19 Julia Lucas: Travel Writing Spring 2020
The Art and Craft of Travel Writing
Instructor: Julia Lucas
Spring 2020
MW – 8:00am-9:15pm
Course Supervisor: Bonnie Sunstein
What is this course?
Travel writing is a broad, amorphous genre. It covers place, movement, legacy, ancestry, vacation, politics, and cultural diversity, just to start. In this class we will read widely from the genre in order to understand the possibilities we may then apply to our own writing. We’ll read as writers, then reverse engineer the pieces that move us. Then, we’ll use what we learn to produce our own travel essays and pitch them to magazines for publication.
I find that classes work best when everyone in the room gets to influence the direction of the reading. For that reason, you’ll find this syllabus less fleshed out than you might be used to. Through a series of discussions and ICON polls, we’ll shape our own reading list to fit our interests and challenge our perceptions.
Required Texts:
In this class, we will read three to four books, as well as a collection of online articles, and your own work during workshops. The collection of online articles will be provided to you on ICON, as will workshop pieces. However, you are responsible for purchasing the four books from Prairie Lights (or anywhere else you can find them).
Because travel writing is such a broad genre, and I know we’ll all get the most out of this class if everyone is excited and interested in the reading, I’d like to give you a say in what we read and discuss over semester.
I’m linking nine books below. Please take a look and vote for your favorites on ICON. We will read the four books that you rank highest. I reserve the right to override the consensus if the reading list ends up being too repetitive, or the books all too short/long/etc.
Choose four of the following:
Assignments
You will have two assignments in this course: reading and writing. There is a good deal of both of these, and I hope that by sparing you any extraneous tasks – journals, response papers, quizzes, etc. – you will find that you have the time to commit to these two labors in full. The reading is a survey of different approaches to the task of travel writing—and will, over the course of the semester, fill out your familiarity not only with approaches to travel writing, but approaches to writing in general—formally, stylistically, and otherwise.
The writing, meanwhile, will consist of a series of generative assignments culminating in a final essay on a science-related topic of your choosing. This essay is not meant to be a book report: it is a piece of literature, a (nonfiction) story, a discursive essay, etc. that tackles a topic of travel interest, but which, first and foremost, in an aesthetic object. You will identify, by the fourth week of class, the topic you will be pursuing all semester. I will explain more during our first week what that could mean, but once you commit to a topic – barring unforeseen and extreme circumstances – it will be the topic that you pursue in your generative writing assignments, your final essay, and the thinking and research which attend these. Once you have this topic, you will produce five generative essays (detailed below) over the course of the semester, followed by a single final essay, due during finals week. The generative essays will be a minimum of 1,000 words (but may be as long as you like). The final essay must be 2,500-5,000 words.
Grades
Reading, Preparation and Participation in Discussion, including Workshops (30%)
Generative Assignments (50%)
Final Essay (20%)
While I do not grade on attendance, failing to attend class precludes the possibility of participating in discussion or workshop. Repeated tardiness (defined as being more than 5-10 minutes late several times) will result in a grade penalty. Missing class without emailing me in advance will also result in a grade penalty. You’re welcome to miss class as many as two times without an excuse (however, you still must let me know that you’ll be missing class). After the second absence, however, any further missed class must be for serious medical reasons or emergencies and you must provide me with documentation to verify those situations.
Workshop
While your final essays will receive extensive feedback from me, our workshops will concern your generative assignments. As a result, these workshops may be different than those you’ve encountered in other courses. First, all students will complete all generative assignments; however, whose generative work is being workshopped on a given day will be chosen by me prior to the week during which the workshop will take place. All students will be workshopped twice and the other in which we will workshop does not reflect which pieces I think are “best”, nor are they in any other way indicative of my assessment of you. Because we will be workshopping generative, often incomplete work, these workshops will have a specific and directed structure (I will detail this in class) and also entail an opportunity for the student being workshopped to discuss more general challenges they are having with their research subject and solicit input, advice, and brainstorming from the room.
Schedule
The schedule is below. Please note that the reading for a week should be completed by the Monday of that week. However, the writing listed under a given week is due on ICON the Sunday following that week.
1st Week–Jan 22
Welcome! Getting to know our genre, this class, and one another.
Reading: None
Writing Due: None
2nd Week–Jan 27 + 29
Reading:
Mon: Shipping Out, by David Foster Wallace (in files)
Wed: Thanksgiving in Mongolia, by Ariel Levy
Writing Due: None
3rd Week–Feb 3 + 5
Reading: TBD
Writing Due: None
4th Week–Feb 10 + 12
Research Conferences. We will not hold regular class; however, all students are required the schedule a meeting with me during one of our class periods in order to discuss their research topic. The first generative assignment will be due on Sunday.
Reading: A Small Place, by Jamaica Kincaid
Writing Due: none
5th Week–Feb 17 + 19
Reading: A Small Place, by Jamaica Kincaid
Writing Due: First Generative Writing, due Sunday, Feb 23
6th Week–Feb 24 + 26
Reading: Workshops + Wild by Cheryl Strayed (beginning Wednesday)
Writing Due: none
7th Week–March 2 + 4
Reading: Wild by Cheryl Strayed
by Monday’s class: p1-75
by Wednesday’s class: p76-101
Writing Due: Second Generative Writing, due Saturday, March 8, at noon.
8th Week–March 9 + 11
Reading: workshops+ Wild by Cheryl Strayed
by Monday’s class: p102-173
by Wednesday’s class: p 177-205
Writing Due: none
9th Week–March 16 + 18
Spring break
10th Week–March 23 + 25
Reading: Wild by Cheryl Strayed
by Monday’s class: p206-273
by Wednesday’s class: p 274-311
Writing Due: Third Generative Assignment, due Sunday, March 29
11th Week–March 30 + April 1
Reading: Workshops + TBD
Writing Due: Third Generative Assignment, due Saturday, April 4
12th Week–April 6 + 8
Reading: TBD
Writing Due:
13th Week–April 13 + 15
Reading:
Writing Due: Fourth Generative Writing, due Saturday, April 18
14th Week–April 20 + 22
Reading: TBD
Writing Due:
15th Week–April 27 + 29
Reading:
Writing Due: Fifth Generative Writing, due Saturday, May 2nd
16th Week–May 4 + 6
Reading: TBD
Writing Due: None
Exam Week
Final Project Due Friday, May 15th