticism and its application in the reading of both literary and cultural products.  Students will also come to understand the interdisciplinary focus of ecological and environmental studies.

EG 540 American Short Story
This course surveys American short fiction, its history, and development from Romanticism to Post-Modernism.  Students will read a number of short stories each week, as well as critical and historical overviews.  The stories will be discussed in class with the aim of more fully understanding why the short story has developed as it has, and how the short story as it exists today may be critically understood.  It will also be our purpose to understand how both an author's role in the work and the publishing industry of the era may affect the short story and its development.

EG 594 Twentieth-Century Poetry
This upper-level seminar explores the development of twentieth-century poetry through the major works of its distinct and diverse practitioners.  Class discussions and presentations will focus on how various formal, cultural, and social issues gave rise to major movements, theories, and aesthetic principles. 

EG 794 Seminar in Literary Genres: Twentieth-Century Poetry
This student-oriented seminar explores the development of twentieth-century poetry from Imagism to contemporary lyricism. A significant aspect of the class will be to assess the relationship between Modernist and Post-Modernist poetic works. Student discussions and presentations will focus on how various formal, cultural, and social issues gave rise to major movements, theories, and aesthetic issues.

Last Updated April 8, 2008