E 204 Creative Writing as Transformative Practice

Overview of Course

Creativity and travel have a lot in common—both require receptiveness, spontaneity, and curiosity. This semester, as we explore the cultures and landscapes we visit, we will also build habits and tools meant to sustain a lifetime of playful, persistent creative practice. Leading a creative life is a matter of staying attuned, building daily habits, and conducting playful experiments. This multi-genre course is also multi-modal: reading, in-class writing, workshopping, discussion, and hands-on exploration. If “play is the highest form of research,” as Albert Einstein insists, we will broaden our sense of research to suit our needs as writers and makers. Approaching the country with a curious spirit, we find that eating, visiting sites, meeting people, and listening to the language and sounds of a given country are all modes of conducting creative research. We will expand our understanding of the literary tools and techniques available to us as writers, exploring a wide-range of literary terms and their applications. Using Ross Gay’s The Book of Delights, Aimee Nezhukumatathil’s World of Wonders, and several port-specific readings as models, we will submit weekly entries into our ongoing journals. Over the course of the semester, we will work toward several longer projects that delve deeper—a “Delight” (short essay), a postcard project, and a piece of writing that explores a plant, animal, or insect discovered in route or on land. By the end of the semester, you will have learned how to use the tools of writing to more fully explore the world around you.