Stony Brook Southampton MFA in Writing and Literature

For more information on any classes, please email: magdalene.brandeis@stonybrook.edu

Forms of Creative Nonfiction:
Creative Nonfiction, Richard Panek
Mondays 5:20-8:10 (CWL 540.S61, Class# 91185)

What makes creative nonfiction "creative"? The element of narrative.

Facts are facts, but the techniques of fiction--characters, conflict, dialogue, action, setting--can transform useful information into compelling tales. Held at the Manhattan Facility.

Forms of Creative Nonfiction:
Memoir, Melissa Bank
Tuesdays, 6:00-8:50 (CWL 540.S60, Class# 84049)

In this workshop on the memoir, we will be figuring out how you can make your autobiographical stories as powerful as they can be, through discussing each other's work and looking at the masters of the genre. Held at the Manhattan Facility.

Forms of Fiction:
Starting Your Novel in the Right Place, Kaylie Jones
Wednesdays, 5:20-8:10 (CWL 510.S60, Class# 84050)

Every person with a burning desire to tell a story has had to start somewhere. Some of my most reticent students have gone on to publish novels to critical acclaim, even selling their novels to Hollywood. Much of their success came from starting their novels in the right place. This workshop will focus on the fundamental tools of technique. You will learn how to
· Start at the right point in the narrative
· Choose the right point of view/voice for your novel
· Build tension and comprehend the dramatic arc of your story
· Best use of dialogue and descriptive devices to advance your story
· Recognize the most common mistakes in fiction writing
Writing prompts will be offered to help you focus on these aspects of technique. Your work will then be discussed in class. By the end of the term, you will have a solid foundation on which to build the rest of your book. Held at the Manhattan Facility.

Topics in Literature for Writers: Myth, Narrative and The Poem, Star Black
Thursday, 5:20-8:10 (CWL 560.S60, Class# 91184)

A seminar in reading (or re-reading) classical mythology, and exploring how these oft-cited stories connect to our own writing. Focus on literary archetypes in Ovid’s Metamorphosis and Bullfinch’s Age of Fable, read alongside examples of contemporary poetry, with short writing assignments, in-class writing, and an excursion to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. No experience writing poetry required. This is your chance to read that stuff you never got to as an undergrad, so that you can nod knowingly at T.S. Eliot’s allusions. Held at the Manhattan Facility.

Introduction to Graduate Writing, Robert Reeves & Magdalene Brandeis
(SKYPE for SH Students)
Time: Mondays, 5:20 - 8:10pm (CWL 500.S60, Class #60334)

A seminar that introduces students to one another, the faculty, the program in Writing and Literature, and to issues in contemporary writing. Offered in conjunction with the “Writers Speak” lecture series. Students will attend the regular series of readings sponsored by the Writing program and meet at weekly intervals under the direction of a faculty advisor to discuss and write about topics raised in the lecture series, as well as issues generated from seminar discussions and assigned readings.

Forms of Creative Nonfiction: Memoir, Roger Rosenblatt
Time: Eight Saturdays, 11 am - 5 pm, with a break for lunch — February 4 and 18, March 3, 17 and 31, April 14 and 28, May 12 (CWL 540.S60, Class # 57776)

This course is a workshop in the writing of a memoir.

Topics in Writing: Strategies of Suspense, John Westermann
(SKYPE for SH Students)
Time: Wednesdays, 5:20 - 8:10 pm (CWL 565.S60, Class #48900)

Every book, from memoir to pulp fiction, should have suspense. In this course students will study techniques for creating suspense in thrillers, mysteries, love stories and science fiction as they outline their own novels. Students will also read and analyze two popular novels to study their use of characterization, structure, plot, setting, conflict, and dialogue. They will report on the techniques employed in these works in two three-page papers. By semester’s end, students will have written the first three chapters of their own novel and prepared an outline suitable for submission to a publishing house.

Director/Playwright Workshop, Nick Mangano & Steve Hamilton
Time: Eight Saturdays, 11 am - 5 pm, with a break for lunch — January 28, February 11 and 25, March 10 and 24, April 21, May 5 and 12 (CWL 530.S61 / TAF 670 / TAF 650, Class # 48173)

This intensive workshop course focuses on the director-playwright collaboration. Each week playwrights will write a scene based on an assigned theme or topic, and a director will direct that scene for presentation. Writer-director teams will rotate each week. Weekly presentations will be followed by critiques. Southampton guest faculty may also participate in a culminating critique and/or panel discussion. Past guest artist-teachers have included Jon Robin Baitz, Mark Wing-Davey, Austin Pendleton, Emily Mann, Marsha Norman, Annie Baker, and Joe Mantello.

Practicum in Arts Administration: Digital Filmmaking, Magdalene Brandeis & Don Lenzer
Days and Time: TBD (CWL 580.S60, Class # 57484)

A 2-4 credit practicum in Digital Filmmaking. Useful prerequisite for 10-day Digital Filmmaking and Documentary Filmmaking during the Summer Session. Also useful skills for writers seeking to create visual poems or promote their literary works through video, as well as theatre artists seeking to integrate new media into their performances.

2 credits for Final Cut Studio Digital Film Editing intensive.

Additional 2 credits for Camera Workshop: Lighting Theory, Working within a Frame, Recording Sound. Followed by Shoot Your Own Sequence: Hands On Training in Shooting, Recording, transferring and editing your own digital film sequence. Instructor: Award-winning cinematographer Don Lenzer.

Course takes place in Southampton but is open to students in Southampton and Manhattan.