Week 8 Assignments

Note: If you did not turn in a mid-term portfolio, you may email it or place it in my box in the Creative Writing Office (Hum 380).

Writing Assignment

Choose One:
1) "Everything in life dreams. A bicycle dreams of becoming a boy, an umbrella dreams of becoming the rain, a pearl dreams of becoming a woman, and a chair dreams of becoming a gazelle and running back to the forest." ~ Marela, Scene 3 (from Anna in the Tropics)

Write about an object that dreams of becoming something else -- something more important, more alive, more animated with spirit.

2) Take your family story from last week. This time, expand and exaggerate the story, adding fantastical and elements that nevertheless make emotional sense within the story. Take risks, make the story so different that only a seed is still recognizable. This can be in the form of a story or a one-act play.

3) Write your own opening to a play that allows space for the fantastic or mythological to enter. Describe the setting, characters, and costumes in about one page.


Read for Next Week
Gentleman’s Agreement, Mark Richard
Axolotl, by Julio Cortázar
Push Hands: Balancing resistance and revision, Jeffrey Skinner
On Defamiliarization, Charles Baxter


Blog
1. Post an entry about any one of the readings this week. This may be a critical or creative piece of about 200-300 words. It MUST respond to your chosen reading in some way, either by identifying and discussing craft elements, themes, or techniques or by using those elements in a creative response.

2. Post comments on at least three other entries. Remember, this is not a place for critiquing each other’s work. Instead, identify something from the piece that strikes or interests you, ask a neutral question about the work, or suggest ways the author could deepen or expand it.