Mark Booth

The inspiration for the course is the Wunderkammer (Cabinet of Wonder), or cabinet of curiosities, prevalent in 16th and 17th Century Europe. These `cabinets¿ were encyclopedic collections of objects kept by rulers, aristocrats, and early practitioners of science. In this prompt-driven workshop we will create our own cabinet of wonders, not a collection of physical objects but a collection of writing, arising from images, ideas, writing prompts, constraints, noises, observations, and other stimuli. The class meetings will be our `studio¿ and the bulk of the writing for the course will be completed during class sessions. We will approach writing as a collective exercise, taking the position that writing together, during a specific period of time (the class session) is a powerful and transformative act. The instructor and the students will provide the `curiosities,¿ and weekly homework will involve the creation of time-based prompts and constraints to be used in the classroom. In class writing exercises will be read aloud in their virgin state and edited pieces may be workshopped at the discretion of the student. This course is open to writers of all disciplines as well as studio artists interested in writing as a spontaneous practice.

Writing workshops meet once a week for three-hour sessions and focus primarily on the work of students enrolled in the program, although published works will often be examined as well. Workshop sections vary in focus, emphasizing single genre, mixed genre, or new forms. Please see the Degree Course Schedule for current offerings. Students enroll in one writing workshop each semester.

Taken every semester, the Graduate Projects courses allow students to focus in private sessions on the development of their work. Students register for 6 hours of Graduate Project credit in each semester of study.