WHAT IS CREATIVE WRITING FOR? PROSE WRIT

​​​​​​WRIT3043OC: What is Creative Writing For? Prose Writing in Paris, 3 credits. Instructor:  Nellie Hermann, Adjunct Associate Professor, Barnard College; Core Faculty, Narrative Medicine; Creative Director, Columbia Narrative Medicine; Course Director, Narrative Medicine Certificate.

This course will plot a journey through a series of themes designed to examine what creative writing might be for as an applied practice (not only as an art): how can the tools of creative work connect us more deeply to the world around us, and therefore potentially transform any other endeavor we take on? Throughout the month, we will write and read – each week will feature a few different texts (all of them by French writers or by writers who lived in Paris)  which will form the background of the week’s work, and a particular piece of prose writing will be due at the end of that week. We will rely heavily on the city of Paris to be our teacher and guide in these various themes, and will involve the city in our explorations. In addition to the reading and generative exercises through each week, students will share one longer-form piece of writing with the group, and we will spend at least four class sessions workshopping these pieces as a group, with formal workshop letters due from students to underscore the attention they are giving to each other’s work.  This course counts toward the Medical Humanities Major at Columbia University.

To enroll in this course, you must apply to the Columbia Summer Creative Writing in Paris program through the Center for Undergraduate Global Engagement (UGE). Global Learning Scholarships available. Tuition charges apply. Please note the program dates are different from the Summer Sessions Terms. Visit the UGE website for the start a