Writing Our Lives In Society

Writing Our Lives in Society: You don't have to think of yourself as 'a writer' for this class... but you DO have to write - in the ways you want to - to tell your stories and find your truths about what you've lived and seen. That might mean true stories, fiction, poetry, essays, opinions... pretty much anything you feel compelled to write. And you have to read other people's writing, and come ready to talk about it when we meet every other week. We'll talk about how each piece of writing affects us personally, what we think about the ideas, why we write what we write, and how our writing makes up pieces of this huge collective reality we call 'our society.' This isn't your usual 'creative writing' class - we aren't going to criticize each other's writing artistically, suggesting that this word is 'too cliche' or that sentence should be moved. We aren't going to correct grammar or spelling, either. What we're doing is writing through our experiences - past and present - using writing to discover, to grow, to connect to other people, and to critique our society through this writing.

The main thing here is the desire and willingness to write, to have others read what you have to say in written form, and to talk about each other's writing.