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; a smart operator Harlem entrepreneur who has led a double life for years risks a final spectacular caper; a wealthy, retired American business executive in cognitive decline travels to Zurich; a fallen angel and a hard boiled con artist on a Great War 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; products of a blended and complicated family reunite and reflect; the deepening tensions between a Boomer couple and a younger Millennial couple in the affluent, bohemian world of metropolitan North London; the daughter of a Sixties radical in New York City and her incarcerated mother in a Westchester prison; a novel of fathers, sons and the tech revolution by “the most talented writer of his generation.”
Readings: Jonas Hansen Khemeri, The Sisters; Daniel Kraus, Angel Down; Harriet Clarke, The Hill; Colson Whitehead, Cool Machine; Elizabeth Strout, The Things We Never Say; Douglas Stuart, John of John; John Lancaster, Look What You Made Me Do; Ann Patchett, The Whistler; Ben Lerner, Transcription; Emma Cline, Switzy.
Students should read The Things We Never Say, by Elizabeth Strout for the first class.
Readings: Jonas Hansen Khemeri, The Sisters; Daniel Kraus, Angel Down; Harriet Clarke, The Hill; Colson Whitehead, Cool Machine; Elizabeth Strout, The Things We Never Say; Douglas Stuart, John of John; John Lancaster, Look What You Made Me Do; Ann Patchett, The Whistler; Ben Lerner, Transcription; Emma Cline, Switzy.
Students should read The Things We Never Say, by Elizabeth Strout 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