XSPP-105 - Creative Writing Academy
Course Description
Transform your dreams, ideas, and stories into organized, compelling, creative written works with dynamic lectures in craft topics, workshop sessions with graduate student instructors, and insightful, productive feedback from your peers. This combination of instructional approaches will help you generate and polish a wealth of new poems, stories, and essays, and allow you to experiment with innovative forms in the field of creative writing. The Academy will also focus on the publishing and professionalization aspects of the industry, exploring what markets are available for your writing, what jobs are available to creative writers, funding opportunities for your work, undergraduate and graduate programs in writing, and how to get published. Topics for discussion will include literary form and targeted craft points, often in relation to social, political, and environmental themes. In addition, this week-long program will feature excursions to sites around Washington, D.C., including an exercise in ekphrastic writing at the National Gallery of Art and the chance to read your work aloud at Busboys and Poets, a famous D.C. literary hub.
View our Sample Schedule here!
How You'll Benefit
Participate in writing workshops Awaken your powers of observation, imagination, and description Learn concrete elements of the craft of writing in daily workshops Attend readings from published authors, who will lead interactive classes and conduct group discussions Work with Georgetown's expert creative writing faculty to bring out your most creative ideas Read excerpts from award-winning works and use them to develop your own original works Visit local monuments, world-renowned theaters, museums, and literary organizations Take part in peer critiques and learn how to revise and refine your writing
Program Format & Subject Areas
As a student in the Creative Writing Academy, you'll spend your day immersed in a blend of classroom lectures, field trips, hands-on activities, and group discussions. Throughout the week, you'll have the opportunity to explore the following subject areas:
- Poetry
- Fiction
- Personal prose
- Literary history
- Technique (story structure, character development, theme, description, dialogue)
- Finding good ideas and turning them into polished pieces
- Using great literature and art for inspiration
