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Creative Writing: Master Classes

Level: Open to students entering grades 11 or 12 or freshman year of college in fall 2013.

Session: II, July 16-August 2, 2013

Days & Time: Monday-Friday, 10:00 AM-11:00 AM, 11:15 AM-12:45 PM, and 3:00 PM-4:30 PM, with optional elective 1:30 PM-2:30 PM

Instructor(s): Creative Writing staff (see below)

Prerequisites: Prior creative writing workshop experience is preferred

Related Courses: Students interested in this course might also be interested in Theatrical Collaboration: the Actor, the Director, and the Playwright or Creative Writing: Introductory and Advanced Workshops.

"The Creative Writing Master Class in Prose was by far the best class I have taken in my life. The students and teachers both possessed incredible ideas and their criticisms helped my writing as a whole."

- Alex Pierson, 2012

"It was a great three weeks! My writing improved and became more sophisticated, and I learned how to properly read and workshop poetry."

- From a 2012 Student Program Evaluation

Course Description

Creative Writing is offered by the Summer Program for High School Students in conjunction with the creative writing program in Columbia’s School of the Arts, one of the most distinguished creative writing programs in the country. Overseen by Professor Binnie Kirshenbaum (Chair of Creative Writing), Professor Alan Ziegler, and Christina Rumpf (Coordinator of High School Program Creative Writing), the creative writing courses are designed to challenge and engage students interested in literary creation, providing them with a substantial foundation for further exploration of their creative work.

Master Class students work with three instructors, meeting with each for one week of morning or afternoon workshops. In addition to daily workshops, students work on their independent projects (see below) for approximately two hours each day in a computer lab supervised by a creative writing teaching assistant. Please note that there are no electives for students in Master Classes.

Master Class in Prose Writing

For students who seek intensive experience with the writing of fiction and/or literary nonfiction. Prior fiction and/or literary nonfiction workshop experience is preferred.

Applicants must submit a proposal for an independent project (i.e., a short story and/or personal essay collection, an extended short story or personal essay, or a novel-in-progress), as well as two writing samples (five to ten pages total) in the same genre as the proposed project.

Master Class in Poetry Writing

For students who seek an intensive experience with the writing of poetry. Prior poetry workshop experience is preferred.

Applicants must submit a proposal for an independent project (i.e., a collection of free verse, verse, prose poetry, or any combination thereof), as well as writing samples (five to ten pages total) in the same genre as the proposed project.

Electives

Students may choose to participate in one of the following electives:

Comedy Writing: Students spend class time reading and writing comedy. Student work is compiled into a comedy magazine at the end of the program.

Comics/Graphic Novel: Students spend class time reading and writing comic books and selections from graphic novels. Student work is compiled into a magazine at the end of the program.

Genre Fiction/Horror/Crime/Sci-Fi/Fantasy: Students spend class time reading and writing different types of genre fiction.

Journalism: Students produce a news magazine, including but not limited to campus and neighborhood news, book/music/art/restaurant reviews, interviews/profiles, and op-eds.

Publishing House: Students discuss the craft of editing and participate in a hands-on publishing project.

Independent Project: Students complete an additional writing project and take part in extra conferences.

Specific course information, such as hours and instructors, are subject to change at the discretion of the University.

Instructor(s)

Dan Bevacqua

Dan Bevacqua lives in Northampton, MA.  He teaches at Western New England University.

Rachel Carter

Rachel Carter graduated from Columbia's School of the Arts in October, 2009 with an MFA in nonfiction creative writing.  She received her BA in English and Women's Studies from the University of Vermont, where she was a Green & Gold Scholar and a member of Phi Beta Kappa. She has previously taught University Writing at Columbia University, and creative writing through the Summer High School Program for the past five years. Her nonfiction has appeared in Verbicide Magazine and The Faster Times. HarperCollins will publish her debut young adult novel, So Close to You,  in July, 2012.

Ricardo Maldonado

Ricardo Maldonado was born and raised in Puerto Rico. His poems and translations have appeared in Boston Review, Guernica, DIAGRAM, and Sidebrow. A 2011 Poetry Fellow from the New York Foundation for the Arts, he is Managing Director at the 92nd Street Y Unterberg Poetry Center in New York City.

Carey McHugh

Carey McHugh’s poems have appeared in Smartish Pace, Boston Review, Denver Quarterly and elsewhere. Her chapbook Original Instructions for the Perfect Preservation of Birds &c. was chosen for a New York Chapbook Fellowship and published by the Poetry Society of America in 2008. She currently lives in Manhattan and works at Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Heath.

Lincoln Michel

Lincoln Michel's fiction and essays have appeared in Tin House, NOON, Oxford American, The Believer, Bookforum, BOMB Magazine, and elsewhere. He is co-founder and co-editor of the arts and literature magazine Gigantic. In addition to the Columbia Summer High School Program, he teaches writing at Baruch College.

James Yeh

James Yeh is a writer, editor, and occasional DJ. A founding editor of Gigantic, his stories have appeared in NOON, Fence, Tin House, and PEN America, as well as in several anthologies, and his nonfiction work has appeared in Vice, the Rumpus, and the Faster Times. A recipient of fellowships from the MacDowell Colony and Columbia University, he was a 2011 Center for Fiction NYC Emerging Writers Fellow.
 

Specific course information, such as hours and instructors, are subject to change at the discretion of the University.