Sample Schedule

Creative Creative Writing Workshops in Poetry, Fiction, Essay, Playwriting, and Screenwriting

Writing Workshop - Full year course
Prerequisites – None
Fees - None
Workshops can include, but are not limited to, fiction, poetry, playwriting, screenwriting, creative non-fiction, performance poetry, short story, voice and diction, advanced grammar, and novel writing. The courses are designed to develop writing and language skills needed for individual expression in literary forms. Students share their work in a group environment to benefit from an interactive revision process and to develop a vocabulary with which to discuss writing in a positive and supportive manner.

Writing Workshop II - Full year course
Prerequisites – Writing Workshop or consent of department chair
Fees - None
This advanced workshop is designed to offer a more intensive study of work introduced in Writing Workshop. The finer points of all genres are discussed in an interactive workshop atmosphere as the students sharpen their critical skills and expand their critical vocabulary. Students are expected to initiate, revise, and complete works in the genre covered. Rewriting skills and the “personal editor” are an important part of the workshop.

Writing Workshop III (Honors) - Full year course
Prerequisites – Writing Workshop II or consent of department chair
Fees – None
This honors workshop is designed for those students who have displayed a high degree of self-discipline and motivation. It is an “open” workshop and there are no restrictions as to genre. This workshop is reserved for the student who is ready and able to take, as well as give, minutely detailed criticism. The goal of this workshop is to hone a specific work until it is ready for publication.

The three workshop levels described above are designed to be ongoing courses in the writing process. The courses may vary in specific content from year to year depending on the plans of individual teachers. Each student enrolled in the major will be required to take the course deemed appropriate by the faculty and expected to complete all work in a satisfactory manner.

Literature and the Writer - One semester course
Prerequisites – None
Fees – None
Literature and the Writer examines close reading skills and the study of technique in the classes offered under this description. The students read representative samples in genres that cover a particular style or type of writing and learn how the writers in these genres dealt with issues and concerns peculiar to the genre. The emphasis is on the writer’s choice of narrative style, point of view, structure, characterization, etc., and the influences on that choice. This is a cross-genre course. It includes examples of the major writing genres for the time or literary period selected. While the focus is on an open discussion format, students are expected to develop ideas, to defend them, and to produce a thorough work of critical analysis.

Courses offered under this heading have included Global Cultures (a study of short fiction from around the world), Detective Fiction, Modern Fiction and Critical Theories, Vietnam Conflict Literature, A Survey of Woman’s Literature, Banned Books Seminar, History of Literary Thought, Romantic Poetry, and Song as Story.

Film Studies - One semester course
Prerequisites – None
Fees – None
Film Studies offers students a broad background on the history and development of film as an artistic medium. An examination of the filmmaking craft through the study of genre, art and philosophical movements, directorial style, use of characters, and screenwriting provides the sparking point for class discussions. The students develop their ideas and opinions through short written critical analyses. Representative classes include Film Analysis and Novel into Film.

Author Seminar
Author Seminar is structured along the lines of the Literature and the Writer course outlined above, but it examines a single author’s work in chronological order. For example, if Hemingway is the selected author, his works—novels, short stories, and personal correspondence—will be discussed in a linear manner starting from his first known work through his last. Authors with a large body of work will be covered over the course of an entire semester; those with a lesser volume of work will be covered in a quarter. This course is designed to show how an author’s style and technique develop over the course of his or her writing career. Edgar Allan Poe was the featured author during a recent semester.

Senior Seminar - One semester course
Perequisites – None
Fees – None
Senior Seminar is required of all seniors at Idyllwild Arts. The class is divided into two parts: common sessions where all seniors participate under the direction of the college counselor and address such topics as college applications, essays and standardized testing; and breakout sessions which address department/discipline-specific needs such as audition preparation, audition travel, and portfolio development.

Other Classes
Because writing can be a very internalized art form, other classes are offered that encourage students to explore varied means of expression that might form the germ of an idea for a poem, story, essay, or article. These hands-on classes have included Three-Dimensional Characterization (sculpture), Desktop Publishing, Mask Making, and Papermaking/ Bookbinding.

Independent Study
Students on occasion may undertake independent study projects in areas not covered by the established writing curriculum. Independent Study, however, may not be sought as an alternative to or a method of avoiding courses included in the curriculum. A written proposal for any Independent Study must be presented at the beginning of the semester during which the project is to be completed and must be approved by the department chair. An approved copy of the proposal must be submitted by the chair to the Dean of the Arts to be placed in the student’s permanent file. Credit for Independent Study will be determined by the chair and the Dean of the Arts.

Individual Critique
In addition to course work and individual writing time, each Creative Writing student may be required to participate in an individual critique with the writing faculty on a biweekly basis. At this time the student’s progress is assessed and personal goals are determined.

Coffee House Readings
Creative Writing students are required to read selections from their works during informal readings that occur throughout the year.

Community of Writers
Because Idyllwild is located between Los Angeles and San Diego, there are many opportunities for students to experience a wide range of literary influences first hand. Trips are organized to reinforce the topics and genres that the students are currently studying. Past field trips have included visits to the Huntington Library, South Coast Repertory, San Diego State University, University of California at San Diego, and the Lannan Foundation’s “Readings and Conversations” series at the Pacific Design Center in Los Angeles.

The Academy’s Creative Writing program is a member of the Associated Writing Programs (AWP), and its students have access to all of the membership benefits. They receive five newsletters per year as part of our department’s enrollment in this national nonprofit organization. These newsletters contain interviews with established writers, contest and workshop announcements, calls for manuscripts, and feature articles on the writing process.

Publications
Students edit and publish the Academy’s art and literary journal entitled Parallax. The students solicit material from the entire student body (including written as well as visual art), select the most suitable submissions for acceptance, set the order of appearance in the magazine for the selected writings and artworks to provide a thematic base, and present the finished magazine to the school community during a publication party. All of the authors are encouraged to read their contributions at this time. Enrollment in the Creative Writing program does not guarantee publication in Parallax. The selection of manuscripts is based on quality, thematic connectivity, and appropriateness to the issue in production.

Master Classes
Each year, nationally recognized writers or professors of literature visit the Creative Writing classes to highlight the particular area of concentration the students are currently working in. Their presentations are designed to give students an insight into the “writing” life of an established author and to expose the students to possible careers that can arise from a thorough understanding of literature and the writing process. Recent guests have included Larry Heinemann (winner of the National Book Award for his novel Paco’s Story), Susan Straight (winner of the Milkweed Award for Aquaboogie---A Novel in Short Stories), Larry Bishof (screenwriter for The Waltons, Little House on the Prairie, and many other movie and television shows), and Philip Levine (winner of the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award for poetry).

Master Classes for 2007-2008

James Hoch (poet, Miscreants, W.W. Norton 2007, professor at Ramapo College)

Timothy Solon Woodward (novelist, Cadillac Orpheus, Simon & Schuster, 2008)

Beena Kamlani(fiction writer and editor, New York)

G.C. Waldrep (poet, Goldbeater’s Skin, professor at Bucknell College)

Cecily Parks (poet, Cold Work, winner of Poetry Society of American New York Chapbook Fellowship

Jennifer Chang (poet, collection forthcoming from University of Georgia Press, 2008)

Sample Schedule

Morning: Academics
.	Monday	.	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	.	Saturday
8:00-8:45	U.S. Hist	8:00-9:20	U.S. Hist	American Lit		Algebra II	8:00-8:45	Physics 9 Lab
8:50-9:35	.						8:50-9:35	Physics 9 Lab
9:40-10:25	.	9:30-10:50	Physics	Phys Ed	Physics	Phys Ed	9:40-10:25
10:30-11:15	American Lit	10:55-11:35	.	.	.	.	10:30-11:15	Algebra II
11:20-12:05	.	11:40-1:00		Algebra II	U.S. Hist	American Lit	11:20-12:05
12:10-12:55	.						12:10-12:55	.
Afternoon: Arts
2:00-3:00	Playwrt/Perf		Playwrt/Perf	Dance Ballet	Adv. CW	Adv. CW
3:00-3:30	Playwrt/Perf		Playwrt/Perf	Author Survey	Adv. CW	Adv. CW
3:30-4:00	Playwrt/Perf		Playwrt/Perf	Author Survey	Adv. CW	Adv. CW
4:00-4:30	Playwrt/Perf		Playwrt/Perf	Author Survey	Adv. CW	Adv. CW
4:30-5:00	Playwrt/Perf		Playwrt/Perf	Author Survey	Adv. CW	Adv. CW		.
5:00-5:30	.		.	.		.		.
5:30-6:30	.		.	.		.		.
.			Poetry Wkshp
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.	.		.		.	.		.