Courses

WRI 602
Letterpress Printing: The Well Dressed Word (3)
This course introduces students to letterpress printing using the facilities in the Harry Smith Print Shop. Students are instructed in basic techniques as well as in the proper use of materials. Students also learn about basic design principles and the history and aesthetics of fine printing. Course requirements include working on a letterpress-printed project, weekly readings and some written assignments, and participation in group critiques and tasks. Open to W&L and W&P students only, others by permission of the department.

WRI 603
Letterpress Printing: First Impressions (3)
As writers, the practice of setting movable type and printing texts by hand is an invaluable esthetic and practical resource. This class explores letterpress printing from the writer's point of view, bringing literary considerations to those of typography, bookmaking, visual design and layout. As writers/printers, students investigate the letterpress possibilities for poetry and fiction through the production of broadsides, postcards and a limited-edition chapbook. Open to W&L and W&P students only, others by permission of the department. Materials fee.

WRI 608W
Writer's Practicum: Designing a Writing Workshop (2)
This professional training practicum instructs writing students in the skills necessary for conceiving, organizing and teaching writing workshops on two levels: public schools and colleges. The course covers the goals and methods of creating a syllabus and course description, recognition and evaluation of student writing abilities, and relating the writing workshop to existing curriculum. Techniques for working within school systems is stressed, along with how to stay happy and productive as a writer. Students design and submit two syllabi. Open to W&L and W&P students only, others by permission of the department.

WRI 610B
Practice of Poetry: Lyf So Short, Craft So Long (3)
We improvise after reading poems chosen on the basis of features that recommend them as models of particular types of verse form and content. The emphasis in this workshop is the exploration of ways in which speech may be torqued by the line and marked features in language to excite and disturb sound and meaning. Readings are varied and cover a wide range of forms, from traditional ballad to poet’s plays and irregular serial forms. A sourcebook of contemporary and historical poems is our text. Readings and creative work based upon them are

WRI 612W
Poetry Practicum (1)

WRI 614
Creative Reading and Writing: Memoir/Anti-Memoir (3)
In this course we read contemporary memoir: memoir as method of traveling between representations of the self, autobiography that veers from confessionalism, documents that take as their subject the complications of the body (an I) negotiating with a history or family (you are). In our own writing, we try to write an I that is both a conversation with assigned texts and a method to dissolve the assumptions about the making of a self on paper. Open to MFA W&P students only, others by permission of the department.

WRI 618
Practice of Poetry: Migrant Metaphors (3)
The page as territory and the problem of entry/re-entry. In this class, we invent a language to speak about passage: How will we cross into the world we’ve yet to write? How does a line embody the kind of travel that’s not certain? What really happens at a border site, and how can we translate that “event” to the activity of writing? What will you carry with you, writing? This is an effort both transparent (decaying photographs) and solid (objects confiscated in airports): the work of transit. Central to this work: the poetry workshop, augmented by poetics discussions and the occasional experiment. Open to W&P students only.

WRI 619
Practice of Fiction: Narration/Transition (3)
TRANSITION is the carrying agent within prose. It gets the story and the protagonist elsewhere in time and geography. Sometimes it is foreshadowed, as if one hears music before entering the room, sometimes it hovers like an aftertaste. But it is ALWAYS significantly linked with the tempo and moving of the story line. In this class, we do exercises in and out of class based on understanding assorted transitional modes. We also write stories in which the transitions are given in-depth attention. Open to MFA Prose students only, others by permission of department. Required reading is announced in the first class.

WRI 620
Practice of Poetry: Composition and Critique (3)
This class focuses on the participants’ own poems, their intentions and realizations, triumphs, disappointments and creative mistakes. It also attempts to examine and clarify the traditions of which these poems partake, and we read texts pertinent to such an investigation. All This Everyday by Ted Berrigan and Caws & Causeries: Around Poetry and Poets by Anselm Hollo are required reading. Highly recommended is the anthology Postmodern American Poetry, edited by Paul Hoover. Open to W&P students only.

WRI 621
Practice of Fiction: Monologue/Characterization (3)
Arriving at character is one of the skills a writer must gain. The commonplace speaking voice that delineates character and determines character development is the basis for the writing in class. Monologues are a classic learning mode for characterization. Students read writing by writers/performers including Alan Bennett, Eric Bogosian, Whoopi Goldberg and others. The focus is not the dramatic/playwriting aspect but the character/voice speaking itself onto paper. Open to MFA W&P students only.

WRI 623
Creative Reading and Writing: Writing with Shakespeare (3)
In this reading and writing course, students read a selection of the poems and plays of William Shakespeare while keeping an ongoing dialogic writing project going throughout the semester. This project can take any number of possible forms and styles, and can pick up on infinite clues, character facets and dramatic-linguistic stimuli as it grows. Plays include Antony and Cleopatra, MacBeth, Pericles, Twelfth Night, King Lear and Cymbeline. Poems include “Venus and Adonis,” “The Phoenix and the Turtle” and a selection of sonnets. Open to W&P students only.

WRI 625/625e
Creative Reading and Writing: Dramatic Measures (3)
For prose writers who want to achieve familiarity with dramatic structure, and for dramatists looking to infuse more lyricism into their work. The course explores the singular demands of dramatic writing; determining the form in which a story can be most effectively presented. Revealing character through action and the dynamics of dialogue, as well as what constitutes a scene. There are five weeks devoted to writing for the stage and ten weeks on writing for the screen. At the end of the course, each writer possesses a much stronger command of their craft. Open to W&P students only. WRI 625e is open to MFA Creative Writing students only.

WRI 629
Practice of Translation (3)
This is a workshop based on the idea that "translation" equals "transformation." How do the choices we make in vocabulary, style, conceptual approach, when we write anything at all, "translate our thoughts into words," affect the result? How do we know that the literature in translation is an accurate reflection of the original? Can translated literature ever reach the aesthetic and emotional immediacy of texts we are able to read in their original (or "our") language? These are some of the questions we examine while also attempting to create our own translations. Open to W&L and W&P students only, others by permission of the department.

WRI 632/632e
Literature Seminar: The Feeling Tone (3)
The Feeling Tone involves reading and writing about the work of exceptional writers working in different genres: poetry, fiction, memoir and hybrid writing. We discuss writing, approaches to writing, and what the writer is capable of disclosing in the individual mode. We read the literature as writers examining other writers in order to consider how tone is achieved and to investigate how techniques used in writing can be brought to our own work. Students write critical papers, undertake creative writing exercises and participate in discussions. WRI 632 is open to MFA W&P students only. WRI 632e is open to MFA Creative Writing students only.

WRI 633
Literature Seminar: Tracks Along the West Coast
West Coast writings, particularly those of California, of the twentieth century. A look at Pacific Rim culture, its unique geographic situation, Native American background and the mix of Hispanic, Asian, Anglo and African American settlers. Then to focus on three distinct but overlapping literary scenes: San Francisco Renaissance, West Coast Beat and Language poetry. Bay Area arts hold a distinct flavor—jazz, rock, Zen, Gnosticism, letterpress printing, camp and collage. Readings include Indian song, haiku by Japanese American internees of WW II detention camps and writers de Angulo, Snyder, Scalapino, Helen Adam, Duncan, Hejinian, Mackey. Each student writes three papers and makes one classroom presentation. Open to W&L and W&P students only, others by permission of the department.

WRI 634e
Literature Seminar: One's Own Language (3)
We work with the basic elements of language: sound, vowels and consonants, letters, syllables, words and etymologies, symbols, translation, rhyme and meter. We explore issues such as how to locate the self in the poetry of one's adult life. Through a structured journey, we navigate from A through Z of One's Own Language. Elements such as dialogue, harmony and myth are included. Also rhetoric, speech and voice. We call upon the collective wisdom of the canon of world poetry. Open to MFA Creative Writing students only.

WRI 637e
Practice of Fiction: Characterization/Monologue (3)
The speaking voice and the telling moment are the basis for the writing that students do in this online class. We work on creating and presenting characters, using the monologue format. Improvisation and exercises are directed toward arriving at text. We read or watch performances on videotape by writers/performers who excel at creating characters on paper. The focus throughout is to move from the voice onto the page. Ultimately, the principle focus is the creation of characters who prove their reality by telling their own story or revealing their true essence through speech.

WRI 639e
Practice of Poetry: Great Companions (3)
The focus of this workshop is poetic lineage, imitation and influence. We look at specific examples (Allen Ginsberg and William Blake, Frank O'Hara, Bernadette Mayer, etc.), as a starting point for discussions. Our goal for the semester is to focus on student poetry as much as possible. We also introduce the ideas of lineage and influence in poetry, and trace lineages in one's own work, and give students an opportunity to present their own work to the class for discussion. Another objective is to make use of electronic sources as a way of keeping up with current trends in poetry. Open to MFA Creative Writing students only.

WRI 640
Literature Seminar: Extraordinary Women (3)
An examination of the works of women writers who write what poet Lyn Hejinian calls “open texts,” that is, prose, poetry, creative nonfiction and hybrid works that are open to the world and to the reader, invite participation, foreground process, resist reduction and examine authority. We look at these works in their own right as well as in relation to the literary movements of the time.

WRI 641e
Practice of Fiction: Sculpting Prose (3)
This course explores the demands of narrative writing. We examine the overall structure of the work we create, focusing on beginnings, endings and effective development. Sculpting Prose functions as an online workshop. Work is generated, assessed and revised with the goal of realizing material that has been honed to its most effective degree. The paramount focus is on the writing itself. Open to MFA Creative Writing students only.

WRI 643W
Poetry Practicum (1)
Study and analysis of selected literary and compositional issues and elements with Naropa faculty and visiting faculty. Topics may cover a wide range of subject matter and methods in poetry and vary from semester to semester. These may include, but are not limited to works of literature, forms of composition, literary history, writing practice (including prose, poetry and translation), literary criticism, as well as film and media studies.

WRI 647
Literature Seminar: Kerouac's Road (3)
In this class, we examine selected primary texts of Kerouac’s narrative canon (what he called the Vanity of Duluoz), as well as his first novel; plus primary critical and personal biographies and oral history. His letters and journals are also included. Through these varied filters we come to a better understanding of his compositional techniques, spiritual and emotional make-up, and ultimately Kerouac’s place in the context of his time and in the gallery of American letters. We probe beyond the myth of the namesake of the Kerouac School, until he reveals himself through his multidimensional life and work.

WRI 649
Literature Seminar: Classic Modernism (3)
In this survey course, we read and discuss many of the great innovations in literary style and composition in prose and verse in the period between 1910 and 1930. Writers include Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, Jean Toomer, T. S. Eliot, William Carlos Williams, James Joyce, Langston Hughes and Marianne Moore. The final third of the term is spent on a close reading of Joyce’s Ulysses. Accompanying the primary texts are essays by the above authors and others on specific features of modernist poetry and narrative. Requirements include response papers and a substantial final paper on some aspect(s) of Ulysses. Open to W&L and W&P students only, others by permission of the department.

WRI 650
Literature Seminar: Midnight Angels (3)
Students study the history of the Beat Generation with special attention to the writings of Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Gregory Corso, William Burroughs, Diane di Prima, Amiri Baraka, Joanne Kyger, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Bob Dylan, Anne Waldman, Philip Whalen, Alan Watts, Michael McClure, Gary Snyder and others. The class thoroughly investigates the provocative essence and force of Beat literature. Students write their own visions in the multiple forms of these singular and enduring writers. Open to W&L and W&P students only, others by permission of the department.

WRI 656
Literature Seminar: Points of Departure (3)
The course covers modern literary works either groundbreaking themselves, or intensely reflective of their moment. We read an expansive selection of texts. The majority of class time is spent discussing the current text, and there are four critical papers covering race and gender, as well as social and cultural breakthroughs. In addition, there are video presentations of selected works. Open to W&L and W&P students only, others by permission of the department.

WRI 660A
Practice of Poetry: Nature Poetry for the 21st Century
Natural history, Endangered Species Act, eco-poetics, bioregionalism. "The death of nature," "The end of wilderness." These should produce poetry in step with the premises of projective verse, field poetics, chance operation, dreamwork, chaos theory-the postmodern discoveries-right? Then why does most nature poetry look so straight, fusty and antiquarian? We meet in a workshop situation and see how poetry might respond to current thought about metabolism, food chains and the intertwined structures of human and animal psyches. Thirty thousand years ago the artists of Chauvet cave made a cultural breakthrough by responding to the megafauna of Eurasia. What now? Open to MFA W&P students only, others by permission of the department.

WRI 660B
Practice of Poetry: The Prose Poem (3)
In this workshop we read and write prose poems. The prose poem is defined by its length of a quarter page to two pages, its absence of line breaks and the poetic qualities of its prose, including the use of scenic imagery, narrative disruption and compressed, irregularly rhythmic syntax. The narrative of a prose poem is often compared to that in dreams, involving sudden shifts of development and evocative tonal and atmospheric shading. Authors include Charles Baudelaire, Arthur Rimbaud, Max Jacob, Gertrude Stein, Bernadette Mayer, Rosemarie Waldrop, Lisa Jarnot, Michael Friedman and others. Open to MFA W&P students only.

WRI 664
Practice of Poetry: The Poetic Journal (3)
A writing workshop. Participants keep daily entries of thoughts, experimental writing, observation, conversation, readings, dreams and study. Readings in an array of chronicles: Japanese writers including Basho, Sei Shonagon and Masaoka Shiki; contemporary Americans who have published poetic journals: Joanne Kyger, Hannah Weiner, Lorine Niedecker, Gary Snyder and others. Questions: What makes a journal shapely? How have others composed cross-genre work on the edge of poetry, essay, fiction and autobiography? What does it mean to write with Time as the key element? Is revision of journal entries a crime or a necessity? Participants submit an edited final project of twenty pages, with an introduction. Open to MFA W&P students only.

WRI 667e
Creative Reading and Writing: Inspired by Inspiration (3)
The focus of this class is to write using the study of the work of five international and five American women poets. The poets included come from extremely divergent situations and geographies and work in styles substantially different from one another. We look at each poet's bio and discuss how it is reflected in their poetics as a starting point to understanding the poet's work. The students study the poems and consider how they can expand their own work by using the genre and direction of the poet upon whom we are focused. Open to MFA Creative Writing students only.

WRI 668e
Practice of Fiction: Toward Accumulating a Larger Text (3)
Practice of Fiction: Toward Accumulating a Larger Text (3) The focus of this class is on accruing, through episodes and exercises, the first draft of a larger text, a novel or novella. The work begins in this class and moves through outlines and specifics toward the first draft of a book length manuscript. Note: we will not be working with novels you may already have in progress. It is essential that everyone in the class be working simultaneously with the same specific underlying principles. Required books will be on the syllabus and announced at the first class.

WRI 669e
Creative Reading and Writing: Collaborations, Crossings and Collisions (3)
What happens when you open up your work to another mind, or two or three? We explore possibilities for collaborations between writer and writer, visual artist, musician, dancer, filmmaker, set-designer; the possibilities are endless. Through examining collaborations by contemporary writers, we explore collaboration theory and practice in order to apply it to our own work. In addition to exploring various forms of collaboration with classmates, each student embarks on a project in their home community. With a member of the community, the student engages in a collaboration of his or her choice, culminating in a public and class presentation during the final two weeks of the semester. Open to MFA Creative Writing students only.

WRI 670
Practice of Poetry: Word for Word, Line by Line (3)
While this workshop focuses on the participants' own poems, it also attempts to examine and clarify the traditions of which these poems partake, and to that end we read texts by practicing poets who have written about their work and the work of others in useful ways. These include All This Everyday by Ted Berrigan, Other Traditions by John Ashbery and selections from the critical writings of William Carlos Williams, Robert Creeley, Charles Bernstein and others. Open to MFA W&P students only.

WRI 671
Practice of Fiction: Building Blocks (3)
This course concentrates on short works/passages from various authors and/or short video segments for assignments on specific skills: dialogue, characterization, scene work, narration and point of view during the first half of every class. For the second half, students bring their writing for comments and/or critiques. Work by Alice Munro, Quentin Tarrantino, Lorrie Moore, David Mamet, Amy Hemphill, Jhumpa Lahiri and others may be used. Editorial and professional career skills are taught. Written critical feedback is required from students and instructor on student writing. Goals: Get past second drafts; 35 pp. or 1/3 of your final MS. Recommended for first semester students. Open to MFA W&P students only.

WRI 673
Creative Reading and Writing: Food as Metaphor (3)
So much depends upon dinner, either the lack of it or its inclusion. Food brings characters around a table. In fiction, Virginia Woolf has rhapsodized about pyramids of fruit, as has Joyce about hot potatoes. We write stories incorporating food in some manner, as a metaphor and as a catalyst for action. Writers we look at may include Hemingway, Stein, Colwin and Fisher. Open to MFA W&P students only, others by permission of the department.

WRI 675
Creative Reading and Writing: Memory and Matter (3)
In this class, we make enquiries into the ways that we hold, process and capture memory-neurologically, physically and/or as technologies that happen outside of the body. We also look at models of memory in which memory has failed, biologically and culturally. How do we recover memory? How do we generate memory within a community? Developing our questions, we write documents that engage them. (What is a document?) The class alternates between readings, research projects and workshops.

WRI 677/677e
Trends in Contemporary Literature: Introduction to Critical Theory (3)
The class aims at developing our understanding of basic issues in contemporary literary theory. Readings are taken from continental philosophy, anthropology, linguistics, literary criticism, psychoanalytic theory, and gender and ethnic studies. The class is recommended for students who intend to take Feminist Theory in the spring semester. Open to W&L and W&P students only, others by permission of the department.

WRI 680e
Mind Moving (3)
Mind Moving explores contemplative practices in prose and poetry. Philip Whalen and Gary Snyder's experimental verbal collages, montages and mobiles with multiple points of view are investigated along with the compassionate characterization used by prose writers. The Buddhist appropriations and assimilations of Whalen, Kerouac and Snyder's early artistic processes are primary. Mind Moving covers relevant American Buddhist and cultural history connected to Whalen, Kerouac and Snyder's art. A critical response essay and artistic portfolio required. Guided meditation is provided. This course serves for contemplative credit. Open to MFA Creative Writing students only.

WRI 688e
Literature Seminar: Kerouac’s Road (3)
In this class, we examine selected, primary texts of Kerouac’s narrative canon (what he called the Vanity of Duluoz), as well as his first novel; plus primary critical and personal biographies and oral history. His letters and journals are also included. Through these varied filters we come to a better understanding of his compositional techniques, spiritual and emotional make-up, and ultimately Kerouac’s place in the context of his time and in the gallery of American letters. We probe beyond the myth of the namesake of the Kerouac School, until he reveals himself through his multidimensional life and work.

WRI 700
Writing Pedagogy Seminar: Composition and Writing Center Theory (3)
This seminar is required of graduate students selected to staff the Naropa Writing Center. In this course, we study composition and writing center theory and develop techniques to put that theory into practice through handson work with papers. We approach consulting from a multisensory perspective, designed to activate the learning process through engaged reading and writing. The course also focuses on the particular needs of our center by introducing strategies for curriculum development and principles of Writing Across the Curriculum. Successful completion of this course enables Writing Fellows to continue staffing the center in the spring and throughout their graduate program if they maintain their level of commitment.

WRI 702W
Poetry Practicum: Small Press (1)
An introduction to various facets of the small press including its history and practical concerns around submissions and editing. What is a small press? What was its role in forging the contemporary period? How do you "read" relevant editorial information out of journals and magazines? How do you put together submissions and cover letters? At least one current journal or press editor will appear as a guest speaker. There will be show and tell, hands-on study, and collaborative exercises focused on practical skills. Open to W&L and W&P students only, others by permission of the department.

WRI 710
Practice of Poetry: Your Works (3)
This writing workshop focuses on the participants' own poems, their intentions and realizations, triumphs, disappointments and creative mistakes. We bear in mind John Ashbery's remark: "It's rather hard to be a good artist and also be able to explain intelligently what your art is about. In fact, the worse your art is, the easier it is to talk about it. At least, I'd like to think so." Open to MFA W&P students only.

WRI 715
Practice of Poetry: Poetry Workshop (3)
An exploration and practice of communities of writing and how emphases and concerns overlap or diverge from one community of writers to another. This course builds a support and challenging community in which writers can further develop their poetry. It also explores the larger context in which contemporary US poetry functions, and offers an opportunity to practice entering the context through the process of refining the individual’s own poetics and learning to assemble a coherent manuscript.

WRI 718
Literature Seminar: The Cantos of Ezra Pound (3)
"All times are contemporaneous in the mind." Like no other poem before or after, The Cantos has followed this thought as a beacon. The class studies what critic Hugh Kenner calls "the Pound era," including its literary movements of Imagism and Vorticism and those writers in dialogue with whom Pound developed his verse: H.D., William Carlos Williams, W. B. Yeats, Marianne Moore. Then to ancestral presences: troubadours of Provence, lyre players of Greece, poet-exiles of Tang Dynasty China, dancers of Japanese Noh. With Homer and Dante as guides, we set sail through time and space, visiting the planet's verse traditions, the politics, the economics, reading the entire Cantos and a great deal of Pound's prose. Please bring a copy of the Cantos to the first class. Open to W&P students only.

WRI 720
Practice of Prose: Experimental Prose (3)
An engagement of contemporary developments in experimental prose writing. Focusing on contemporary experimental prose writing in North America since 1985, with an emphasis on non-normative plot, style and language elements that draw on other disciplines for their structural emphasis. This class requires students to write experimental prose works or sections of longer narratives in progress, along with completing appropriate exercises and reading assignments.

WRI 722
Eco-Lit (3)
Eco means house: our larger house has come to be the whole global ecology, in detail. Students study and write poetry and prose, as well as unclassifiable experiments and collaborations that tend to direct attention to surroundings, especially “nature.” Great range of authors, from Thoreau to Annie Dillard, Orpingalik the Inuit songster to Rachel Carson and Stephen Jay Gould, Mba Shole to Gary Snyder. We try to discover/invent new ways of representing nature’s rich variety in language. Open to W&L and W&P students; others by permission of the department.

WRI 723
Practice of Prose: Creative Nonfiction (3)
Engages students in writing creative nonfiction, that is, nonfiction that engages craft elements from other genres to produce work on a continuum from the personal essay, travel journalism, to book reviews. Experiments, discussions and workshops engage contemporary developments in creative nonfiction, with the opportunity to work in short prose forms or to produce a sustained narrative.

WRI 725
The Art of the Essay (3)
“Myself,” said Montaigne, “am the groundwork of my book.” An essay is a foray into such groundwork to produce personal or formal inquiries and assessments of any given topic, whether about hunting elephants, the death of a moth or about girls in Des Moines. In this course we both read and write short prose works encompassing autobiography, memoir, travel sketches and book reviews, demystifying and engaging a process that produces provocative and entertaining literature. Writers we look at may include Didion, Orwell, Baldwin and Woolf. Open to W&L and W&P students only, others by permission of the department.

WRI 731
Creative Reading and Writing: Sequences (3)
Sequences studies how to build longer works. We read, analyze and discuss books that have issues, problems and solutions in structural composition: Fitzgerald, Brautigan, Acker, Erdrich, Gaitskill and Dagoberto Gilb and others may be considered. From nonnarrative, noncharacter- driven Japanese renku, we proceed through modernist to postmodernist to tribal solutions for serial, character-based or experimental works. Two editorial assignments of entire books are required, and marketable professional career skills stressed. Students write, revise and/or complete 65 pages of work. Recommended for third semester students to prepare for their manuscript/thesis semester. Open to MFA W&P students only.

WRI 736/736e
Trends in Contemporary Literature: Introduction to Feminist Theory (3)
Is it possible for a woman to be? Is femininity definable? What have been the consequences of variously addressing these questions? What has been the impact of psychoanalytic theory, linguistics, critical theory and cultural studies on feminist thought? And what impact has feminist theory had in the academy, the literary arts and popular culture? The course examines these and related questions through reading and discussing a few dead white males and the works of, among others, Goldman, Beauvoir, Irigaray, Kristeva and Butler. Open to W&L and W&P students only, others by permission of the department.

WRI 739
Contemplative Poetics (3)
This course explores writing as a contemplative practice joining mindful attention with imaginative letting-go. We explore the meeting of Buddhist and Asian meditative and aesthetic traditions with examples of the poetics of the U.S. and European literary tradition, and the particular way in which their meeting took place at Naropa University. Reading emphasizes modern and contemporary U.S. poetics and the teachings of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, and others on dharma art and contemplative poetics. Course work includes substantial sitting meditation, reading and discussion, and weekly creative writing exercises. Open to W&L and W&P students only, others by permission of the department.

WRI 745W
Poetry Practicum: Haiku, Linked Verse and the Bioregion (1)
Haiku is a Pacific Rim poetry form. It originated in Japan and spread internationally, becoming Japan's best-known export. As a form of poetry it uses precise information about what we now term bioregions. It can be cool & glacially slow, or up close & passionate. This two-day workshop with field trips investigates specifics of our Southern Rocky Mountain bioregion for use in short-form verse. "In place of haiku" is how Lorine Niedecker put it. We'll try five-line versions, mesostics, lunes and collaborative linked-verse projects as well as considering poetry's links to other formal arts. Open to W&L and W&P students only, others by permission of the department.

WRI 746W
Prose Practicum (1)
Study and analysis of selected literary and compositional issues and elements with Naropa faculty and visiting faculty. Topics may cover a wide range of subject matter and methods in prose and vary from semester to semester. These may include, but are not limited to works of literature, forms of composition, literary history, writing practice (including prose, poetry and translation), literary criticism, as well as film and media studies.

WRI 747W
Writer's Practicum (1)
Study and analysis of selected literary and compositional issues and elements with Naropa faculty and visiting faculty. Topics may cover a wide range of subject matter and methods in writing and vary from semester to semester. These may include, but are not limited to, works of literature, forms of composition, literary history, writing practice (including prose, poetry and translation), literary criticism, as well as film and media studies.

WRI 750
Literature Seminar: Radical Prosody (3)
Prosody is the study of verse structure through its phonic, rhythmic and semantic elements. Syllable and sound, syntax and grammar, form and meaning all interact within the weave of poetic “making.” In this course we begin to see and feel the ways in which poetry written in English has gone about patterning linguistic elements and artfully drawing attention to imaginative rhythmic expression. We track the most important prosodic innovations that have revolutionized poetic form and content over the past five hundred years in British and American poetry. Requirements include response papers and a substantial final paper. Open to W&L majors and MFA W&P students only, others by permission of the department.

WRI 756
Mind Moving (3)
Mind Moving explores contemplative practices in prose and poetry. Philip Whalen and Gary Snyder’s experimental verbal collages, montages and mobiles with multiple points of view are investigated along with the compassionate characterization used by prose writers. The Buddhist appropriations and assimilations of Whalen, Kerouac and Snyder’s early artistic processes are primary. Mind Moving covers relevant American Buddhist and cultural history connected to Whalen, Snyder and Kerouac’s art. A critical response essay and artistic portfolio required. Guided meditation is provided. This course serves for contemplative credit. Open to MFA W&P students only.

WRI 760
Creative Reading and Writing: Bad Business Noir n Nasty (3)
Covers Noir mystery and crime novels and five Noir movies. The definition of a Noir story is this: Average Joe or Jane Doe get in deep trouble and makes all the wrong choices in a corrupt and venial society. Common fictional problems of character, scene and narration are taught along with solutions. A professional training component covers Elmore Leonard crime novels with an in-depth look at the research he conducted via a documentary Elmore Leonard Criminal Records. Writers are not expected to write in the mystery genre. Every class devotes its second half to critiques of student writing in any genre. Critical Responses cover technical issues of Noir.

WRI 763
Creative Reading and Writing: Literatures of Exile and Diaspora (3)
An opportunity to engage with fiction, poetry and critical texts regarding exile and diaspora. Readings and research provide a political, historical and cultural context for literary work covered. As writers, students create work that engage and extend the themes and aesthetics of the reading assignments.

WRI 765e
Practice of Fiction: Flash Fiction, Make It New (3)
The spirit of the experiment has been central to American literature. In this workshop on flash fiction, we examine some unusual structures and approaches for writing shortshorts. There are many techniques and approaches from poetry that can be applied to writing micro-fiction. We experiment with some of these.

WRI 768
Literature Seminar: William Blake (3)
Students read a wide selection of works from Blake's vast oeuvre, including the Songs of Innocence and Experience, the Book of Thel, Visions of the Daughters of Albion, America, Europe, the Four Zoas and Milton. These include the "illuminated works" engraved and painted on copper plates, which are explored. Students examine Blake's visionary poetics through a variety of interpretative analytics, from deconstruction to recent feminist, Marxian and psychoanalytic theory, including Buddhist Abhidharma psychology. Weekly response papers and a final research paper are required. Open to MFA W&P students only, others by permission of the department.

WRI 770
Practice of Poetry: Hybrid Forms (3)
Let’s make our flour meal and meat in Georgia. Is that prose or poetry and why.—Gertrude Stein
It seems we’re obsessed with labels—with naming texts and categorizing them. In “Narration: Lecture 2,” Stein challenges traditional notions of poetry and prose. She asks, “does it really make any difference if you do or do not know. This.” We examine writing that problematizes the binary and creates a simulacrum of conventional forms. We isolate the techniques and discuss the theories involved in pressing on the boundaries of genre—mixing and matching, cross-talking our way through. The culmination is a final manuscript of cross-genre, hybridized work. Open to MFA W&P students only.

WRI 771
Practice of Fiction: Postmodern Prose (3)
What is called postmodern is an old and honorable tradition: bringing active intelligence to shaping and perceiving forms which enhance and amplify the text and context of the piece being written. The form is significant to the ‘adventure’ that writing is, and to the mind’s need for a more demanding structure. We work with texts that deal with a variety of approaches and we write a minimum of three stories based on models. There are also in-class exercises and assignments. Open to MFA W&P students only.

WRI 773
Creative Reading and Writing: Cross-Cultural Writing Practices (3)
This class focuses on transnational works to explore the ways in which writers who cross between the spaces of different cultures are (sometimes) also working towards transformations of deep structure in the writing. Does this happen as an action of form (how does form migrate?) or aesthetics (what kinds of complex choices are available to language when the body that speaks the language is no longer in the same place as the language itself?). How do figures in these works emerge/cross from one frame to another? These discussions develop a conversation about hybridity and transformation in your own work, which is work-shopped on alternate weeks. This class is open to any genre and authors we read include W.G. Sebald, Monica Ali and Kamau Braithwaite. Open to MFA W&P students only.

WRI 781
Project Outreach (2-3)
This course sends students into local schools, retirement homes, shelters, at-risk youth groups, etc., to lead creative writing sessions. A portion of the weekly class times occurs in these community settings. Field logistics, practice writing experiences, teaching techniques and field experiences are discussed. Students act as literary activists, teaching and lending inspiration in the “real world.” Open to W&L and W&P students, also to others by permission of the department.

WRI 785e
Practice of Fiction: Building Blocks (3)
Concentrates on short works/passages from various authors and/or view short video segments for assignments on specific skills: dialogue, characterization, scene work, narration and point of view during the first half of every class. For the second half of each class, students bring their writing for comments and/or critiques. Work by Alice Munro, Quentin Tarrantino, Lorrie Moore, David Mamet, Jhumpa Lahiri and others used. Critique skills are taught. Written critical feedback is required from students and instructor on student writing. Goals: Get past second drafts; 35 pp. or 1/3 of your final ms. Recommended for first semester students. Open to MFA Creative Writing students only.

WRI 788e
Creative Reading and Writing: The Art of Nonfiction (3)
Where does fact meet fiction, reportage meet poetry? In explorations that deepen our understanding of the possibilities for ourselves as nonfiction writers, we come together in workshops to write, read and discuss memoir, travel writing, nature writing, food writing, history, diaries, criticism and hybrid forms. We also consider how to assemble a nonfiction book proposal. Readings may include book-length and shorter works by Diana Athill, Alan Bennett, Truman Capote, Gerald Durrell and Edmund White, as well as selections from John D'Agata's Next American Essay. Open to MFA Creative Writing students only.

WRI 790e
Creative Reading and Writing: Investigative Poetics (3)
Some possible investigations include whether one kind of engagement with the world is more authentic than another. What makes a poem "political," and whether a political poem is determined by one's level of engagement with the world. Some others involve writing poetry that (according to Amiel Alcalay) "pillages" from sources such as personal diaries, newspapers and official documents. Writing that wavers between overt and oblique states of mind, and between a direct commentary on reality and abstract experiences within language. Open to MFA Creative Writing students only.

WRI 792e
Book Matters: An Introduction to Publishing (3)
This course introduces the student of writing to the world of publishing. Led by an experienced book editor, and using readings, discussions and online appearances from industry professionals, it explores different types and genres of publishing, considers the roles of literary agents, booksellers and reviewers, and provides an overview of the main publishing processes and functions: editorial, production, design, sales, marketing, publicity and rights. We also develop practical skills in copy-editing and proofreading, write submission letters, compose press releases and plan marketing campaigns. Our aim is a deeper understanding of the culture of publishing.

WRI 793/793e
Special Topics in Writing and Poetics (3)
Study and analysis of selected literary and compositional issues and elements. Topics cover a wide range of subject matter and methods and vary from semester to semester. These may include, but not be limited to: works of literature, forms of composition, literary history, writing practice (including prose, poetry and translation), literary criticism, as well as film and media studies. WRI 602
Letterpress Printing: The Well Dressed Word (3)
This course introduces students to letterpress printing using the facilities in the Harry Smith Print Shop. Students are instructed in basic techniques as well as in the proper use of materials. Students also learn about basic design principles and the history and aesthetics of fine printing. Course requirements include working on a letterpress-printed project, weekly readings and some written assignments, and participation in group critiques and tasks. Open to W&L and W&P students only, others by permission of the department.

WRI 612W
Poetry Practicum (1)

WRI 763
Creative Reading and Writing: Notes on Architecture (3)
In this class, we read works inspired by the experience and imagining of architecture: the passage, the corridor, the underground tunnel, the corner of a city perpetually turning. How does architecture inspire writers to imagine narrative and poetic structures, whether virtual or real, and how can we, writing, enter into the space continually opening out from the one preceding it: or not—what is it like to enter a sequence of rooms that is already there, furnished by the previous occupant? Readings include Elizabeth Grosz’s writings on architecture, as well as selections of contemporary and modernist poetry and prose. Open to MFA W&P students only.

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