In Search of: Satire
with Neal Pollack

After years of selfishly hoarding knowledge for himself, acclaimed satirist Neal Pollack has, for tax reasons, decided to share his accumulated wisdom with those who dare face him down online. Topics covered include the history of satirical writing; the differences between satire, parody and humor; and techniques for crafting your own satires. There will be a little bit on the philosophy of humor writing, but mostly the class will comprise practical advice on how you can claim a place in the pantheon next to Dorothy Parker, S.J. Perelman, Ian Frazier and Andy Borowitz, the greatest satirist of our age.

Pollack will assign many assignments in this class. Some of them will involve reading great satirists, from Jonathan Swift to Joseph Heller to the anonymous wretches at the Onion. One will involve watching and deconstructing a satirical movie of your choice. And then there will be the writing assignments, which will start small and gradually work up to forcing the student to write a short piece of satirical fiction.

Pollack's class will be remembered much like Forster's "Aspects of the Novel," and those lectures that Nabokov cobbled together and called a book, only it will be shorter and will contain profanity. Come cozy up with one of the more interesting literary figures on this block. Abbondanza!

Admission requirements:
You should submit a letter of interest, including a brief work history, previous courses, and a writing sample of no more than 15 pages.

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Neal Pollack (depicted here in an unusually colored shirt) is the author of three books of satire, including the near-legendary "The Neal Pollack Anthology of American Literature" and "Never Mind the Pollacks: A Rock-n-Roll Novel." He writes a political satire column for Vanity Fair, the "Bad Sex" column for Nerve.com, and the "Soundtracks/Other" column for emusic.com. His short stories have appeared in various places. He lives in Austin, Texas, with his family.