Poets & Writers

An incomplete or contested family history. Historical silences. Absence. Conflicting accounts. Painful, incomplete memory. In telling our stories, as writers, sometimes we encounter corrupted files, missing fragments, or even worse, that 404 moment: FILE NOT FOUND.

How do we ethically write through those moments of contestable memory? What other texts do we attach to our own, and help us fill the hole where a memory once was? How do we make our stories legible through pop cultural touchstones? This class will focus on writing the creative-critical essay, braiding criticism with the personal, or framing the self within a historical or pop cultural moment.