IMAGINATIVE WRITING AS MINISTRY

Dr. Kathleen Staudt

This is a workshop course in which students draw on personal experience and theological reflections to create writing that invites people to deeper spiritual awareness. The course will be structured as a workshop, using students' writing as our focus. Students will write in a variety of genres including poetry, personal memoir, narrative and dialogue.

Required Texts:

Anne Lamott, Bird By Bird 978-0385480017

Allison and Geddiman, This I Believe 978-0805086584

Roger Ferlo, Heaven 978-1596270442

Links:

Faith at Work Lent 2007: "Spiritual Practices" (available from instructor and online at http://www.faithatwork.com)

This I Believe Website at http://www.npr.org/thisibelieve/about.html

The Writer’s Almanac

Recommended Text: Kathleen Henderson Staudt, Annunciations: Poems out of Scripture

We'll use as a text Anne Lamott's Bird By Bird because of the way that it combines suggestions about the writing process with thoughtful and often humorous reflection on the writing process. The main expectation of the class is that everyone will try to spend some time every day writing SOMETHING. Each week there will be a prompt to guide and order your writing process. We'll divide class time into 1)discussion of the particular approach to writing on the syllabus for that week 2)some writing in class 3)workshopping students' writing.

March 31: Introduction: Paying attention (poetry workshop)

story-telling (freewriting exercise) based on “School Lunches,” pp. 33-38 in Bird By Bird

In class work on storytelling, beginning with a setting.

In-class work on poetry, finding voice.

April 7 : Story-telling and description I

Write for class 2-4 pages of personal reflection that starts out in a specific and carefully described “place” and then moves into a story, reflection or other exploration.

Read in prep. for class:

Bird By Bird, pp. 1-32, 54-63 (on “Plot”), 97-103 (on “Looking Around”)

In Heaven, read Barbara Brown Taylor, “Leaving Myself Behind,” Amy Blackmarr, “Bamboo Heaven,” Phyllis Tickle, “Sweet Reluctance,” 196-201Watch how close observation of setting and experience opens out onto each piece’s treatment of the “theme” of heaven in these essays. How might you characterize the “voice” in each piece. If it is “your” week, be particularly intentional about following the lead of one of the “Heaven” essays assigned – imitating its form, or building on its theme. Be ready to share with us some of your writing in response to one of the readings.

April 14: Story-telling II, Personal Belief and Practice

Submit for class 2-4 pages of personal storytelling that demonstrates something you believe.

Read in Bird By Bird. 39-43, 80-94 "Polaroids," "False Starts," "Plot Treatment," "How do You Know You're Done"?

In Heaven book, read Margaret Bullitt-Jonas, “When Heaven Happens” 74-85 and Kathleen Henderson Staudt, “Remembering the Company,”187-195,

In-class writing: Belief statement. (using Addison Hall piece as starting point) (“Heaven” pp.104-107)

April 21: Writing on Personal Belief and Practice, Writing out of Scripture

In Bird by Bird, read pp. 103-130

In This I Believe browse through, and pick out 3-4 entries that particularly strike you. Use them as models or starting points. Be ready to talk to class about what you found particularly helpful in one of the pieces you choose.

Submit for class a personal credo (no more than 1000 words addressed to a non-church audience) . Also submit a page of reflection on one “This I Believe” article that has particularly appealed to you and explain why.

Workshop on "This I Believe" statements (3-4 volunteers to "go first")

In class writing: Scripture meditation

April 28: Imaginative Writing out of Scripture: in poetic or prose form, write a midrash from a passage in Scripture, in the voice of a character, preferably one whose voice is not clearly heard or who may have a different perspective than we usually have on what's happening in the story.

Read selections of poetry based on Scripture posted on Blackboard site.

Read in Bird By Bird, pp. 172-201 (“Letters,” “Writer’s Block,” “Writing a Present,” “Finding your Voice.”)

Workshop on midrashim

In-class writing -- writing our questions – using Donna Schaper piece in “Heaven” as prompt (pp. 202-207)

May 5– The last day of class (Read in Lamott, pp. 202-237).

Bring, drafted, a portion of your final project for group workshopping (2-3 pages of text).

READ for today Margaret Adams Parker, “Where Sorrow and Pain are no More” in Heaven, pp. 158-166.

WORK FOR THIS CLASS:

As in other writing classes I’ve taught, I expect you to try to do some reflective writing in a journal every day. It can be observation of your day, prayer/”conversation” with God, or reflection on reading for the class – but do try to sit down and write something every day, as this will give you more material to work with for assignments. I will not collect pages from journals but we will check in weekly about process.

Each week there will be 2-4 pages of writing due, in a form that you feel ready to show fellow students for comment, though it may be rough, still. Bring two pages of your typescript, with copies made for the whole class, to class meeting. We should have time to "workshop" 2 and sometimes up to 4 pieces of writing a week. Everyone hands in writing every week – I’ll make comments and return writing by the following week, even if we don’t get to it in class.

It will be “your” week twice during the quarter. Two people will be “on” each class day. Sign up for 2 days during the quarter. On your day you will:

1) Be one of the first 2 people to have your work “workshopped” in class (please bring enough copies to class for everyone in the class, and email your work to me and to your partner for the day, by 5PM Sunday at latest.

2)Provide comments on your fellow presenter’s paper, using the format for workshop preparation provided under “course documents” on blackboard, and be ready to be active in the workshop discussion of that writing.

3)Come to class prepared to say something about the readings for the week and how they have helped you to shape your writing. When it is your week I suggest that you be particularly intentional about imitating or using thematic material from one or more of the readings, as a way of enhancing your own writing.

For the final assignment, due on the last day of exam period, go to the writer’s guidelines for the journal Weavings at http://www.upperroom.org/weavings/themes.asp The final assignment will be an essay w of about 1000-1500 words (3-5 pages) (or a sequence of poems or short works – genre can be negotiated) developed so that it responds to one of these 6 themes, or to the “Heaven” theme. You may want to look at recent issues of Weavings, available in the library, to see how writers responded to these themes, or you may want to simply make your own response. The idea is to use the “theme” prompt as a way of shaping some of the material you’ve been accumulating in your journals or working on in other contexts. If there’s another approach you’d like to try for the final assignment, please see me.