Discuss major new work by today’s top writers, including emerging novelists, award-winners, and established favorites, all of whom are central to today's cultural conversation. We will investigate a variety of inventive narrative strategies, explore the psychology of numerous fascinating characters, and examine important topics within a context of changing times, changing lives and a changing world. Together we will explore the checkered lives of two Tunisian-Swedish sisters and the mysterious curse that has been looming over them for decades; one baby, three different timelines and three different names in two different places; a fallen angel on a World War One battlefield; a Massachusetts history teacher and a long-buried secret; a modern, liberal son, his conservative preacher father, and their deeply religious farming community in a remote Island in the Hebrides; yet another angel holds vigil at the deathbed of an oil tycoon; the deepening tensions between a Boomer couple and a younger Millennial couple in the affluent, bohemian world of metropolitan North London; a modern tradwife influencer lands in the brutal reality of 1855; a Sixties radical consigned to a Westchester prison, her unbending mother, and her bewildered daughter in New York City.
Readings: Jonas Hansen Khemeri, The Sisters; Daniel Kraus, Angel Down; Harriet Clarke, The Hill; Caro Clair Burke, Yesteryear; Elizabeth Strout, The Things We Never Say; Douglas Stuart, John of John; Florence Knapp, The Names; Megha Majumdar, A Guardian and a Thief; John Lancaster, Look What You Made Me Do; George Saunders, A Vigil.
Students should read A Vigil by George Saunders for the first class.
Readings: Jonas Hansen Khemeri, The Sisters; Daniel Kraus, Angel Down; Harriet Clarke, The Hill; Caro Clair Burke, Yesteryear; Elizabeth Strout, The Things We Never Say; Douglas Stuart, John of John; Florence Knapp, The Names; Megha Majumdar, A Guardian and a Thief; John Lancaster, Look What You Made Me Do; George Saunders, A Vigil.
Students should read A Vigil by George Saunders for the first class.
Continuing Education Units (CEU) : 0
You'll walk away with
- Increased cultural literacy, including intercultural knowledge and competence
- An understanding of current contemporary fiction, including its themes, meanings, and historical and cultural contexts
Ideal for
- The curious and creative
- Professionals who use critical thinking