Idyllwild Arts Academy :: Creative Writing Curriculum

Curriculum

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

Multi-Genres -Full year course
Prerequisites - None
Fees - None
Multi-Genres can include, but are not limited to, poetry, playwriting, screenwriting, creative non-fiction, short story, and novel writing. The course is 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. Students from all majors are encouraged to take this course.

Fiction and Poetry Workshop - Full year course
Prerequisites - None
Fees - None
First-level Fiction and Poetry Workshop provides a comprehensive introduction to poetry and fiction writing, in addition to illuminating literary intersections with other arts. Participants develop habits of writing and revising, as well as habits of reading and understanding texts, through workshops, seminars, field trips, and individual conferences. This studio and academic course meets for eight to ten hours per week and is led by poetry and fiction faculty. This course is required for all first year Creative Writers.

Advanced Fiction and Poetry Workshop -Full year course
Prerequisites - Writing Workshop or consent of department chair
Fees - None
Advanced Fiction and Poetry Workshop continues the comprehensive inquiry into the writing of poetry and fiction. Participants deepen their habits of writing and revising, as well as habits of reading and understanding texts, through workshops, seminars, field trips, individual conferences, and for seniors, senior portfolio and a senior oral examination or paper over a list of novels. This studio and academic course meets for eight to ten hours per week and is led by poetry and fiction faculty.

Literature and the Writer - One semester course
Prerequisites - None
Fees - None
Literature and the Writer is designed to develop close reading skills and to provide in-depth study of various literary techniques. Students read representative samples that cover a particular style or type of writing and learn how the writers in these genres dealt with issues and concerns particular to the genre. In addition, they consider how the work fits into a larger literary and cultural context. The emphasis is on the writer’s choice of narrative style, point of view, structure, characterization, etc., and the results of that choice. While the focus is on an open discussion format, students are expected to develop ideas, to defend them, and to produce a thorough 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.

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.

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 Tutorial
Individual Tutorial allows students an opportunity to complete a major work (a poetry or story collection, a full-length play, a novel, etc.), and to deepen the students’ understanding of the particular genre they are interested in. Students propose a writing project they would like to complete over the course of the semester, setting this long-term semester goal as well as short-term weekly goals. In addition, the student and instructor select applicable texts to accompany the writing project. Students meet with instructors on a weekly basis to discuss both components of the tutorial—the writing project and the reading assignments. At this time the student’s progress is assessed, further customizing the tutorial/student goals.

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 near 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.

In 2011, Creative Writing students created and launched Parallax Online, under the guidance of Brian Hewes and alum David Shook. Parallax Online invites submissions from high school students around the country and world, thus increasing Idyllwild Arts students' involvement in the larger literary community. Idyllwild students maintain and publicize the online journal, and also publish their own author interviews and book reviews. Visual art from the Academy is archived and showcased on the website.

Playwriting/Performance Workshop
Playwriting and Performance, for Advanced Creative Writers, provides a chance to explore dramatic writing in a number of different ways. The class includes theatre games and improvisation activities, which illustrate narrative techniques particular to the Playwriting genre. Students read and analyze a number of plays, and apply points of craft to their own work. After experimenting with various writing exercises, students write and revise a one-act play, which is then workshopped both in class, and during individual conferences, and, finally, performed in collaboration with the Theatre Department.

Other Workshops

Other workshops can include, but are not limited to: screenwriting, TV writing, translation, creative nonfiction, novel writing, and advanced grammar. 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.

Master Classes
Nationally recognized writers visit 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 established and emerging writers from varied backgrounds, and to expose students to possible careers that can arise from a thorough understanding of literature and the writing process. Recent guests have included:

Orlando White, author of Bone Light (Red Hen Press, 2009). His poems have appeared in Bombay Gin, The Florida Review, The Kenyon Review, Ploughshares, Salt Hill Journal, Sentence: A Journal of Prose Poetics, Talking Stick Native Arts Quarterly and elsewhere. Professor at Dine College.

Catherine Wagner, author of My New Job (Fence Books, 2009), Macular Hole (Fence Books, 2004), Miss America (Fence Books, 2001), co-editor of Not for Mothers Only: Contemporary Poems on Child-Getting and Child-Rearing (Fence Books, 2007). Professor at Miami University

Brady Udall, author of international bestseller The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint (Vintage, 2002), Letting Loose the Hounds (Washington Square Press, 1997; Norton, 2010), and the Amazon Best Book of the Month in May 2010, The Lonely Polygamist (Norton 2010). Stories and essays have appeared on NPR’s This American Life. Professor in the MFA program at Boise State University.

Ed Skoog, author of Mister Skylight (Copper Canyon Press, 2009), stories and poems in The Paris Review, Poetry, American Poetry Review, Ploughshares, Threepenny Review.

Douglas Kearney, author of Fear, Some (Red Hen Press, 2006) and The Black Automaton (Fence, 2009), finalist for the Pen Center USA Literary Award in Poetry. Recipient of a Whiting Writer’s Award, Professor of writing at California Institute of the Arts.

Judy Blunt, author of Breaking Clean (Vintage, 2003), which was awarded a 1997 PEN/Jerard Fund Award for a work in progress, a 2001 Whiting Writers' Award, Mountains and Plains Nonfiction Book Award, Willa Cather Literary Award, and was one of The New York Times' Notable Books. Her essays and poems have appeared in publications such as The New York Times, Big Sky Journal and Oprah Magazine. Recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship and a Guggenheim fellowship. Creative Nonfiction Professor at the University of Montana.

Ann Cummins, author of Yellowcake (Mariner Books, 2008), and Red Ant House (Mariner Books, 2003). Her stories have appeared in The New Yorker, McSweeney's, and The Best American Short Stories, 2002. Professor at Northern Arizona University.

David St. John, author of nine poetry collections, most recently The Face: A Novella in Verse (HarperPerennial, 2005). He also authored a volume essays and interviews, Where the Angels Come Toward Us (White Pine Press, 1995), and has edited numerous collections including The Pushcart Book of Poetry (2006) and American Hybrid: A Norton Anthology of New Poetry (2009) which he co-edited with Cole Swenson. Awards: Discovery The Nation prize, the James D. Phelan Prize, the prix de Rome fellowship in literature, several National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Professor at University of Southern California.

Michael Narducci, fiction and television writer, writer for the science fiction series THE 4400 as well as the NBC drama MEDIUM.

Past Master Classes

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)