Literature & Creative Writing   

We will read and discuss ten stories from A Century of Fiction in The New Yorker. Participants need not have taken either of the earlier courses based on this anthology. This final round of stories will include some classics by Shirley Jackson, J.D. Salinger, and Annie Proulx.

Course Materials:  A Century of Fiction in The New Yorker, 1925 - 2025 by Deborah Treisman

In a world filled with strife, violence, and division, these short stories transcend “national boundaries to comment on the most prevailing aspects of the human condition.” They attempt to redefine the borders of the world we live in by recognizing the conflicting issues of race, language, economy, gender, and ethnicity which separate and limit us. The stories reflect on these beautiful, but at times chaotic and tragic, renditions on the human experience.

Course Materials: One World:A Global Anthology of Short Stories. Edited for New Internationlist by Alan Hughes. ISBN: 978-1-906523-13-8

This course delves into the novel Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (1932), which is considered a masterpiece of dystopian literature because it seemed to predict major historical turns of the 20th century. Members will learn about an imaginary worldstate in which people are engineered to love their society and their own places in it. We will read the novel against a backdrop of questions about happiness, ideal communities, the impact of new technologies on humanity, and whether human freedom is always merely an illusion.

Course Materials:  Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley.

Whether you are writing a memoir or fictional novel, experienced or a novice, there are certain elements that must be considered as necessary for an effective presentation of the written word. In this course, those elements of good writing will be revealed, and you will have an opportunity to purge your fear of the blank page and write. With exercises during each class that will inspire, you will have the opportunity to improve your writing as you learn to eliminate even the most subtle issues that writers face and will help you at every stage take your writing to a higher -- and more successful -- level.