Weissman School of Arts and Sciences

photo of Jhumpa Lahiri by Elena Seibert

JHUMPA LAHIRI

photo by Elena Seibert

FALL 2011
Sidney Harman
Writer-In-Residence
Creative Nonfiction Workshop

  • JRN 3610
  • NT/JRN3610H
  • NTH/ENG3610
  • NT/ENG3610H NTH

TUESDAYS: 2:30-5:30 PM

This special workshop in fiction writing will be taught by the 2000 Pulitzer Prize winner Jhumpa Lahiri, author of Interpreter of Maladies, The Namesake, and Unaccustomed. Lahiri has also won the PEN/Hemingway Award, an O. Henry Prize, and the Addison Metcalf Award, among others. In 2010, she was appointed to President Barack Obama's Committee on the Arts and Humanities.

This course is a beginner's fiction workshop. We will focus on the short story --reading those of contemporary American authors, and learning to shape and express our own. We will begin with a series of exercises, isolating the central elements of the story-teller's craft: voice, character, setting, dialogue, plot, and point of view. In the second half of the semester, students will write and revise their own stories. There will be a written assignment of at least three pages due every week. We will also devote a portion of each meeting to discussing two published short stories. Authors will include Truman Capote, Willa Cather, and James Baldwin.


A workshop is a heart-to-heart conversation: an interchange of reactions, questions, and suggestions put forth in an atmosphere of mutual respect and trust. Though ultimately we work alone as writers, a workshop provides a unique opportunity to create in the company of others, and to benefit from the varied perspectives of peers. Active participation is essential; please be prepared to share your work and your responses with the class.

IN ORDER TO REGISTER FOR THIS COURSE, STUDENTS MUST SUBMIT SAMPLES OF THEIR WRITING FOR REVIEW BY Monday, March 28th TO PROF. ROSLYN BERNSTEIN, Office: 646-312-3930 OR E-MAIL: ROSLYN.BERNSTEIN@BARUCH.CUNY.EDU

Current Writers-in-Residence
Past Writers-in-Residence

 


The City University of New York