Courses

Summer Courses

1. Creative Writing Summer Course

Course leader: Joanna Coleman

Period: 11. - 15. 7. 2011 (1 week)

Target Group: Literary Academy welcomes applicants from a wide range of educational backgrounds.

Course fee: 3000.-CZK (tuition only)

How to book: Please use the booking form. The booking form should be received no later than 30 June 2011 (although later bookings will be taken if spaces are available). For more information: Tato emailová adresa je chráněna před spamboty, abyste ji viděli, povolte JavaScript . Please note that the Literary academy reserves the right to cancel courses that do not recruit sufficient numbers.

Voices in Myth and Fairy Tale

The association of children with fairy-tales is an accident of our domestic history.

- JRR Tolkien

Myths and fairy tales are the raw material of fiction, and writing through them provides new access to our own voices. Spending each day on a typical folk 'character', we will work on imagining voices often not vocalized. What does the wicked witch have to say about the story? What the beast? The classes will explore old stories from new perspectives, and consider how traditional tales influence our writing, as well as how to tap them as potent sources of inspiration. As well as individual writing exercises the participants will have a chance to experiment with group writing tasks and dramatic techniques. The course will end in a showcase of different voices from the world of the mythic and fairy tale produced by the participants throughout the week.

Suggested Secondary Reading

Le Guin, Urusla. Steering the Craft: Exercises and Discussions on Story Writing.

Sellars, Susan. Myth and Fairy Tale in Contemporary Woman's Fiction.

Warner, Marina. 'Fantastic Metamorphoses, other worlds: Ways of telling the self.'

Zipes, Jack. Fairy Tales and the Art of Subversion.

2. Creative Writing Summer Course

Course leader: Brad Vice

Period: 18. - 22. 7. 2011 (1 week)

Target Group: Literary Academy welcomes applicants from a wide range of educational backgrounds.

Course fee: 3000.-CZK (tuition only)

How to book: Please use the booking form. The booking form should be received no later than 30 June 2011 (although later bookings will be taken if spaces are available). For more information: Tato emailová adresa je chráněna před spamboty, abyste ji viděli, povolte JavaScript . Please note that the Literary academy reserves the right to cancel courses that do not recruit sufficient numbers.

Genre and Subversion: fiction, poetry, drama, film, creative non-fiction.

What does it mean to read a mystery or watch a western or even write an epic poem? Certainly we can list the attributes of such forms, but we cannot say definitively what constitutes a mystery or western or even an epic, as genre is always evolving; each new text in the genre potentially adds to the list of attributes by which we recognize the form. To write well, we must read and observe what has come before to internalize form, style, and structure. Genre is a set of conventions by which we learn to recognize, categorize, and eventually market the fruits of our own writing. But it is only when we learn to, if ever so slightly, subvert these conventions that we can make an original contribution. How many times have you heard someone criticize a movie or book because it was too much like another film or novel, perhaps even a work by the same author or director? 'His last book wasn't any different than his first book', or 'This movie isn't breaking any new ground. It's the same thing all over again'. The concept of genre is not unlike that of fashion. We must dress our story in the black cloak of a horror movie or the seductive lingerie of romance, but these garments must be made of daring new cuts of cloth.

This class will examine genre conventions in numerous works of literature, film, creative nonfiction, and journalism. We will read from contemporary creative writing textbooks such as Imaginative Writing: The Elements of Craft by Janet Burroway and The Fiction Writers Workshop by Josip Novakovic as well as examining selections of classic modern literature such as Kafka, Hašek, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Kerouac, to contemporary writers like New Yorker essayist Malcolm Gladwell, novelists J.K. Rowling, and auteur filmmakers like Miloš Forman and Quentin Tarantino. Each member of the class will be encouraged to submit original work to the instructor for a consultation on style and content as well as a discussion on the student's publication goals. Novel chapters, stories, poems, autobiographical essays, creative non-fiction, book reviews, and writing of all genres will be welcome. The class will also be invited to attend the Prague Summer Writers Program reading series which will take place at 7.30 on Tuesday and Thursday. http://www.praguesummer.com/

Brad Vice is the author of the short-story collection The Bear Bryant Funeral Train (River City Publishing 2007). His short fiction has appeared in The Atlantic Monthly and The Southern Review as well as numerous anthologies including New Stories from the South and Best American Voices. His literary non-fiction and book reviews have been featured in numerous editions of The Novel and Short Story Writers' Market, The Guide to Literary Agents, The San Francisco Chronicle, and American Book Review. Work is forthcoming in a new Czech-English anthology soon- to- be published Prchavé Domovy . . ./Fleeting Homes . . ..