LAST CLASS/ FINAL PORTFOLIO

MONDAY IS OUR FINAL CLASS

For starters we will have journal presentations from those who were not with us last week

Next we will hand in our Final Portfolios

If you need a refreshment of the guidelines:

9 pages of publishable material

These 9 pages must be a :

*Minimum of five (pages of) workshoped pieces: For these pieces considerable changes must be made however including first drafts are optional

Maximum of four (pages of) writing exercises: For these pieces a previous writing exercise can be revisited and improved (minimum of two pages per exercise)

New Poems/ Short Stories: (One page of) a new short story/poem can be included in the portfolio if you think it’s strong enough to represent your best work

Revision Note: I do not require a copy of your first drafts because most of the drafts will already be included on the class blog

*You can only count the pages that you read out-loud in a workshop. So if you brought in a 10 page short story and read two pages to us, it counts as two pages towards the portfolio

Include the whole story or the larger piece from which you read out-loud

PS: If you're short on workshoped pages it is possible to count the stories/poems that were critiqued on your blogs

ANY QUESTIONS: Please E-MAIL ME by Sunday night

Chris.Robert.Cheney@gmail.com

Lit Journal Project

Literary Journal Research Project

Checklist

1. Who are the Editors, Publisher, and so on
2. How often dose the magazine come out (Bi-yearly, Yearly, Monthly)
3. Describe the journal’s aesthetic (Is it Conservative? Flashy? And so on
4. Where does the magazine publish from
5. What are the magazine’s submission guidelines
6. Does it publish poetry, prose, both- Essays
7. Bring in one piece that you think exemplifies the magazine
8. Bring in one piece that you’re glad you found (Make copies for the class)

Location

At Amherst books there is a section of Lit journals
Otherwise some may be kept at your college library

Examples

The Massachusetts Review, Jubilat, FIELD, AGNI, Black Warrior Review, The Gettysburg Review, Glimmer Train, Crazy Horse, Conduit, Colorado Review

HOMEWORK RECESSION

Read: "The Caretaker" In the Ben Marcus Anthology

Bring into class two Literary Journals

Gillian Conoley This Thursday

The Visiting Writers Series at the University of Massachusetts Amherst invites you to a poetry reading by Gillian Conoley on Thursday, November 13, at 8 p.m. in Memorial Hall.

*Gillian Conoley* is a graduate of the UMass MFA Program for Poets and Writers. Her collections include Profane Halo (Wave Books, 2005); Lovers in the Used World (Carnegie Mellon,2001); Beckon (Carnegie Mellon, 1996); Tall Stranger (Carnegie Mellon, 1991), finalist for the National Book Critics' Circle Award; and Some Gangster Pain (Carnegie Mellon, 1987). A recipient of the Jerome J. Shestack Poetry Prize from The American Poetry Review, several Pushcart Prizes, a National Endowment for the Arts award, and a Fund for Poetry Award, she is professor and Poet-in Residence at Sonoma State University, where she is the founder and editor of Volt. Her work has been widely anthologized, most recently in W.W. Norton's American Hybrid, Scribner's Best American Poetry, Fence's Best of Fence, Counterpath's Lyric
Postmodernisms, and the Italian anthology, Nuova Poesia Americana, published by Oscar Mondadori. Her latest book, Plot Genie, is
forthcoming from Omnidawn in Fall 2009.

in The New Yorker

THE GOOD RAYMOND



( Cut and Paste)
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1998/10/05/1998_10_05_070_TNY_LIBRY_000016521

Final Portfolio

Final Portfolio

9 pages of publishable material

These 9 pages must be a :

Minimum of five workshoped pieces: For these pieces considerable changes must be made however including first drafts are optional

Maximum of four writing exercises: For these pieces a previous writing exercise can be revisited and improved (minimum of 600 words)
New Poems/ Short Stories: One new short story/poem can be included in the portfolio if you think it’s strong enough to represent your best work

Revision Note: I do not require a copy of your first drafts because most of the drafts will already be included on the class blog.

Weekend Notes

Read: Vitamins and A Small, Good Thing
From Carver’s Cathedral
Carver Imitation: Write an alternate ending to Chef’s House (from where we stopped reading in class) as if you are imitating Carver.
Post a new story/ and or poem on blog & BRING IN 15 COPIES FOR CLASS MONDAY
Final portfolio guidelines will be posted Sunday Morning
Literary Journal project guidelines will be handed out in class

Conferences @ Amherst Coffee

Monday 10/20

10-10:25 SARA T

10:30-10:55 ALLISON S

11;15-10:40 ROB P

11:45-12:10 IAN K

Wednesday 10/22

9:30-9:55 N PLATZER

10-10:25

10:30-10:55

11:15-10:40 ASHLEIGH B

11:45-12:10 MIGUEL A.G-H

12:30-12-55 JAMES B

1:15-1:40

Friday

10-10:25

10:30-10:55

11:15-11:40 MATTHEW A

11:45-12:10 CATHERINE H

12:30-12:55 ANTONIO H
...............................................................................

Don't forget to bring a copy of your new poem or short prose & your writing manifesto

BACK FROM THE LONG WEEKEND

HEY CLASS,

Hope your long weekend went well. Just checked our personal blogs and saw only Rick Husband has posted the ALLPOETRY assignment. Catherine did a wonderful job: If you have any questions about my expectations for the assignment refer to her blog. Also don't forget to be prepared to give a 5MIN presentation on your findings.

Reminder: Don't forget about the Notley, Olsen and O'Hara & Make sure you're keeping up with Tate.

(Tuesday we will also get to the poems that make us want to write assignment)


See you Tuesday at 6.30!

I Look forward to the presentations

Homework and New Due Date

1.

You will be given another week on our Allpoetry assignment. New Due Date is October 14th.

2.

Those of you who didn't get to workshop your poems: your homework is to bring in another new poem or short story to class Monday & bring 15 copies. Don't forget to post this by Saturday midnight.

Those of you who did get to workshop: your homework is to comment/ critique on the people's poems that didn't get to workshop. Comment on the blogs.
These blogs are: S Williams, Melroy, J Payette, Rick Husband, Pedro D, Mohri, Kondakova, and Ashby


3. Read Olsen's projective verse (handout)

4. Read the first 65 pages of Tate's Selected

5. Bring back in the poems from the "poems that make you want to write more assignment"

Weekend Homework

1. bring in a poem that makes you want to write more

be prepared to talk about it

make 15 copies for the class

2. Read "Sea Oak" by George Saunders
found in The Anchor book of new american short stories

HOMEWORK REMINDER:

Blog your new poem & fifteen copies for class
Blog your reading response about Shelley/Wenderoth
Write you sestina & bring a copy to class

MARK LEIDNER THIS SUNDAY

Readings will take place in the Trustees Room at the Jones Library, 43 Amity Street in Amherst,

Prior to the readings at 2 p.m., please join Dara Wier & Lily Ladewig
for a poetry swap—bring a poem you wrote to share and discuss, or
bring a poem someone else wrote that you love. All events are free and
open to the public.


::Readings::

Sunday, September 21st @ 3 p.m.
Shannon Burns and Mark Leidner


Sunday, October 19th @ 3 p.m.
Liz Hughey and Michael Teig


Sunday, November 16th @ 3 p.m.
Mark Snediker and John Vincent

Ashery Audio

http://writing.upenn.edu/pennsound/x/Ashbery.html

copy and paste this url and listen to John Ashbery read

ASHBERY: THIS THURSDAY SEP 11TH 8pm

The Visiting Writers Series at the University of Massachusetts Amherst
invites you to a poetry reading by John Ashbery on Thursday, September
11, at 8 pm in Memorial Hall. For more than 40 years, the VWS has
brought outstanding poets and writers to the university campus for
public readings of new work.

John Ashbery is the author of twenty-seven books of poetry, including
Some Trees(1956), which won the Yale Series of Younger Poets Award,
and Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror (1975), which won the Pulitzer
Prize, National Book Award, and National Book Critics Circle Award. His
recent books are Collected Poems 1956-1987 (2008), Notes from the
Air: Selected Later Poems (2007), and A Worldly Country (2007). His
many honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship, MacArthur Fellowship, and
the Wallace Stevens Award. He has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters since 1980.

Visiting Writers Series events are sponsored by the MFA Program for
Poets and Writers, the Juniper Initiative, the UMass Arts Council, the
UMass Alumni Association, the Vice Provost of Research, the English
Department, and the Dean of Humanities and Fine Arts.

All events are free and open to the public. Memorial Hall is
handicapped accessible.

Syllabus

ENGLISH 354: Creative Writing

Instructor: Christopher Cheney

Monday. 6:30 – 9:30 P.M Bartlett Hall Room 35

Email: Chris.Robert.Cheney@Gmail.com

Phone: 413-668-6029


Course Description:

This course is a reading, writing, and thinking machine. We read to write better, write to write better, chat to write better, and so on. Our class is a serious commitment to becoming better writers. Like a good convenient store, our class never shuts down. Each week you are encouraged to contribute physically (in class) and virtually (to our class blog). Our class puts heavy emphasis on participation. Every kind of discussion is vital to our class. They allow us to share our epiphanies and voice our complications.

You will take different approaches to writing. You will write on the web, write collaboratively with a classmate, write as an inanimate object, write as an animal, write in an established form, write with your own form, et cetera.

This class doesn't teach rules but seeks to develop one's techniques. We will work to create our own rules and undermine established art norms.

Required Texts:

Letters to Wendy's, Joe Wenderoth

Selected poems, James Tate

The Anchor Book of New American Short Stories, Ben Marcus

Cathedral, Raymond Carver

The Night Of 1,000 Murders, Mark Leidner

Patriotism, Yukio Mishima

All texts can be found at Amherst Books: 8 Main St
Amherst, MA 01002
(413) 256-1547
Class Blog:

You already have a personal blog, which you are now responsible for. This will be administered to you. You also belong to the class blog.

http://missioncontrolcenter.blogspot.com

This is our "mother blog" or "class blog" which links us to each other. This allows us to read each other's reading responses and view each other's poems/stories before workshop.

Reading Responses: Tuesday morning of each week a reading response assignment will be posted on our mother blog. It is your responsibility to finish the assignment and post it on your personal blog before Saturday (midnight).

Post-Workshop: Every week you must post your creative work before Saturday (midnight). You are also responsible for reading each other's work before class. This gives us a jump-start on workshops.

Miscellaneous: Check our "mother blog" for upcoming readings and links to online literary journals.

Journal Project and Final Portfolio:

You will research online literary journals. At the middle of the semester you will present your findings to the class. Your presentation should be 5-7 minutes long.

You are required to present a portfolio of eight poems or two short stories. This work must be revised. This portfolio must show me your best work. You are required to include your drafts.

Class Schedule*

Form and Disorder: Joe Wenderoth, James Tate (5 classes)
Resemblance and Repetition: Ben Marcus, Mark Leidner (4 classes)
Influence (Life and Art): Mishima, Carver (5 classes)

*Each week our primary readings will be accompanied by a slew of handouts, which will include theory, letters, magazine articles, et cetera.

Grading Policy

Class Participation 30%
Blog Participation 30%
Final Portfolio 30%
Journal Presentation 10%