Summer 2007

HUMS 629
Voice and Style: Exercises for Writers

Greene,Anne F.

06/25/2007 - 08/03/2007
Monday & Wednesday 05:30 PM - 08:00 PM

Downey 100

This course offers practice in a range of prose styles, drawn from works of both fiction and nonfiction, and invites students to try short or long pieces that suit their own interests. We focus on helping each writer develop a distinctive voice. No previous writing experience is required.



Readings are drawn from writers whose voice and phrasing are memorable. The syllabus will include essays, journalism, memoir, short stories, and novels, among them works by Gertrude Stein, Ha Jin, Robert Stone, Annie Dillard, and Jamaica Kincaid.



The assignments are tremendously flexible. Works by previous students in the course range from award-winning short stories to personal essays, journalistic pieces, food blogs, family history, memoirs, biographical sketches, sports writing, medical articles, reflections about teaching, and chapters of novels.

Students will choose to complete either short weekly exercises or one long project. Students who enter the course with pieces in progress are welcome to continue this work in place of the regular assignments


Anne Greene (B.A. Radcliffe College, M.A. Brandeis University) is adjunct professor of English, director of writing programs, and director of the Wesleyan Writers Conference. She was awarded the 2006 Binswanger prize for excellence in teaching. Click here for more information about Anne Greene.

ENROLLMENT INFORMATION

Consent of Instructor Required: No

Format: Seminar

Level: GLSP Credits: 3 Enrollment Limit: 18

Texts to purchase for this course:
Mark Doty, STILL LIFE WITH OYSTERS AND LEMON (Beacon Press), Paperback

Adrian Nicole LeBlanc, RANDOM FAMILY (Harper Perennial), Paperback

Phillip Lopate, THE ART OF THE PERSONAL ESSAY (Anchor), Paperback

Lorrie Moore, THE BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES 2004 (Houghton Mifflin), Paperback

Gertrude Stein, THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ALICE B. TOKLAS, 1990 Edition (Vintage Press), Paperback

READING MATERIALS AVAILABLE AT BROAD STREET BOOKS, 45 BROAD STREET, MIDDLETOWN, 860-685-7323

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