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Summer 2025 Course Offerings

By In A Writing Life, Stuff You Oughta Know

Tuesdays & Thursdays, 6:30-7:45 pm, Synchronous/Online
ENG 668: Creative Nonfiction Workshop – To Tell a Story
Instructor: Professor Robert Wilder
CRN: 20539
(Area III)

Nonfiction (essay, article, column, memoir, personal narrative, creative nonfiction, Substack) is a form of storytelling. Whether you are writing about learning to drive, odd insect mating practices, or your obsession with exotic sea salts, you are telling a story you want the reader to fully inhabit and experience. As a small, supportive community of writers, we will discuss the vital storytelling elements—scene, dialogue, conflict, structure—that help bring out the elements already present in the story you are trying to tell. Our goal is to meet each workshop piece on its own terms, understanding the authorial intent while trying to help the writer toward the next, more fully realized draft. In addition, we will examine exemplary published pieces of nonfiction, hoping to learn from them for the benefit of our own work.

 Summer II 7/7/25 – 8/22/25

 Tuesdays & Thursdays, 6:30-7:45 pm, Synchronous/Online
ENG 669: Poetry Writing Workshop
Instructor: Dr. Kay Cosgrove
CRN: 20538
(Area III)

Get ready to fall in love with writing poetry. In this class, we’ll embrace the traditional workshop style where you’ll be submitting your poems regularly, weekly or bi-weekly. Your peers and I will offer comments on your work that will be both verbal and written.  At the start of each workshop, I’ll kick things off with a brief poem, sparking inspiration for a craft related prompt. These exercises aim to unleash new ideas, hone your craft, and pave the way for exciting new poems throughout the semester. The goal of this workshop is to give you an opportunity to hear thoughtful readers’ responses to your poems, generate work and to be enthralled. I’ll be cheering you on to take risks, pushing you beyond the subjects, gestures, and forms with which you are already comfortable.

The Avenue 2024-2025 Call for Submissions

By In A Writing Life, Student & Alumni Contributions, Stuff You Oughta Know

 

The SJU Writing Studies literary magazine, The Avenue, is now open for submissions for the Spring 2025 issue! 

Submissions are due by Friday, December 20th, 2024. 

We want this issue to reflect the breadth, depth, and strength of current students and recent alumni of the SJU Writing Studies Program. We invite all genres (fiction, poetry, non-fiction, prose)

  • Prose should be no more than 2000/words or 8 pages of double-spaced work. Excerpts from longer pieces are welcome. 
  • We welcome multiple poetry submissions, but please limit your submissions to three poems.
  • We also welcome artwork/photography/visual art submissions to be featured in the issue!

Please follow these guidelines when submitting:

  • Size 12 font, double spaced
  • Please submit your final copy as a word document attachment
  • Do not include any identifying information in your piece as submissions will be reviewed anonymously.
Submit your pieces via email to theavenue@sju.edu.
 
If you have any questions, please email theavenue@sju.edu directly.
 
We look forward to reading your work! Happy writing!
 
All best,
Mickey Schuster, Jonathan Procopio, Edward Malandro, Brianna Vassallo, and Chase Davis

Avenue Editorial Board

Spring 2025 Course Offerings – Revised

By In A Writing Life, Stuff You Oughta Know

Spring 2025 Writing Studies Courses

Mondays, 6:30-9:15 pm, Online
ENG 642: Style
Instructor: Dr. Melissa A. Goldthwaite
CRN: 12245
(Area II) Also counts toward ENG 560, Rhetoric Then and Now, Core Course

In this course, we will consider the history of style from a rhetorical perspective and then move to the work of 20th and 21st century writers to explore the use of style in contemporary writing, including your own. A discussion-based seminar with a workshop component, this course depends on a high level of participation. In addition to reading, you will write a series of exercises and create a semester-long project exploring style.

 

Wednesdays, 6:30-9:15 pm, Online
ENG 614 – The Short Story
Instructor: Professor Tenaya Darlington
CRN: 12275
(Area I)

In this class, we’ll consider the history and evolution of the short story by exploring a variety of collections, from classic to contemporary. We’ll also read an international collection of short-shorts, a novel made of interconnected stories, and a collection of essays about the art of the story. Whether you enjoy reading or writing stories, this class will take you deeper into the form and offer you a chance to respond to the readings in a variety of ways.

 

Thursdays, 6:30-9:15 pm, Online
ENG 685 – Health, Advocacy, Storytelling
Instructor: Dr. Ann Green
CRN: 12373
(Area III) Also counts toward ENG 684, Health Writing

In this course, we will read memoir, novels, poems, creative nonfiction, and films in order to explore how race, class, gender, sexuality, and disability are depicted through the writing of caregivers, medical professionals, and patients. The course focuses on how cultural differences affect access to medical care and how illness and health are narrated depending on the writer’s intersectional position. Mental health diagnoses, addiction, chronic illness, and trauma may also be explored.

 

 

Call for Avenue Board Members

By In A Writing Life, Student & Alumni Contributions, Stuff You Oughta Know

Call for Avenue Board Members

Interested in serving as a co-editor or a board member for Avenue, our literary journal? This annual publication comes out each spring and is funded by Writing Studies. Each year, a new board creates its look, chooses submissions, handles the editing process, and oversees printing. If you would like to gain experience being part of a publication, please email me (changanubresch@sju.edu) by October 18, 2024.