As writers, our emotions are the key to our unique voice and vision. Through a combination of discussion, readings, and in-class writing, this one-day seminar will inspire students to dig deep and access their creativity.
Central to all storytelling, whether you write fiction, drama, or creative nonfiction, is the need to build and sustain narrative tension so that your readers feel drawn into your writing. Learn the key elements of telling a compelling story: how to pace unfolding events, heighten conflict, and construct scenes.
This workshop is for writers of personal, narrative, or literary essays working on pieces of approximately 3,000 words or fewer. Reading fellow students’ work and examples by masters of the form, we will examine the balance of scene, exposition, and rumination.
More than just an artistic style, “Orientalism” is a groundbreaking concept that revealed the deep influences that European scholarship and attitudes had on the making of the Middle East.
In the Phaedo, Plato presents his friend and teacher Socrates on the cusp of death, waiting to fulfill – by hemlock – the sentence imposed upon him by the people of Athens. Socrates, with friends & acquaintances, ruminates on the soul, its possible immortality, as well as on the nature of what can be known and how we can know it.
“Season 2” of our Iliad seminar picks up near the end of book 4 with battle proper - between the Greeks and Trojans - (re-)engaged. Though Achilles remains withdrawn, other heroes & heroines, gods & goddesses vie with one another to shape events at Troy.
NEW in Autumn 2018: in addition to our in-person classes, this course can now be taken Online.
This course aims to give a general introduction to the various ways Buddhism was understood and practiced in the religion’s first thousand years in China.
Amitov Ghosh’s acclaimed Ibis novels: Sea of Poppies (2008), River of Smoke (2011) and Flood of Fire (2015) immerse the reader in the British Empire at a pivotal moment. Impressively researched, the trilogy begins in the 1830s Bengali opium fields and concludes in China with British victory in the First Opium War (1839-42).
This first course in a three-quarter sequence will examine the History of Western Civilization, focusing on the relation between technology and “wisdom.” Instead of a political framework, this year’s sequence will examine how changes in technology, primarily information technology, impacted the philosophical and spiritual ideas of a particular
What makes a piece of art great? What makes it deep, interesting, and meaningful? Just as we learn how to read fiction, we must learn the basic principles of visual art in order for the interaction to be worthwhile.
The invention and detonation of the atomic bomb reshaped the world, and the development of nuclear technologies in its wake ushered in a new era of scientific and industrial innovation—along with mounting geopolitical anxiety and terror in the aftermath of unprecedented human devastation.
Mesopotamia, “the land between two rivers,” occupies an essential place in human history; it is the site of the earliest urbanized societies, agricultural and barter economies, the development of writing, religion, astronomy, astrology, and scientific inquiry in the natural world through empirical observation.
You want to write a novel. Do you have an idea? An outline? Twenty pages you kinda like? Maybe a hundred pages you once loved but can’t get back into? If you answered yes to any of the above, this eight-week class is for you.
In this workshop we will explore the craft issues related to flash nonfiction. Writing short-form creative nonfiction pieces of 700-1,000 words will allow you to work on intensity of language, wrapping an idea in a compelling story, and exploring structure, word choice and voice.
Every day, it seems, another MFA program is born. How do you choose among them and how do they choose their students? In this class, you will learn about full-time, part-time, and low-residence programs in the U.S. and abroad.
This course is suitable for continuing education students interested in China in general, as well as those who are thinking of traveling or doing business there.
What makes a piece of art great? What makes it deep, interesting, and meaningful? Just as we learn how to read fiction, we must learn the basic principles of visual art in order for the interaction to be worthwhile.
According to Thomas Jefferson, the U.S. Constitution created a wall of separation between church and state, religion and society. Yet, religion has played a significant political role in U.S. history.
This three-quarter course covers the history of American politics, emphasizing the major controversies and crises that have shaped our Republic from its origins to the present.
This course illuminates the human condition by examining works that dramatize the injuries, misconceptions and struggles for resolution out of which a son is shaped by his father.
This course introduces Islamic traditions, devotional practice, artistic expressions, and intellectual and social history. The course begins with the study of Islamic origins and how these inform differences in belief and practice.
Not only is the history of opera supremely entertaining, it offers a unique cultural mirror, a barometer of European and American societal evolution. This class examines the great operas, singers, and productions, assessing the operatic canon from musical, historical, and social viewpoints.
The speed of changes in visual art – both its nature and its role in Western culture – had increased after World War II. In this class, we address the most recent and impactful art movements such as: found objects, conceptual art, pop art and many more. How has art practice changed in the second half of 20th century and early 21 century?
NEW in Autumn 2018: in addition to our in-person classes, this course can now be taken Online.
NEW in Autumn 2018: in addition to our in-person classes, this course can now be taken Online.
Audiences watch movies and read fiction hoping to be blown away, to go on emotional journeys so powerful that they linger in the mind as lived experience. In this workshop, writers will strive toward industry standards for premise, character, stakes, tension, and most of all, catharsis. Examples from top screenplays and novels will be examined.
This course will introduce you to creative writing, from generating ideas to revising drafts. Find your voice and develop your craft through in-class and at-home writing exercises, and through discussions of your own and your fellow students’ written work.
Improve your writing for greater clarity, organization, and persuasiveness. The University of Chicago’s Writer’s Studio invites you to take our Effective Writing for Business and the Professions course for better communication in business and beyond.
Instructor: Claudia Traudt.
This course will now extend into Autumn 2018 meeting from 1:30 - 4:45 and focus on the latter chapters and conclusion of the novel.
Of the key elements of scene and character presentation—image, voice, action, and thought—thought remains underexplored. Indeed, conventional craft advice often warns against relying too much on thinking rather than feeling, claiming that this can lead to overly abstract, "preachy," or static storytelling.
The Chicago Defender was founded in 1905 and became the flagship of the Black press by exposing the horrors of Jim Crow and inspiring millions to come north in what became known as the Great Migration. The Defender wielded substantial political clout as well, providing the swing votes that elected Presidents Harry S. Truman and John F.
NEW in Autumn 2018: in addition to our in-person classes, this course can now be taken Online.
It’s not just the tone poem, although some tone poems are included -- sonatas, suites, symphonies, even string quartets narrate the greatest stories in world culture.
The speed of changes in visual art – both its nature and its role in Western culture – had increased after World War II. In this class, we address the most recent and impactful art movements such as: found objects, conceptual art, pop art and many more. How has art practice changed in the second half of 20th century and early 21 century?
NEW in Autumn 2018: in addition to our in-person classes, this course can now be taken Online.
This class is meant to introduce students to the great tradition of Western spirituality. For every figure discussed the instructor will provide relevant background information: historical context, theological currents and influences.
This course examines the births, lives, and revivals of Chinese intellectual history in the past 100 years. We will consider Mao Zedong's distinctive radical tradition modifying Marx to Chinese economic conditions and the vast intellectual changes the ascent of this movement brought with its transformative revolutions.
Do you need structure, deadlines, insight, and a creative community to produce your best work? This eight-week, multi-genre (fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry) online writing group is designed to provide that and more.
How do we enhance our work into polished, powerful prose? In this 8-week course, we'll combine writing workshops with reading assignments that illustrate a variety of creative nonfiction techniques. We'll focus on structure, revision, and adding depth to your work.
What makes a story pop with excitement? Strong characters with competing agendas, bold in their desires, who know what they want and will stop at nothing to get it. In this workshop, we will focus on giving your characters the dialogue they deserve as they drive your story forward, questing to achieve their goals.
Music in film, both specially composed and/or appropriated, often determines the character and emotional gravity of the greatest films. Some films, such as Taxi Driver, Vertigo, and 2001: A Space Odyssey are literally unthinkable without their scores.
Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple, was fond of repeating a line from Picasso: “Good artists copy; great artists steal.” Imitation, copying, can be a path to developing your capacity for creative theft and transformation in your own work. Faulkner, for instance, imitated other writers for two decades in order to find his own voice and style.
"Those places from which we come and those to which we’ve moved provide the ground against which the figures of our lives themselves move, change, depart. Poetry is forever looking to discover and then describe what we mean by a sense of ‘home.'" - David St. John, "Ain't Got No Home in this World Anymore"
If you’re thinking about writing a children's book, either fiction or nonfiction, this three-session seminar will both ground you in today’s children’s book world and help you move forward in readying your book for readers.
Central to all storytelling, whether you write fiction, drama, or creative nonfiction, is the need to build and sustain narrative tension so that your readers feel drawn into your writing. Learn the key elements of telling a compelling story: how to pace unfolding events, heighten conflict, and construct scenes.
In the Phaedo, Plato presents his friend and teacher Socrates on the cusp of death, waiting to fulfill – by hemlock – the sentence imposed upon him by the people of Athens. Socrates, with friends & acquaintances, ruminates on the soul, its possible immortality, as well as on the nature of what can be known and how we can know it.
“Season 2” of our Iliad seminar picks up near the end of book 4 with battle proper - between the Greeks and Trojans - (re-)engaged. Though Achilles remains withdrawn, other heroes & heroines, gods & goddesses vie with one another to shape events at Troy.
The heritage of ancient Egypt has left the modern world with the impression of a culture obsessed with death. The Egyptian relationship with death was neither entirely pervasive nor was it static; as in any society, ideas evolved over time as did their manifestation in art, sculpture, and architecture.
Victorian novelist Anthony Trollope has been the subject of renewed interest in recent years. As The New Yorker has pointed out, “Trollope [is] Trending.” Trollope’s brand of High Victorian Liberalism made him both representative of his era and an often astute commentator on its excesses.
Whether you've been struggling to write or you are simply ready to start something new, this two-day class is designed to get creative writers of all genres moving with writing activities, games, and prompts. Come ready to try new things, freewrite, and discover new ways to begin.
How do we understand the art that has come out of the great art revolutions of the late 19th and 20th centuries? Even a viewer who is equipped with basic principles for viewing art may be at a loss in addressing modern visual work.
With China’s phenomenal economic and social transformations in recent decades, leading ethic Chinese filmmakers have arrived on the global stage and a few Chinese films have become internationally acclaimed. This course will focus on major films created by ethnic Chinese filmmakers from mainland China, Hong Kong and Singapore.
Go beyond merely editing your work and re-envision it! In this class, you’ll learn how to find the most crucial bits of living matter within your stories and provide them with the light and space they need to grow, allowing your work-in-progress to become a fully developed piece of fiction.
This course will introduce you to creative writing, from generating ideas to revising drafts. Find your voice and develop your craft through in-class and at-home writing exercises, and through discussions of your own and your fellow students’ written work.
This first course in a three-quarter sequence will examine the History of Western Civilization, focusing on the relation between technology and “wisdom.” Instead of a political framework, this year’s sequence will examine how changes in technology, primarily information technology, impacted the philosophical and spiritual ideas of a particular
In this course, we will take late imperial China (15-19th century), with its complex relations with foreigners, as our case study to critically analyze its historical shifts from a special, transnational perspective.
Story-driving scenes leap off the page or screen with color and drama. In this workshop, we will fine-tune the process of writing the well-made scene that delights and spellbinds while also moving the story forward.
This course studies the binary of Islam and the West. In this course, we will study different historical perspectives of how Islamic traditions and the “West” have been related to and distinguished from each other. We begin with Islamic origins and how the new faith altered the late-antique world that succeeded the Roman Empire.
In this course we will examine how diverse parties and ideologies competed with each other and contributed to the China we know today.
Bard, solitary wanderer, nationalist hero, mad genius, Prometheus, Faust- the Romantic era was awash in idealizations of the artist. Using Chopin and Schumann, as well as various contemporaries, as the basis for an examination of the Romantic generation, this class seeks to bring this most fascinating and unruly epoch into focus. Beyond the hi
European culture has been dramatically altered by the dual impact of the Renaissance and the Reformation. Following Martin Luther’s “nailing” of the 95 Theses to the Wittenberg door, “all hell broke loose” on the continent. Men and women of the Renaissance era helped fuel a fire that resulted in crusades, inquisitions, and political turmoil.
This three-quarter course covers the history of American politics, emphasizing the major controversies and crises that have shaped our Republic from its origins to the present.
How do we understand the art that has come out of the great art revolutions of the late 19th and 20th centuries? Even a viewer who is equipped with basic principles for viewing art may be at a loss in addressing modern visual work.
Want to find a way to make writing for business and the professions even more effective? Simple: tell your story. In this eight-week class, you will learn to create an authentic, compelling story that clarifies your mission, vision, and value proposition.
Pioneering a style of unparalleled versatility and expressiveness, Haydn, Mozart, and the early Beethoven created a musical repertory of elegance, wit, optimism, and logic that remains the benchmark of Western musical culture to this day.
What makes a piece of art great? What makes it deep, interesting, and meaningful? Just as we learn how to read fiction, we must learn the basic principles of visual art in order for the interaction to be worthwhile.
What makes a piece of art great? What makes it deep, interesting, and meaningful? Just as we learn how to read fiction, we must learn the basic principles of visual art in order for the interaction to be worthwhile.
This class is meant to introduce students to the spirituality and mystical traditions of the Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. Besides having a great literary and poetic value, these writings have a deep spiritual and mystical content.
The Writer's Studio Monthly Writing Group is designed for students working in creative nonfiction or fiction. Focused on monthly workshops, the group also provides writers a sense of community as well as an outlet for discussion of both practice and form.
This course looks at China today with the perspective of recent history. The calamities of the end of the Qing Empire in the mid-19th century to the reinvention of the idea of Chinese civilization in the years after set the stage for a century of revolutions of different kinds.
Stay motivated while writing your novel! This online class will offer craft discussions, intensive study of a mentor text, instructor feedback on a synopsis and eighty pages of work, and opportunities for revision.
In this introductory course, we will explore the art and craft of writing memoir. Students will draw upon their life experiences to create works that will explore both individual lives and the human condition in general. In-class writing exercises will be aimed at beginning larger pieces of writing.
Do you need structure, deadlines, insight, and a creative community to produce your best work? This eight-week, multi-genre (fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry) online writing group is designed to provide that and more.
This course will introduce the history of treaty ports in China from late Qing dynasty to Republican era from both Chinese and foreign perspectives. We will explore trade and economic development, policy making, changes of urban space, religious affairs, and interracial interactions.
There is no finer way to bind readers to your story than through characters readers admire, understand, and root for, even with all their flaws. Compelling characters in all types of media help put the writer on the map.
The Beethoven symphonies and concertos form the central core of Western Classical music; each of the nine symphonies and seven concertos comprise a separate world, from the heroism and tragedy of the Third, Fifth and Ninth symphonies, the pantheism of the “Pastoral” to the sublimity of the violin concerto and the brilliance and elan of the “Empe
This seminar takes us on a journey across the various areas of Edo (the former name of Tokyo), from the shogun’s residence to the entertainment district, to explore the roots and hidden meaning of the different segments of Japanese culture, such as kabuki theater and woodblock print making, among others.
Forget the dry, boring grammar lessons of your youth. Take this class and enter an enchanting world of punctuation unlike any you have ever considered. Do commas trip you up? Unsure about semi-colons? Come explore their usage and untapped power.
Have work but unsure how to get it out there? In this class we will study and demystify the ever-changing landscape of online and print publications. You will learn how to evaluate and characterize journals, and you will research one or two literary markets.