29 DARIUS STEWART- MODERN BLACK MEMOIR – SPRINT 2023

The Art and Craft of Creative Nonfiction: The Modern Black Memoir

Instructor: Darius Stewart (he/him), MFA (Please call me Darius.)

Tuesday | Thursday 3:30PM-4:45PM

Spring 2023

WHY I THINK YOU WILL ENJOYE THIS COURSE

According to writer and storyteller Asha Galindo, “memoir engages with the personal, the painful, and the extraordinary.” We will consider this credo continually as we immerse ourselves in a variety of modern black memoirs, paying special attention to how black authors have evolved the black literary tradition by “exploring the definitions of memory, narrative, and biography,” meanwhile taking significant, if not daringly alternative, approaches to the form—examples of which may include, but are not limited to, autofiction, autoethnography, the autobiographical essay, docupoetry, and the slave narrative. We will read robustly the works of Akwaeke Emezi, Harriet E. Wilson, Richard Wright, Margo Jefferson, Brian Broome, Kiki Petrosino, Brandon Taylor, Kiese Laymon, and others. Above all, I hope that you will thrill to the opportunity to push your work toward new forms and ideas (regardless of your subject matter), and truly explore this “fourth” genre by honing your capabilities as readers, writers, and members of a peerless literary community. I will certainly impose my own idiosyncratic methods that have served me as a writer with the sincere hope that you, too, will find taking risks in your work, creative and otherwise, with genuine and earnest effort, will reward you with writing you can be proud of, and not least of all, writing that you can send out into the world. It is therefore extremely paramount that none of you will simply want to coast through the course by dashing things off at the very last minute without thought or care, as this is is very likely to imperil not only your grade but will prove to be a very frustrating experience indeed.

These are the course objectives I’m certain will make us better writers because

♦    We will be so deliberately rigorous in our interrogations of the course materials that we cannot help but to be inspired to push our writing toward new forms and ideas.

♦    We will take an especial interest in what it means to be “intentional” in our work by articulating how the course materials use literary devices, form, and content to achieve works that are deftly imagined.

♦    We will experience the rewards of the peer-review method and how we can use it to develop into more thoughtful and empathetic editors of our peers’ work, as well as our own.

♦    We will never denigrate our work, nor see our work at any stage in the creative process as having failed, but, instead, as see them as healthy drafts that through careful and intelligent editing and revision will become the works that they are destined to become.

Our textual guides for the semester, available for purchase through the Iowa Hawk Shop or Prairie Lights

♦    Akwaeke Emezi, Dear Senthuran: A Black Spirit Memoir (2021) | ISBN 9780593329207

♦    Margo Jefferson, Negroland: A Memoir (2015) | ISBN 9780307473431

♦    Kiese Laymon, Heavy: An American Memoir (2018) | ISBN 9781501125669

♦    Brandon Taylor, Real Life (2020) | ISBN 9780525538899

♦    Richard Wright, Black Boy (1945) | ISBN 9780062964137

You will also need a notebook or laptop for taking notes and composing in-class writing exercises as well as a folder or folders to contain the many readings (printouts) I’ll distribute throughout the semester.

COURSE GRADES

Final course grades will be assessed based on your performance in the following activities:

♦    30%—Reading Quizzes (13): To ensure that you are completing the course readings and understanding the material, regular quizzes, covering assigned readings and administered at the start of class, will be given. The reading quizzes will be worth 10 points each. Starting in week two, the quizzes will be offered at the beginning of class every Tuesday. They will consist of multiple-choice questions that should in no way be difficult to answer correctly if you did the reading. Be advised, however, that quizzes cannot be made up, but fear not since the three lowest quiz scores will be dropped.

♦    25%—Class Participation

1.           Attendance: We need everyone’s brilliant minds in class every Tuesday and Thursday. From 3:30-4:45. That said, occasionally we need to miss class, either because of illness, family, or personal emergency, or, in my case, to attend a writers’ conference; therefore, you are allowed three unexcused absences over the course of the semester. If you do have documentation that excuses your absence (as sanctioned by the university, for example) please provide this to me as soon as possible. For information regarding student attendance and absences, please visit the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences website (https://clas.uiowa.edu/students/handbook/attendance-absences).

Please be aware that any more than three absences might potentially result in a 1/3 letter grade reduction (per absence) of your class participation grade. And while your class participation will make up a significant portion of your final grade (25%), I also recognize that “participation” comes in many forms. I am most concerned with the quality of the contributions you make over the course of the semester, not the quantity. Please keep in mind that showing up late, being unprepared (such as failing to bring your reading to class) or acting obviously unengaged will negatively affect your participation grade. Always feel free to come speak with me during drop-in hours if you have any concerns about participating, particularly around sensitive topics that may emerge from our reading and writing.

2.           Generative Responses (4): Beginning in week 2, you will submit a 1–2-page (or, flexibly, 300-600 words) piece that has been inspired in some way by the texts we’ve been reading. Typically, students will attempt to emulate some element of craft practiced by an author we will have read; or you may elect to concentrate on a theme or subject matter. Do understand that these responses are not meant to be exact “imitations” of a writer’s style or their approach to craft. Consider these generative responses an opportunity to try something different in your own writing that you find intriguing and would not have attempted before. You should, at the end of your generative response, include a few sentences (basically a short paragraph) explaining the choices you made in crafting your piece and reflecting on what you did—which “tool” did you borrow from which author from the reading? What surprised you while writing? What did you feel “worked” and what didn’t?

3.           Peer Reviews (5): You will provide feedback on your peers’ generative responses and memoir essay drafts in the form of a one-page (single spaced) letter to the author and annotations on the manuscript.

These letters should address elements of craft that informs the author of

A.         how successfully the author achieved the purpose of the piece.

B.         what pulled you into the piece and made you want to keep reading.

C.         how well the author handled transitions, sequencing, pacing.

D.         what details created the author’s voice.

E.          how well the author used techniques such as simile, metaphor, use of diction, etc. to construct memorable sentences.

F.          what suggestions you have for further revision.

Of course, you are welcome to respond to the author’s work in other ways that are constructive and conducive to the author’s intent with the piece. Please note that you will not be responsible for providing peer reviews for every student. I will assign each of you two peer reviews per assignment. Please let me know if you have any questions about this.

♦    25%—Revised Memoir Essay: Your essay should be written only for this class and be between 6-12 double-spaced pages long (or approximately 1800-3600 words). It is fine and (strongly) encouraged that your essay arises from one (or more) of your generative responses, or it may be an expansion of one or more of the in-class writing prompts. With your revised essay, please provide a one-page, single-spaced rationale of your revision process. Your rationale should include a reflection of the feedback you received on the first draft as well as any challenges you may have faced. I will provide more detailed information about the rationale at the end of the semester.

♦    20%—Discussion Posts (10): It is paramount that we sustain engagement from all students. As such, every week by 3:30 on Thursday afternoon, starting in week 2, you will share in just two to three sentences a short reflection or series of questions on the readings for the week. You may also share links to videos, music, or other parallel texts with a brief note explaining why the link is relevant to the readings or topics for the week. You will be responsible for posting 10 responses and may safely miss 3 posts.

Respect and ConfidentialityIn order for us to nurture a collaborative environment that works toward increasingly high levels of critical and artistic reading, writing, and thinking that supports experimentation and risks, as well as makes space for the variety of experiences and identities that we bring into the classroom, it is important to remember that the texts that we read and write are fundamentally grounded in the lived experiences of real people and as such we must treat them with respect. This means that any potentially sensitive information revealed in our essays should not be discussed outside of class and that we should expect each of us to respond to the readings and peer-reviewed submissions with maturity, an open mind, and most importantly a willingness to be uncomfortable. With that said, student writing that contains graphic violent images, graphic sex, degrading depictions, or other content DELIBERATELY meant to offend or alarm the instructor or peers will not be considered in any context of this course, including in-class exercises, peer reviews, or during drop-in hours. Certainly, expressions of this nature are part of literary history—but because this is a classroom setting, and not a voluntary community, mutual respect of the reasonable sensitivities of others is expected. Finally, please note that I am a mandatory reporter, which means if I read material that threatens harm to self or others, I must report it.

SPRING 2023 COURSE SCHEDULE AND ASSIGNMENTS

PLEASE BE ADVISED: This calendar may be subject to change, and any updates will be posted to ICON and shared during class sessions. Students are still responsible for tracking course activities, readings, and assignments.