Topics in Composition

WRITING 313A

This craft class will examine the techniques and approaches used to create renderings of real people on the page. Our reading will be a mix of essay-length personal portraits (in which the subject is someone known to the writer) and article-length profiles (in which the subject is someone in the public arena) as well as two book-length works of portraiture. Writers of shorter works will include Edwidge Danticat, John Berger, Susan Orlean, Jamaica Kincaid, Lillian Ross, Joseph Mitchell, Hilton Als, Alicia Ostriker, Larissa MacFarquhar, Bernard Cooper, John McPhee, Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah, Joseph Epstein, Kay Larson and others. Students will write several short exercises leading up to two longer works, one portrait and one profile. Open to undergrads who've completed Creative Nonfiction 1. This course counts toward the Creative Writing Concentration.
Course Attributes: EN H; BU Hum; AS HUM; WR NF