ASSIGNMENTS FOR TUESDAY, APRIL 17 AND 24, 2007

We will begin alphabetically workshopping the first round of Poetic Memoir excerpts on Tuesday, April 17, beginning with: Pierce Aman

Important!! Your next and final assignment will be to submit a Novel Vignette, with 12 Workshp Copies on Tuesday, April 24, 2007. PLEASE ALSO MAKE SURE TO E-MAIL YOUR VIGNETTE SEPARATELY TO ME AT lroripau@usd.edu

Guidelines for Novel Vignettes:

Please write a short vignette(s) (not to exceed approximately 1,000 words total – either singly or in combination of several shorter vignettes).

Your novel vignette should be conceived as a short, crisp slice of a larger, novelistic narrative.

The challenge of this assignment, however, is that even while being conceptualized as part of a larger whole, the novel vignette should also be self-contained enough that it simultaneously reads engagingly on its own merits.

Models: The assigned Lois-Ann Yamanaka book is an example of a larger novel that is composed of short, crisp vignettes. I also passed out the opening three vignettes from Sylvia Brownrigg's novel, Pages for You, in class on Tuesday, April 10, which is composed of a page a day (each page a self-contained chapter) written to the beloved. (If you missed class on April 10, and need a copy of the Brownrigg, let me know and I will e-mail it to you.)

Upcoming Readings:

Thursday, April 12, 4:00 p.m., Farber Hall -- Brian Bedard

Friday, April 13, 4:00 p.m., Delzell 110 -- Susan Power

Thursday, April 26, 7:00-9:00 p.m., Coffe Shop Gallery -- VLP Magazine Publication Celebration and Author's Reading