Creative Writing: Children's Literature

This course leads students on their own paths towards the discipline of writing for children, a unique kind of creative writing that involves an awareness of diverse audiences, rigorous aesthetics, and pedagogy, along with more common authorial considerations such as character development, dialogue, plot, and setting. Students will explore the most popular genres of children’s literature—fantasy novel, short story, poetry, and picture book, including classics from Lewis Carroll, Langston Hughes, and Tove Jansson, in addition to more modern writers, such as Edward Gorey, Walter Dean Myers, Carole Boston Weatherford, and Neil Gaiman. Music designed to accompany these literary works will also be studied. The class includes creative workshopping from writing exercises by Marty McConnell, Patricia Smith, and Jericho Brown, and theoretical readings from Maurice Sendak and Nancy Willard, among others. Students will choose which genres to pursue and present a larger work at the end of the semester, which may include music composition. No experience necessary.