11 courses with the subject CPW, each shown exactly as we captured it from the college's catalog, with every element we hold. Where the wording looks broken, that is our reading of the catalog, not the college's text.
CPW 3043Magical Realism
This class involves a close study of novels and short stories in the genre of magical realism within the context of an introductory writer’s workshop. Magical realism engages a combination of traditional realism infused with the fantastic, the mythical, and the nightmarish. Students will read novels and short fiction from different cultural contexts in order to compare the workings of magical realism around the world, examine other contemporary manifestations of magical realism in media, and create their own writing in the style of the genre. Prerequisite: Writing and Inquiry or faculty permission.
In this hands-on class, students read the work and advice of contemporary poets, along with selected examples from the past, to hone the crafts of sound, the line, metaphor, voice, imagery, and revision in their own poems. Through guided exercises students deepen their understanding of the creative process. By viewing live and videotaped interviews and readings and exploring the publishing process, students gain a sense of the many forms in which contemporary poets appear. Class sessions are discussion-based.
Storytelling is humankind's oldest art form, and in many ways we define and know ourselves best by the creation of a series of events that almost magically transform themselves into plot, characters, and themes. How we invent and tell a story is how we see the world. Narrative and Storytelling develops students’ appreciation for plot, story arc, and character development, and familiarizes students with the various techniques of sequential narrative, non-sequential narrative, and experimental narrative. This course fulfills the Creative and Professional Writing
This class provides powerful tools that help students understand how effective narratives written for time-based media or performances work from a range of perspectives. It teaches the basics of various film structures, writing dialogue, creating characters and dramatic situations, and experimental methodologies. Class sessions are discussion-based. Students turn in weekly assignments, starting with short scenes and problems and moving on to several short scripts. Prerequisite: Writing and Inquiry or faculty permission.
This class provides powerful tools that help students understand how effective narratives written for time-based media or performances work from a range of perspectives. It teaches the basics of various film structures, writing dialogue, creating characters and dramatic situations, and experimental methodologies. Class sessions are discussion-based. Students turn in weekly assignments, starting with short scenes and problems and moving on to several short scripts.
This class combines a close study of the works of classic and contemporary fantasy/science fiction writers with a writing workshop component. The primary focus of this class is the creation of altered realities-worlds that present a reality as different, yet connected and meaningful to our own. A series of assigned writing exercises give participants in the class the chance to build their own worlds and begin the process of peopling them with appropriate characters. Class exploration focuses on developing students' own unique logic, questions, interrogations, and approaches to fantasy/science fiction genre writing. Class sessions are discussion-based. Prerequisite: Writing and Inquiry or faculty permission.
This course investigates the aesthetic issues at the heart of writing as an art in itself. Course topics illuminate the kind of thinking that guides and inspires and require students to develop presentations and to explore creatively. Students engage in deep investigations into the nature of communication and inquiries about the role of language. The class may include trips to and possibly participation in local events to enhance the classroom experience and students’ understanding of the creative writing process. This course fulfills the Creative and Professi
In this creative nonfiction and memoir writing class students develop their writing skills and interests by exploring the art of personal narrative. The class engages with lyric essay, literary journalism, and essay forms inclusive of visual media like comic/graphic memoirs, autotheory, and environmental memoir through writing, reading, and attending literary events in the Twin Cities. Students write their own creative nonfiction and hone elements of craft important to the genre. During the semester, ample class time is spent in workshops: offering and receivi Advanced Core Required Courses Writing in the Twin Cities and Literary and Visual Arts Journal Professional experiences are critical to the BFA in Creative Writing. Two windows into the professional worlds of writing are the required Writing in the Twin Cities course, which brings student writers to local publishers and professional editors, local authors, and arts and literature critics into the classroom. Writing in the Twin Cities is a pre-requisite to the required Literary Journal course where a faculty member will guide students in producing MCAD’s new, and as yet unnamed, annual literary and visual arts journal (debuting as both a print and digital publication in spring semester 2028). The journal will be a cross-disciplinary publication that will serve as a public humanities and arts platform for critical writing, graphic narratives, and editorial collaboration. Students will contribute critical essays, interviews, and visual narratives that connect humani
CPW 5910Advanced Writing for Screen and Performance
In Advanced Writing for Screen and Performance, each student develops and structures a long-form narrative, story, or script for a time-based or performative project. In a workshop setting, students orally present their ideas for feedback from the class, then write iterative drafts of their pieces to be read for class critiques. Feedback is rigorous but supportive, and each student is expected to write at a high level. It is recommended that students complete Writing for Screen and Performance before enrolling in this course. Prerequisite: Writing for Screen and Performance or faculty permission.
The main undertaking in this class is to discuss, create, edit, critique, and revise poetry. Members of the advanced poetry workshop hone their craft and gain a deeper sense of themselves as poets through the analysis of their own work, their peers’ work, and the work of practicing poets. Students are required to explore a variety of poetic voices and modes by writing and submitting one new poem each week and to perform in-depth, weekly critiques of their colleagues’ work. This course fulfills the Creative and Professional Writing requirement for Humanities and Sciences.
This course allows students working on short stories, novels, and memoirs, among other types of narrative types and forms, to benefit from an intensive workshop experience. (Note: Students who wish to pursue poetry or screenwriting at the advanced level should take Advanced Poetry Workshop or Advanced Screenwriting.) The course challenges students to create publishable literary works through analysis of works on a common reading list and an intensive process of drafting and critique. This course fulfills the Creative and Professional Writing requirement in Humanities and Sciences for BFA students.
