ENGL 5575 Topics in Creative Non-Fiction (CNF): Writing Place
Through the reading and writing of creative nonfiction essays, we will use place as a lens through which to explore the human relationship to natural and built environments, as well as to ideas of home, travel, exile, place and displacement in our complex contemporary world. Students will write three essays (Home/Insider Essay; Place/Displacement Essay; Reported Place Profile) over the course of the semester and extensively revise and polish two of them. Readings may include work by Wendell Berry, Joan Didion, Ocean Vuong, Anne Dillard, Sarah Broom, Terry Tempest Williams, Natasha Tretheway, Rick Bass, Elizabeth Kolbert, John Seabrook, Carlo Rotella, Robin Wall Kimmerer, and Jamaica Kincaid. Admission to this course is by permission of the instructor. Graduate/Undergraduate Level. Restricted to Graduate Students, Seniors, Juniors and Sophomores. Students should send up to 8 double-spaced pages of creative writing or place-based journalism to < suzanne.matson@bc.edu> by 11/6/24. Ideally, the writing sample will be nonfiction, but if your strongest writing is in fiction, poetry or drama, that is also acceptable. Include your email address. Late applications will be considered on a rolling basis as space permits.
Course overview
- Department
- English
- School
- MCAS
- Credits
- 3
- Level
- Both
- Offered
- Periodically in the Fall, Periodically in the Spring
Catalog details
- Prerequisites
- Interested students should have taken a previous Boston College writing workshop (beyond FWS) or have equivalent writing experience. or Permission of Instructor
Requirements fulfilled
- English: Earlier literatures in English: eighteenth- or nineteenth-century literature, 1700-1900 (one course, 3 credits) (Current University Catalog; students should confirm their catalog year)
- English: Earlier literatures in English: medieval or early-modern literature, before 1700 (one course, 3 credits) (Current University Catalog; students should confirm their catalog year)
- English: Major electives (five courses, 15 credits) from department offerings (Current University Catalog; students should confirm their catalog year)
- English: Race, Blackness, and Language requirement (one course) (Current University Catalog; students should confirm their catalog year)
Course evaluations
- Course rating
- 4.70 / 5 · Excellent
- Instructor rating
- 4.80 / 5 · Excellent
- Terms evaluated
- 2
| Term | Instructor | Course overall | Instructor overall | Well organized | Clear learning objectives | Intellectually challenging | Helpful assignments | Applicable beyond course | Attendance necessary | Weekly effort | Responses |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spring 2025 | Suzanne Matson | 4.7 | 4.8 | 5.0 | 4.8 | 4.8 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 4–6 hrs/week | 6 of 8 |
| Fall 2022 | Elizabeth Graver | 4.8 | 4.8 | 5.0 | 4.8 | 4.8 | 4.8 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 4–6 hrs/week | 4 of 7 |