Class Description
Vladimir Nabokov famously taught his students that reading well means visualizing more than the author has written on the page. When Tolstoy describes a train station, for instance, you should see the porters, the gendarmes, the frosty air (all of which Tolstoy mentions), but perhaps also the varied paces of the travelers hurrying for their trains, the benches along the station wall, a clock overhead ... in short, a full scene. To read and imagine a full scene, rather than a series of details, makes for more nuanced reading—connections and emotions become more available. In this seminar, we'll develop close reading skills, and discuss how to turn close reading to our advantage as writers. How can you write in such a way that will invite your reader to see? We'll start with in-class reading exercises, using an excerpt from Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates and the poem "Gift" by Czeslaw Milosz. Then we'll try to incorporate what we've learned with an in-class writing exercise. This class is suitable for both poets and prose-writers.
Part of GrubStreet's Elements of Craft series, dedicated to exploring craft issues on a deeper level. For more on this series' offerings, click here.
Thanks to the excellent literary citizenship of our donors, scholarships are available for all GrubStreet classes. To apply, click the gray "APPLY FOR SCHOLARSHIP" button. In order to be considered for a scholarship, you must complete your application at least one week before the start date of a class. Please await our scholarship committee's decision before registering for the class. We cannot hold spots in classes, so the sooner you apply, the better. Scholarships cannot be applied retroactively.
For more detailed information about GrubStreet scholarships, including how to contribute to scholarship funds for other students, click here.
This class will take place using Zoom videoconferencing. After registering, a yellow Resources tab will appear in this section containing a link to join class. Please note that you will need to be logged into view the Resources tab.
Zoom Participation:
In our experience, the intimate nature of a writing workshop benefits from on-camera participation. Students are of course welcome to turn their camera off whenever they need to, but it is a community norm for cameras to be on most of the time. You can learn more about using Zoom here.
Zoom Accessibility:
You can enable closed captioning at any time during the meeting by clicking the CC button at the bottom of the screen. If you'd like to access the transcript after class, please make sure to let your instructor ahead of time that you'd like a copy.