WRIT 8220 - Creative Nonfiction Today: Navigating the Craft as Editor and Writer (Water~Stone: Creative Nonfiction)

Why is one creative nonfiction magazine submission forgettable, another indelible? What’s right, and wrong, with nonfiction journal submissions? What gives your essays and memoirs the za-za-zoom that leads editors to love your work, pass on the others? What’s the difference between workshop critique and editorial interrogation? How does contemporary editorial taste intersect with agreed-upon elements of literary quality, and which editors prefer which sorts of nonfiction form? Where does nonfiction live in the indie magazine scene now, and where might your work fit? Through lively and immersive work on the CNF editorial board of the Water~Stone Review, you will analyze and select from manuscripts submitted to the journal, study journals publishing nonfiction today as well as craft essays illuminating the contemporary conversation about the genre, and prepare your own CNF for submission to magazines of your choice. Students will revise and workshop at least one selection of their own work in this course as they prepare their journal submissions.

Prerequisite: WRIT 8120 or permission of the instructor

Credits: 4

Note: MFA writing/elective