4-Week: Experimental Forms

You know what to expect when you see a course description: an elevator pitch for what to expect, an explanation of the class' goals, and a list of authors that are likely to be assigned. You know that the text you're currently reading will follow that exact form because a course description is exactly that—a form. Which is to say: it’s a container for ideas that you implicitly recognize the structure of, even if you don’t think about it all that much. This four-week craft class will give writers the opportunity to read and write prose that eschews traditional structural boundaries to instead take on radically new forms, from grocery lists to PowerPoint presentations to choose-your-own-adventure books. Assigned reading will include work by authors such as Raphael Bob-Waksberg, Jennifer Egan, Carmen Maria Machado, and Charles Yu, and weekly writing exercise will give students the chance to create and experiment with unusual forms of their own. Let's get weird.