Explorations in Literature
Tuesdays 1-3 pm: January 17-May 2, 2017
Become a more avid, savvy reader of fiction by learning how to “close-read.” Through classroom readings, lecture, and discussion, you will understand the dynamics of fiction and how they apply to your life. Fiction reveals relationships between people and people’s relationships to the world. Fiction often gives a clearer view of its times than contemporary news reports of history. As you learn what to look for in your reading, your pleasure and confidence in your literary judgment will grow with every page you turn.
Class Cost: $180
Location: Santa Barbara Schott Campus
Writing Personal Histories
Wednesdays 9:45 -11:45 am; January 18-April 12, 2017
Discover yourself through using the memoir writing process. Capture your rich life, so full of people, places and experiences, and share it with others. Learn how to collect and distill your ‘peers’ feedback. Find out how to write and structure your own memoirs and autobiographies and also how to edit them. Develop a conversational, individual narrative voice for your memoirs, and a create an effective framework for fictional works based on your autobiographies.
Class Cost: $144
Location: Santa Barbara Schott Campus
Getting Started, Getting Good, and Getting Your Fiction Published
Wednesdays 5:15-7:15 pm; January 18-March 22, 2017
Effective, publishable fiction requires intriguing characters, a good story line, a compelling narrative voice, convincing dialogue, energetic pace, palpable mood, and a strong relationship to contemporary life. Easy to prescribe but difficult to achieve. The necessary skills can be taught. This class, presented by a longtime editor and writer, provides instruction in the vital techniques, an arena for practicing them until those skills are mastered, and demonstrable ways for the student to develop an individual narrative voice.
Class Cost: $120
Location: Santa Barbara Schott Campus
How to Write the Modern Short Story
Thursdays 7:15-9:15 pm: January 19-May 4, 2017
For many storytellers, the short story is a distinct and satisfying narrative form, its major thrust being a result that can be read in one sitting. Other writers see it as a building block for the longer, more inclusive structure, the novel. Each approach has brought memorable work into being. Discover the evolution of the short story while writing your own stand-alone narratives, and explore ways to build the kinds of related series we think of as the novel. Come away with a matrix for examining and developing
Class Cost: $180
Location: Santa Barbara Schott Campus