Course details

Name: ENWR - 250

Title: SPECIAL TOPIC IN CREATIVE WRITING: SPORTS WRITING

Section: 02

Semester: Fall - 2023

Credits: 3

Description:
“The pleasure of sport was so often the chance to indulge the cessation of time itself—the pitcher dawdling on the mound, the skier poised at the top of a mountain trail, the basketball player with the rough skin of the ball against his palm preparing for a foul shot, the tennis player at set point over his opponent—all of them savoring a moment before committing themselves to action.” This was George Plimpton—a forerunner in sports participatory writing and founder of the Paris Review—in his 1966 memoir, The Paper Lion: Confessions of a Last-String Quarterback.

Throughout history, sports of all kinds have captured our collective imagination. In this seminar we will look at writers who have elevated the conversation on sports. We will discuss how these authors used sports—as biography, history, memoir, or cultural criticism—to create a transportive literary narrative.

This is a writing-intensive class, and you will be assigned four essays of 750 words each, which we will read aloud and discuss in class. The final project for this class will be a portfolio containing the following: a rewrite of three essays; a 250-word essay introducing your portfolio; a 250-word essay on any one of the articles read in class.


Course Requirements:
Weekly readings, in-class exercises, and weekly writing exercises. Re-writes should be routinely expected.

Selected Readings: Various articles will be handed out during class.

The Heritage: Black Athletes, A Divided America, and the Politics of Patriotism, Howard Bryant

Among the Thugs, Bill Buford

The Game: Ken Dryden

A Fan’s Notes, Frederick Exley

Barbarian Days, William Finnegan

Seabiscuit, Lauren Hillenbrand

Fever Pitch, Nick Hornby

The Blind Side, Michael Lewis

Sandy Kofax, Jane Levy

The Fight, Norman Mailer

The Paper Lion, George Plimpton

Rise: My Story, Lindsey Vonn

Selected readings from The Best American Sportswriting series.

Various articles from The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Harper’s, the New York Times, and Rolling Stone.

Last updated on 2023-03-31 By Lykidis Alexios (lykidisa)

Schedule: Wednesday From 10:45 am To 1:15 pm

Graduation requirements:

• Creative Writing (CW)

Teaching Faculty: Rotella Mark (rotellam)

Is course canceled: No