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 a rich boy, a poor girl and a strange Chinese/American scientific experiment; two small time hooligans and a kidnapping in one of the wild houses of rural Ireland; a community in crisis in Red River Valley, North Dakota;  the dark legacy of World War II as it manifests in the tensions between two women living in the same house in the Dutch countryside; a young Libyan man’s resistance to both the dictator Muammar Qadaffi and to the demands of the age itself; a struggling London comedian blindsided by a bad breakup in Paris; a woman who leaves urban life for a life of seclusion and contemplation in New South Wales; a debt ridden striver, tennis lessons, and a wealthy gated community in Massachusetts; a murder mystery woven into the mysteries of  love, loss and the roads not taken in the little town of Crosby Maine; a teenager in tumult on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.
Readings: Rachel Khong, Real Americans; Louise Erdrich, The Mighty Red; Colin Barrett, Wild Houses; Hisham Matar, My Friends; Elizabeth Strout, Tell Me Everything; Teddy Wayne, The Winner; Charlotte Wood, Stone Yard Devotional; Yael Van Der Wouden, The Safekeep; Dolly Alderton, Good Material; Adam Ross, Playworld.
Students should read Elizabeth Strout, Tell me Everything 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