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Reading and Writing Urban Literature
Course Details
Everyone has a story about life in the city. Learn to craft your quirky, funny, sad, dark, or otherwise unique urban tales into marketable short stories, memoirs, or novels. In this class, you will read a wide range of books set in the city, from Piri Thomas' groundbreaking memoir about coming of age on the streets of Spanish Harlem, Down These Mean Streets; to Junot Diaz's vividly evocative collection of urban stories, Drown; to Adrian Nicole LeBlanc's critically acclaimed nonfiction book about the intertwined lives of two girls in the Bronx, Random Family. Through class discussions and author visits, you will learn how and why these books shine as paragons of urban literature. In this class, you can expect to learn: By the end of class, students can expect to have: | ||
Instructor BioJoy Peskin's Courses Get Over Your Writer's Block – New York
Improve Your Memoir – New York
Young Adult Novel Writing Workshop – New York  Testimonials I learned so much from Joy! She made me grow as a writer in a very short time and I am truly optimistic about what I accomplished with her help. -- Lisa Zeiger"Joy was the most inspirational and dedicated instructor I've ever had. The effort she put into her responses was well beyond what I could have ever expected and enormously helpful." -- Nina Sherwin "Joy made it possible for me to understand my writing in totally new ways and put it in a broader context. She was enormously helpful and the course was a pleasure." -- Ellie Parker "Joy is an excellent instructor. Besides her wit and insight, she helped students find the focus of their project and why they were blocked." -- Elisa DeCarlo "Joy's class was the extra push I needed to motivate me to keep working on my book. Very informative and helpful! I want to go back again!" -- Cara Alwill "Listening closely to everyone's critique was as helpful as listening to my own. I really needed professional feedback from a working editor. I got that from Joy." -- Jacqueline Delibes "Joy understands her audience and knows what the market is all about -- really important information for writers trying to break into a genre for the first time." -- Randi Gollin "I took Joy's class, and it had a huge impact on me. Since then, I have written over thirty thousand words towards a memoir. After her class, I signed up for a memoir writing class, and am writing a minimum of thirty minutes a day." -- Kate Hall "I flew to New York from Minnesota just to attend and it was well worth both the time and money. I came away with a much more creative direction for my writing. Joy was fantastic." -- Ben Olson "Joy was everything that a student needs in an instructor. Down-to-earth, informative, thorough and wonderfully inspiring." -- Philana Marie Boles "With her sincere and warm personality, Joy is able to convey truth so that we can become better writers." -- Barbara Bullard-Leacock |
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