Sara Levine

This is a process-oriented seminar on writing a novel. We’ll touch on the novel’s development as a historical form, but the bulk of the class focuses on questions that arise for novelists as they try to pull their books from what Virginia Woolf once termed “the far side of the gulf.” Two short novels will be assigned and analyzed for form, but most weeks the readings are light to ensure that you make time to write. We’ll sample novelists’ notebooks, diaries, letters, and craft essays in order to illuminate the novelist’s terrain. You are expected to work seriously on a novel, read aloud from your novel, write three different-length summaries of your novel, and keep a daily logbook of your progress. Topics include how to organize your materials, structure your novel, navigate genre, and understand your manuscript’s place in the publishing landscape. This class is designed as a shelter for writers who are interested in being in community with other novelists while teaching themselves to work alone.