This graduate Readings course will focus on the 2018 anthology Letters to the Future: Black Women/Radical Writing, which we will read alongside books by some of the individual poets whose work it celebrates. We will explore a variety of possibilities of form, theme, and conceptions of poetry, of language, of Blackness, of gender, of what and how it means to write radically, to write to the future, to write out of the past. While acknowledging how historical and contemporary contexts inform both the creation and the collection of works by Black women poets, students of all backgrounds will have the opportunity to engage creatively and critically with a wide range of practices, forms, styles, and concerns—and to write toward their own future imaginings.

• Days/Times: Th 2:00PM - 5:00PM
• Instructor: Russell, Lauren M
• Room: Gilman 138D
• Status: Waitlist Only
• Seats Available: 0/8
• PosTag(s): n/a

In this course we will consider the role of fiction in relation to significant historical and current events. What are the distinctive goals of a novel or story about an event or action that is well-documented in nonfictional accounts? What are the responsibilities of fictional works in the absence of clear records? Do our expectations toward these genres shift as time passes? We will read work by writers including Edward P Jones, William Wells Brown, Jean Rhys, EL Doctorow, Valeria Luiselli, and VV Ganeshananthan. Students will also complete and present an independent creative project on a subject of interest.

• Days/Times: F 2:00PM - 5:00PM
• Instructor: Evans, Danielle V
• Room: Gilman 138D
• Status: Waitlist Only
• Seats Available: 0/8
• PosTag(s): n/a

Discussion and critique of fiction manuscripts by students enrolled in the MFA program. Some assignments possible.

• Days/Times: W 2:00PM - 5:00PM
• Instructor: Tenorio, Lysley A
• Room: Gilman 138D
• Status: Waitlist Only
• Seats Available: 0/8
• PosTag(s): n/a

Discussion and critique of poetry drafts by students enrolled in the MFA program. Some reading and writing assignments possible.

• Days/Times: T 2:00PM - 5:00PM
• Instructor: Motion, Andrew P
• Room: Gilman 138D
• Status: Waitlist Only
• Seats Available: 0/8
• PosTag(s): n/a

For Writing Seminars MFA students. This indicates they are actively participating as a TA as required by the program.

• Days/Times:
• Instructor: Robinson, Shannon L
• Room:  
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 1/15
• PosTag(s): n/a

For Writing Seminars MFA students. This indicates that they are actively participating as a managing editor for The Hopkins Review.

• Days/Times:
• Instructor: Malech, Dora Rachel
• Room:  
• Status: Waitlist Only
• Seats Available: 0/1
• PosTag(s): n/a

Summer independent research for graduate students.

• Days/Times:
• Instructor: Arthur, James P
• Room:  
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 9/16
• PosTag(s): n/a

In this class we’ll focus on issues of poetic voice, the at times slippery formal element that binds the reader and the poem’s speaker together. We’ll discuss the cultivation of intimacy (or lack thereof), registers of speech, use of vernacular, foregrounding of person and/or place, and more. Ultimately, we’ll use voice as an essential tool to understand a poet’s aesthetic vision. Possible poets of interest include Audre Lorde, Walt Whitman, Carl Philips, Emily Dickenson, James Schuyler, CD Wright, Li Young Lee, Martin Espada, Elizabeth Bishop, Philip Levine, Sylvia Plath, Joy Harjo, Marianne Moore, and others.

• Days/Times: F 2:00PM - 5:00PM
• Instructor: Snider, Bruce H
• Room: Gilman 138D
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 8/8
• PosTag(s): n/a

Fiction graduate students in the MFA program of The Writing Seminars will meet weekly to discuss the work of their fellow graduate students. Each student can expect to share their work three times in the course of the term, and for the work of two students to be discussed every week. Students can also expect to share their response to the works under discussion on the class Canvas page in advance of each week’s meeting.

• Days/Times: T 2:00PM - 5:00PM
• Instructor: Choi, Susan
• Room: Gilman 138D
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 6/8
• PosTag(s): n/a

This course will be an intense immersion in the poet’s craft, with an emphasis on stylistic experimentation. Throughout the semester we’ll regularly take up the question of what individual poems mean, keeping in mind that the distinction between theme and style is often nebulous. Students will submit a poem for discussion every second week.

• Days/Times: M 2:00PM - 5:00PM
• Instructor: Yezzi, David D
• Room: Gilman 138D
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 8/8
• PosTag(s): n/a

A graduate course designed to develop both close reading and genre study, and to support the teaching of Introduction to Fiction and Poetry (IFP) I and II. Readings in selected works of American, English, and European poetry and short fiction. Course required by all graduate students in the MFA program.

• Days/Times: Th 2:00PM - 5:00PM
• Instructor: Robinson, Shannon L
• Room: Gilman 138D
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 8/8
• PosTag(s): n/a

Which books do writers often foist on other writers, telling them "You have to read this"? In this course, we'll look at books that have yet to find much popular appeal, but which writers often speak about in reverential tones. Authors may include James Salter, Paula Fox, Dezso Kosztolanyi, J.L. Carr, Juan Rulfo, Tom Drury, Christina Stead, Evan S. Connell, Leonard Gardner, Joy Williams, and Penelope Fitzgerald.

• Days/Times: W 2:00PM - 5:00PM
• Instructor: Puchner, Eric P
• Room: Gilman 138D
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 6/8
• PosTag(s): n/a

For Writing Seminars MFA students. This indicates they are actively participating as a TA as required by the program.

• Days/Times:
• Instructor: Robinson, Shannon L
• Room:  
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 12/14
• PosTag(s): n/a

For Writing Seminars MFA students. This indicates that they are actively participating as a managing editor for The Hopkins Review.

• Days/Times:
• Instructor: Malech, Dora Rachel
• Room:  
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 2/2
• PosTag(s): n/a