Spring 2025 Courses
ENGL-1000-001 | English 1A | J. Scoles | JUN20 - JUL31 | MW 9AM - 12PM
Course Delivery: In-person
This course will introduce students to reading, researching, and writing about English literature by major authors in three distinct literary periods: Romantic, Victorian and Modern. A broad scope of genres will be considered—a significant amount of poetry, several short stories, and a novel, from authors such as Letitia Barbauld & Charlotte Smith, William Blake & Felicia Hemans, John Keats & Christina Rossetti, Robert Louis Stevenson & Seamus Heaney, Alice Munro & James Joyce—with lectures and assignments anchored in world history. We will examine the relationship between texts and contexts, and explore how specific narratives are represented and structured in relation to others in world literature & across the three major literary periods. We’ll also interrogate the evolving ‘landscapes’ of identity & conflict in our world over the years, with a focus on the forces (colonial, political, social, etc.) that shape and re- shape history. Students will gain skills & experience in close reading, analyzing texts & literary criticism, among other elements of literary study.
ENGL-1000-760 | English 1A | K. Sinanan | MAY5 - JUN2
Course Delivery: Online Asynchronous
This course offers an introduction to university-level literary study. You will engage with a range of genres, including drama, prose, poetry, and life writing, by global writers and cultural workers. We will pay attention to texts’ historical and cultural contexts, in particular the contexts of empire, the making of race, and colonialism. You will become familiar with postcolonial, anti-colonial, and feminist literary criticism written by African, Indian, and Caribbean writers in English. Weekly writing exercises will mean that your writing also receives significant attention.
ENGL-1003-001 | Intro: Topics in Literature | C. Anyaduba | JUN20 - JUL31 | TTH 9AM - 12PM
Course Delivery: In-person
Course description TBA
ENGL-1004-001 | Intro: Reading Culture | TBA | MAY5 - JUN16 | MW 9AM - 12PM
Course Delivery: In-person
Course description TBA
ENGL-1005-001 | Intro: Reading to Write: Frenemies, First Loves, and Family Binds| L. WONG | JUL7 - AUG18 | MW 1PM - 4PM
Course Delivery: In-person Workshop
This course introduces students to university-level literary study and the writing workshop. Students read a variety of creative literature (contemporary adult fiction, nonfiction, and young adult fiction) from a writerly perspective, to explore and analyze writers' techniques, and to gain a broader understanding of the art and craft of writing. Topics may include dramatic action, narrative strategies, organizational principles, imagery, setting, characterization, and voice. The themes of the readings and writing assignments emphasize “coming-of-age narratives” about young narrators who examine their relationships with peers and family members during adolescence and in early adulthood. Students will also have the opportunity to workshop their writing in small groups of four, and will be responsible for giving thoughtful feedback on their classmates’ creative output. This course may be of special interest to students who plan to take Creative Writing courses at the 2000 level.
ENGL-2102-001 | Intro to Creative Writing: Developing a Portfolio: We.come to the Writers' Room | L. Wong | MAY5 - JUN2 | MWF 9AM - 12PM
Course Delivery: In-Person Workshop
“If you’re struggling with what you’re writing—if you’re afraid to be your true self on the page—I dare you to stop listening to the outside voices and try listening only to yourself this one time. Write the book you most want to write…Write the book that is the most unapologetically YOU, no matter how long it takes.”- Nova Ren Suma, author of The Walls Around Us
“Overnight success is almost always a myth. Half of this industry is luck and half is the refusal to quit”--Victoria Schwab, author of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
“The first draft isn’t about getting it right, it’s about getting it done.” –Ava Jae, author of Beyond the Red
The reason that fiction is more interesting than any other form of literature, to those who really like to study people, is that in fiction the author can really tell the truth without humiliating himself. -Jim Rohn
In this workshop-based course, students concentrate on developing a portfolio of creative writing, including literary short fiction, young adult, and genre fiction. The course introduces students to strategies for writing in various prose genres and to the discipline involved in seeing a project through several drafts to its final stages. Through weekly writing exercises/prompts and assigned readings, this class emphasizes skills involved in self-editing and the professional preparation and submission of manuscripts suitable for a portfolio.
Students will be responsible for active participation, thoughtful feedback on peers’ work, and a willingness to generate new writing. This is a safe, supportive and inclusive learning environment. The workshop is also encouraged to think about submitting work to literary journals such as the University of Winnipeg’s Juice: /english/juice-journal-submissions.html
As this is a 200-level writing workshop, students should be fairly independent, committed, and motivated to improve their craft. Late assignments without permission will not receive instructor feedback and they will receive a zero if they are submitted a week after the deadline. This may sound harsh but I want us to adhere to the standards that professional writers follow in their daily practice.
Note: This course is recommended for students who plan to enroll in further creative writing courses at the undergraduate level.
ENGL-2603-250/251 | Short Fiction | J. Scoles | JUN6 - JUL2 | MWF 1PM - 4PM
Course Delivery: In-person
This is a course in short fiction and its forms—specifically, modern and contemporary fiction from around the world, and from writers like Virginia Woolf, Haruki Murakami, James Joyce, Margaret Atwood, Louise Erdrich and Thomas King—and students will be introduced to structures and strategies fiction writers use in the art of storytelling. Important fiction concepts— Narrative Voice, Conflict, Tension, Setting, and Character, for example—will be explored in depth, and emphasis will be placed on the skills involved in close reading and critical analysis of stories. Cultural, social, and historical aspects of stories will also be explored, as well as the lives and influences of the authors. Students will develop creative work—various forms of short fiction— through improvisational writing exercises and by emulating the published work of master storytellers. This course is recommended for students who plan on taking further undergraduate literature courses, as well as those interested in writing short fiction.
ENGL-2603-490 | Short Fiction: Fear and the Short Story | A. Brickey | MAY5 - JUN16 | MW 1PM - 330PM
Course Delivery: Stony Mountain Institution
The great American short fiction writer Ambrose Bierce once quipped: “Fear has no brains. It is an idiot.” In this class, we will be encountering the theme of fear from a broad range of short fiction writers, investigating how each text approaches aspects of human experience that frighten, cause anxiety, scare us, or invoke dread. We will think critically about the role that fear plays in storytelling and ask what each text might be provoking us to think about through its representation of this singularly strong emotion. Writers studied may include Edgar Allen Poe, Shirley Jackson, Thomas King, James Joyce, and Octavia Butler. This class will be highly collaborative with regular discussions and group work. Assignments will include regular written responses to readings, discussion and group work, and a final critical and/or creative project. The class is part of the University of Winnipeg Walls to Bridges program, and it will be held at Stony Mountain Institution (Medium Security) in person, Mondays and Wednesdays from 1-3:30pm.
ENGL-3113-001 | Writing Short Fiction Workshop | L. Wong | MAY5 - JUN2 | MWF 1PM - 4PM
Course Delivery: In-Person Workshop
Fiction is one of the few experiences where loneliness can be both confronted and relieved. Drugs, movies where stuff blows up, loud parties — all these chase away loneliness by making me forget my name’s Dave and I live in a one-by-one box of bone no other party can penetrate or know. Fiction, poetry, music, really deep serious sex, and, in various ways, religion — these are the places where loneliness is countenanced, stared down, transfigured, treated.”- David Foster Wallace
The reason that fiction is more interesting than any other form of literature, to those who really like to study people, is that in fiction the author can really tell the truth without humiliating himself. -Jim Rohn
An autobiography can distort; facts can be realigned. But fiction never lies: it reveals the writer totally. - V.S Naipaul
The short story is arguably the most difficult genre to write. Unlike the novel, it requires brevity and flawless execution of craft. You must be detailed enough to draw the reader into the scene and make them care about your character, but you must be brief enough so that the backstory does not overwhelm the narrative arc. This workshop-based course is meant to challenge, provoke, and stretch your skill as a fiction writer; it’s meant to give you a stronger sense of what kind of writer you might aspire to be, and to help strengthen your application of craft through practice and intensive peer feedback.
In this generative workshop, we will focus on crafting original short stories. Student manuscripts will form the primary texts, in addition to some assigned reading and in-class writing exercises. You are welcome to submit both literary and genre fiction.
Questions that we will explore but are not limited to: how do we craft compelling pieces of short fiction? What is the difference between literary, upmarket and commercial fiction? Within a stylistical, literary, and ethical context, what should we be aspiring to, as practitioners of this genre, and how can we be successful in breaking into the industry?
Students will have the opportunity to workshop a draft of their short story during the term and they are responsible for placing as much attention on critique as on their own craft. Learning to write and evaluate short stories will be the focus of the workshop, and we will hone our creative processes to produce engaging works of fiction.
Attendance, thoughtful feedback on peers’ works, and lively discussion are expected. Maintaining a safe, respectful literary community and classroom space is a priority. A final grade will be based on participation, feedback letters, attendance, an outline/synopsis, and an exploratory draft of a short story.
Students are also encouraged to think about submitting work to literary journals such as the University of Winnipeg’s Juice: /english/juice-journal-submissions.html
Please note that this is a workshop-based course (peer-review focused) where participation means being part of an engaged and welcoming literary community. Students are expected to adhere to the university’s respectful workplace policy at all times. This means being courteous and thoughtful when offering feedback on peer manuscripts. You may be asked to leave the workshop if you violate the policies of a safe and inclusive learning environment.
Moreover, as this is an intermediate writing workshop, students should be fairly independent, committed, and motivated to improve their craft. Late workshop submissions without permission will receive a zero if they are submitted a week after the deadline. Similarly, if you are being workshopped and you are unable to attend, we may not be able to accommodate you because of scheduling. It is your responsibility to switch with another student if you know that you will be away that week.
This writing workshop is NOT a good fit if you are unable to show up regularly to peer review your classmates’ work; if you do not want honest feedback on your own work, and/or if you are unable to adhere to strict workshop deadlines. I am sorry if this sounds strict or unnecessarily harsh, but we are working towards the larger goal of professionalization as successful writers beyond the university.
Students are selected based on a 5 page writing sample of prose (double-spaced) due by April 5, 2025. If there is still space in the class, students may also submit their portfolio after the deadline.
ENGL-3169-001 | Films for Young People | H. Snell | JUL7 - AUG18 | TTH 1PM - 4PM
Course Delivery: In-Person
This course explores narrative films for young people, arguably the principal form through which contemporary North American young people encounter narrative. As well as looking at the history of the Hollywood system as this pertains to films for children and adolescents, we also look at the films for and about young people produced by international and independent filmmakers. Some attention is paid to developing strategies and a vocabulary for reading film. The required textbook, Louis Gianetti’s Understanding Movies, is important for this reason. Together, we bring the technical vocabulary of film studies into conversation with a relatively wide range of films for young people, including films for babies and films that do not necessarily target a young audience but which raise interesting questions for childhood and adolescent studies scholars. Classes consist of mini-lectures; individual, paired, and group activities; and whole-class discussions in a variety of formats. Screenings of weekly films are held Wednesdays between 6:00 and 9:00 pm; you may skip all or some of these if you prefer (and are able) to screen films at home.To facilitate study of short narrative films for young people – a neglected yet rich site of analysis -- I introduce each class with a short film that connects to that week’s feature film and topic of discussion. Among other topics, we consider ideas around ‘age appropriateness’; constructions of the child, the adolescent, and the young adult through elements of film such as mise en scene, camera moment, and sound; child stardom; genre; the enduring influence of Disney; the politics of streaming (e.g. Netflix, Disney Plus); Indigenous filmmaking; and film as decolonial practice.
ENGL-4903-001 | Critical Race Studies | J. Wills | MAY5 - JUL31 | TH 1PM - 4PM
In this course students will read, analyze, and have the option to write creative nonfiction from a critical race studies pov. While the course focuses on personal essay, we will also address elements of life writing and literary journalism. We will consider the educational and emotional burden undertaken by racialized nonfiction writers as well as the impacts their works have on social imaginations and the material world.
Students will learn how to utilize craft in relation to both short and long form creative nonfiction, including but not limited to the development of narrative voice, characterization, and arrangement.
This course is centred around active conversation amongst peers, in-class and at-home writings that practice acquired skills, peer-to-peer evaluation, and independent critical and creative thinking. In this class, we will practice a decolonial and antiracist approach to craft.