ENGL 206 - Topics in Creative Writing: Nonfiction

FDR: HA
Credits: 3 in fall, winter; 4 in spring
Prerequisite: Competition of FW requirement. Limited enrollment. A course in the practice of writing nonfiction, involving workshops, literary study, and critical writing. May be repeated for degree credit if the topics are different.

Spring 2015 topic:

ENGL 206-01:  Introduction to Writing Creative Nonfiction:  Reading the Land (4).  In the classroom we juxtapose literary appreciations of nature such as Thoreau’s Walden Pond and Dillard’s Pilgrim at Tinker Creek with more scientific approaches including Wessels’ Reading the Forested Landscape and the Virginia Division of Mineral Resources’ Geology of Rockbridge County, Virginia.  Written work includes a formal essay and a series of shorter assignments.  We apply what we learn in class in half- and full-day excursions which serve as the basis for two creative nonfiction essays that combine the personal with the academic (geological, historical, botanical).  Students must be physically able to hike and know how to swim to participate fully in the course.  (HA) Leland