Imagining English: Creative Writing for Bilingual Students (ELS)

In this course, we will explore the joys and struggles of writing creatively and expressing yourself in new ways, with the added challenge—and freedom, perhaps—of writing in a second (or third or fourth) language. Through the study of the elements of fiction and poetry and the reading and discussion of short stories and poems, you will prepare yourselves to write and revise your own. Also, as immigrants or the children of immigrants, you straddle multiple worlds and can offer readers in English emotional, cultural, and linguistic experiences that we might not otherwise get. Not only will we work on improving your own writing, but we will also explore how you might push and reinvigorate the language and where you are trying to stretch it too far. And through the close reading of American, British, and non-native writers writing in English, we will try to puzzle out what makes a story or poem good and how immigrant writers have shaped their forms and themes.

In addition to any necessary review of any necessary fundamentals that come up in your writing (advanced verb tenses, article usage, complex sentence structure), we also explore the bounds of English grammar—i.e., what is fresh, unusual, and grammatically correct versus what is not grammatical (and how it could be made so). Studying together on the board sentences from your work and from published authors, we will note places where your diction and syntax may differ from what is “usually” said, and we will discuss whether they add freshness to a piece and to the language. We will also review any necessary advanced grammar rules, allowing you to expand your writing toolbox with confidence and accuracy. Given the variety of personal and cultural writing styles, this should be an exciting and dynamic process. We will also be exploring vocabulary and the differences between academic and “literary” diction.

Finally, we will explore writing strategies and processes as well as different ways to tap into creativity that you may not know you possess and which will be useful in any field or task. Does a language shape our ideas or our writerly identities, and if it does, can you wrestle control of the differences to jump to a higher vantage point above the two languages and cultures? Through the analysis and partial translation of a story and a poem from your native language, we will investigate these cultural and literary differences.

Course Syllabus Here is last year's. This semester's is currently being updated and is forthcoming.

Modules: This is your course content. Go to Module's to see what's coming up.