Writers & Their Regions is the CCW's signature course. In addition to the seminar-style class meetings, the course features a week-long artists' retreat that gives students and faculty time to focus on their creative projects. The course is offered each Spring to upperclassmen dedicated to honing their craft and developing on a specific creative project over the semester.
Class and Retreat 2010
In Spring 2010, the Writers & Their Regions class will center itself in the Texas Hill Country and take up the theme of Movement. Over Spring Break (March 15-19), the class will stay in cabins on the Frio River and enjoy a week of living and working together.
Upperclassmen interested in enrolling should prepare a portfolio of their work and contact Dr. John Harvey.
Class 2009
The pilot Writers & their Regions class focused on the way that artists ground their work in Place, specifically East Texas. The reading list consisted of works set in East Texas and surrounding areas, and penned by authors who call the region home. During the regular semester, the Writers & Their Regions class met to discuss the texts as well as the class members' creative projects and processes. In May, the class presented its poetry, fiction, film, choreography, and visual art to the University community in the Honors Commons.
Reading List: William Goyen's The House of Breath, Mary Karr's The Liars' Club, Yusef Komunyakka's collected poetry, William Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom, the musical stylings of Charles Mingus, and Charles Mee's play bobrauschenbergamerica.
Retreat 2009
Over the week of Spring Break, the class and faculty traveled East to the Retreat at Artesian Lakes, just outside of Cleveland, Texas, to create and live together. During the day, everyone split up to work, explore the landscape, and exchange ideas, but in the evening they came together to cook dinner, share stories, and present the day's efforts.
