This paper involves an independent but guided writing project. You may devise your own project in conjunction with one of the convenors. Alternatively, you may wish to select one of the topics suggested below, under ‘Assessment’. Regardless of topic, all students will complete the same set of writing exercises, and meet the same submission deadlines:

1. An abstract or outline for your project. This will describe your project, the related reading/research you plan to do, and the scope and format of your major assignment. Length: around 500 words.
2. A research-based analytical exercise. This will present a report on some strong examples of genre/form in which you will be working. Length: 1500-2000 words.
3. A draft of your writing project. You should regard this as the ‘finished’ version of your project, and present it at the highest possible standard of completion. It will be marked closely and carefully, and returned to you for revision. Length: 3000-4000 words.
4. Your revised, final writing project. This will be assessed on the extent to which you have developed your writing and ideas in response to feedback. Length: 3000-4000 words.
5. The group will meet every two to three weeks for peer critique and supervisor input. Your mark will depend on the quality of your participation and on attendance. A roll will be taken.

Creative Writing Topics: Read, Respond & Write

This topic is designed to focus creative writing students on the vital importance of ‘reading like a writer’, searching the work of other authors with an eye for elements, structures and techniques which create successful writing. For this topic you will study the work of a selected poet or short story writer, and respond both critically and creatively to their works. Your object is to examine selected works of your chosen author, reading to identify techniques, modes and qualities central to their writing, and to use these technical insights gained from your reading to generate your own creative work. From this exercise of ‘reading like a writer’ you will produce two key pieces of work in response to your chosen author:

(1) a critical reflection on their work, detailing any aspects of their writing which you find significant and inspiring (such as style, point-of-view, voice, sentence structure, rhythm, tension, characterization, sound, compression, line break, dialogue, sense of place, mood), and examining how these textual features create specific effects AND

(2) a portfolio of your own creative writing, using the techniques or models you have identified in your chosen author’s work to generate your own short fiction or poetry.

For this topic you have the option of studying either a short story writer or a poet.

SHORT STORY: Chose ONE of the short story writers from the list below OR select a writer of your own choice to study:

Katherine Mansfield Ottessa Mosfegh Denis Johnson

Jayne Ann Phillips Sue Orr James Joyce

Amy Hempel Maurice Duggan Frank Sargeson

Alice Munro Anne Enright Alice Tawhai

Tim Winton Nam Le Ernest Hemingway

Hilary Mantel Owen Marshall Lorrie Moore

POETRY: Choose ONE of the poets from the list below OR select a poet of your own choice to study:

Carol Ann Duffy Dylan Thomas Janet Charman

Mark Strand Robert Sullivan Tusiata Avia

Eavan Boland Hone Tuwhare Anne Sexton

Glenn Colquhoun Fleur Adcock Ai

Bill Manhire Anne Michaels e.e cummings

Yusef Komunyakaa Sylvia Plath Emma Neale

Hera Lindsay Bird Warsan Shire Fatimah Ashgar