Literature & Writing   

In this class, we will look at old tales, their tellers, and transitions from spoken to written literature. Fairy tales, a.k.a. magic tales, are very old and both stable and shapeshifting. People have enjoyed them in cartoons, Victorian nurseries, peasant huts, and even courts like Versailles. The original, oral forms of magic tales are violent, coarse, and sexually explicit. Sometimes governments, priests, or schoolmarms compelled changes. Sometimes, writers. There will be nine tellers with at least nine tales sent to class members.

Since 1966, North Georgia has been the home of Foxfire, a magazine, book, and museum acting as a blend of education and living history centered on Appalachia. Foxfire explores how our past contributes to who we are and what we can become; how the past illuminates our present and inspires imagination. This class will explore Foxfire's practical approach to student-centered teaching and learning; its unrivalled collection of artifacts, archives, and oral history; and, ultimately, its influence on popular culture and our understanding of Appalachia.

Reading poetry helps you to know things more fully; it commands your attention; and it can sustain good conversation. In this class, participants select poetry from favorite sources to read aloud with fellow enthusiasts.

Each week the class will read poems by an individual poet, a collection of poems on a specific subject, or a collection of poems in a specific style. A wide range of poets and poetry will be presented, from classic to contemporary. We will discuss poetry from the perspective that the poet creates the work but the reader activates it.

This class will discuss favorite science fiction authors, their books, and the human, political, and scientific issues they raise. The books and authors will be chosen by Sydney from suggestions by participants. This is a fun, free-flowing gathering of science fiction enthusiasts. Please join us and bring your ideas, insights, and suspension of disbelief.

Join us for a collaborative read of the last, and perhaps least well-known or understood, of Shakespeare's major tragedies. You'll be encouraged, but not required, to join in the discussion. This class is for beginners and Shakespeare veterans alike. You will want your own copy of the play, but any good standard edition will do. Email Jack (jdayer@ucdavis.edu) for guidance.

Author Zora Neale Hurston, anthropologist and folklorist, was a prominent member of the Harlem Renaissance. Her thoroughly-researched novel, published in 1937, follows the fictitious life of Janie Starks, a Black woman in Florida, from her 1890s childhood through her third marriage in the 1930s. Join this learning through conversation seminar as we follow Janie, her husbands, her friends, and even her enemies through their lives, joys, and sorrows within their entirely segregated communities.

It was a time of radical change, a time of violence. England was under siege internally and externally. Being on the wrong side, politically or religiously, could result in torture and death. Into this confusing and disordered world strode a young married man who had left his home of Stratford-upon-Avon to attempt his hand at playwriting for the London stage. His name was William Shakespeare. Join us for a discussion of the TV show Will, described as "Shakespeare on sex, drugs, and rock and roll."

This writer's workshop serves a community of writers interested in sharing their writing and responding to other writers' work. We will focus on fiction, memoir, creative nonfiction, poetry, travel writing, stories for children, and other types of writing. Following a workshop format, this class will be an opportunity for students to receive feedback for their written work and provide meaningful support to fellow writers.