Your Work in Print: Publishing Creative and Critical Writing

(4 Credits)

Geared toward both creative writers and budding literary critics, this course will give you the training that you need to start building a career as a published author. We will begin by taking a deep dive into the genre of the book review: a key entry-level publishing opportunity for both creative writers and students of literature, and one with unique potential in our evolving online landscape. From there, we will turn our focus to research-based academic journal articles and, finally, creative publications across three genres – fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction. Throughout, we’ll pay targeted attention to practical questions alongside particulars of writing. If you’re a creative writer looking to build a stronger bio, how do you find literary magazines to write reviews for? If you’re a literature student looking to write a journal article that could double as a writing sample for your graduate school applications, what are some good ways to approach selecting a topic and sources? What does a professional query or cover letter to a journal, literary magazine, or agent look like, and how can you best handle editor-requested revisions and proofs? At the end of the semester, you will leave the course with a portfolio of work that includes a professionally polished book review, an abstract and preliminary works cited list for a journal article, and a properly formatted literary magazine submission in a creative genre of your choice accompanied by a cover letter with bio.