We will start out study of the form of villanelle poetry by looking at Elizabeth Bishop's "One Art." Click on the link below!
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15212
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Nature Walk Poems
Hey,
So I'm not here today, though you will see me in the building today--I'm at a conference. Your task today is to write a poem (or two, or three!) about yesterday's walk around the beautiful grounds known as Herricks High School.
So I'm not here today, though you will see me in the building today--I'm at a conference. Your task today is to write a poem (or two, or three!) about yesterday's walk around the beautiful grounds known as Herricks High School.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Thursday, March 12, 2009
"How To Become a Writer" by Lorrie Moore
After you have read "Mudlavia" and written a response, please read the short story "How To Become a Writer" by Lorrie Moore.
http://www.bridgewater.edu/WritingCenter/Resources/102in-class11.htm
Response Questions
1. This entire story is told in second person point of view ("you"), which is slightly unusual. Do you think this works for this story? Why or why not?
2. Pick out your two favorite parts of the story. Why do these parts work for you?
3. What is Lorrie Moore trying to say about being a writer? How do you know?
http://www.bridgewater.edu/WritingCenter/Resources/102in-class11.htm
Response Questions
1. This entire story is told in second person point of view ("you"), which is slightly unusual. Do you think this works for this story? Why or why not?
2. Pick out your two favorite parts of the story. Why do these parts work for you?
3. What is Lorrie Moore trying to say about being a writer? How do you know?
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
"Mudlavia" by Elizabeth Stuckey-French
Read this short story:
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200309/stuckey-french
Respond to these questions on your blog when you're finished reading:
1. What are some of the conflicts in this story? How are these conflicts developed by Stuckey-French?
2. Find two quotes that develop the characterization of either the main character or his family. Explain how these examples add to the characterization.
3. How does Stuckey-French create suspense in this story?
4. Pick out two parts/elements of the story that you find particularly strong. Why do you think these parts are strong? What is Stuckey-French doing to make these parts work for the reader?
5. Mudlavia is a real place in Indiana with a real history. Do some internet research and find out what you can, and then answer the following: how does Stuckey-French use real stories to create her fiction? How can we, as writers, use real stories in a fictional way?
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200309/stuckey-french
Respond to these questions on your blog when you're finished reading:
1. What are some of the conflicts in this story? How are these conflicts developed by Stuckey-French?
2. Find two quotes that develop the characterization of either the main character or his family. Explain how these examples add to the characterization.
3. How does Stuckey-French create suspense in this story?
4. Pick out two parts/elements of the story that you find particularly strong. Why do you think these parts are strong? What is Stuckey-French doing to make these parts work for the reader?
5. Mudlavia is a real place in Indiana with a real history. Do some internet research and find out what you can, and then answer the following: how does Stuckey-French use real stories to create her fiction? How can we, as writers, use real stories in a fictional way?
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Fiction Guidelines
The following guidelines are taken from SNReview, an online literary journal.
"Short stories should be less than 7000 words. Be original. Catch our attention with your characters, plot, theme, style of writing, imagery, and point of view. No romance, mystery, science fiction, fantasy, or horror genre fiction. Not interested in short stories that start or end with a scene that includes an alarm clock ringing. Here's the best description we can offer. It comes from C. Michael Curtis, the fiction editor of The Atlantic Monthly: “What most editors look for, in addition to a respect for the conventional strengths of orderly composition, is a sentence or two sufficiently complex in structure and idea to signify a serious mind at work. Editors look for an engaging sensibility, a writer with wit, imagination, and an appreciation for the benefits of a well-constructed sentence.” And a piece of advice I heard from novelist/playwright Sarah Schulman: Stop trying so hard. Make sure the words are yours, yours from the heart, not a strained rhetoric (vocabulary, sentence, paragraph) that you presume writers use. Be true to thyself."
"Short stories should be less than 7000 words. Be original. Catch our attention with your characters, plot, theme, style of writing, imagery, and point of view. No romance, mystery, science fiction, fantasy, or horror genre fiction. Not interested in short stories that start or end with a scene that includes an alarm clock ringing. Here's the best description we can offer. It comes from C. Michael Curtis, the fiction editor of The Atlantic Monthly: “What most editors look for, in addition to a respect for the conventional strengths of orderly composition, is a sentence or two sufficiently complex in structure and idea to signify a serious mind at work. Editors look for an engaging sensibility, a writer with wit, imagination, and an appreciation for the benefits of a well-constructed sentence.” And a piece of advice I heard from novelist/playwright Sarah Schulman: Stop trying so hard. Make sure the words are yours, yours from the heart, not a strained rhetoric (vocabulary, sentence, paragraph) that you presume writers use. Be true to thyself."
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Sample Lead
Intro to "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" by J.D. Salinger
THERE WERE ninety-seven New York advertising men in the hotel, and, the way they were monopolizing the long-distance lines, the girl in 507 had to wait from noon till almost two-thirty to get her call through. She used the time, though. She read an article in a women's pocket-size magazine, called "Sex Is Fun-or Hell." She washed her comb and brush. She took the spot out of the skirt of her beige suit. She moved the button on her Saks blouse. She tweezed out two freshly surfaced hairs in her mole. When the operator finally rang her room, she was sitting on the window seat and had almost finished putting lacquer on the nails of her left hand.
She was a girl who for a ringing phone dropped exactly nothing. She looked as if her phone had been ringing continually ever since she had reached puberty.With her little lacquer brush, while the phone was ringing, she went over the nail of her little finger, accentuating the line of the moon. She then replaced the cap on the bottle of lacquer and, standing up, passed her left--the wet--hand back and forth through the air. With her dry hand, she picked up a congested ashtray from the window seat and carried it with her over to the night table, on which the phone stood. She sat down on one of the made-up twin beds and--it was the fifth or sixth ring--picked up the phone.
THERE WERE ninety-seven New York advertising men in the hotel, and, the way they were monopolizing the long-distance lines, the girl in 507 had to wait from noon till almost two-thirty to get her call through. She used the time, though. She read an article in a women's pocket-size magazine, called "Sex Is Fun-or Hell." She washed her comb and brush. She took the spot out of the skirt of her beige suit. She moved the button on her Saks blouse. She tweezed out two freshly surfaced hairs in her mole. When the operator finally rang her room, she was sitting on the window seat and had almost finished putting lacquer on the nails of her left hand.
She was a girl who for a ringing phone dropped exactly nothing. She looked as if her phone had been ringing continually ever since she had reached puberty.With her little lacquer brush, while the phone was ringing, she went over the nail of her little finger, accentuating the line of the moon. She then replaced the cap on the bottle of lacquer and, standing up, passed her left--the wet--hand back and forth through the air. With her dry hand, she picked up a congested ashtray from the window seat and carried it with her over to the night table, on which the phone stood. She sat down on one of the made-up twin beds and--it was the fifth or sixth ring--picked up the phone.
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