CRWR 390 - Editing National Literary Awards

4 Hour(s)

This is a two-prong course: (1) Students will serve as preliminary screeners for the International Literary Awards, which is offered annually in fiction, poetry and creative non-fiction. Students will use editorial criteria to read, evaluate, and discuss entries, and students will be responsible for the preliminary selection process. They will help with the tasks of managing the entries, creating databases for the entries, communicating with entrants, promotion and marketing of the award, and will assist in the announcement of winners. (2) Students will submit creative work in their primary and secondary genre, to be read, evaluated, critiqued, and edited by members of the class. We will pay particular attention to the editorial side of these submissions instead of the drafting and revision side, so students will be expected to enter the course with polished work, ready for submission. We will identify, through research, several literary journals, contests, writing retreats/colonies, and grants that are open to emerging writers; students will select journals and contests to submit to and grants and retreats to potentially apply for. Each student will submit a proposal that includes a list of journals, contests, retreats, etc. that they will send their work, along with a timeline to do so. Students will, finally, learn to draft cover letters, grant proposals, and statements of purpose. May be repeated twice for credit toward the major/minor.

Prerequisite(s): CRWR course