2014 Booklist SCHOOL OF LETTERS
ENGL 502 Bible as Literature Jennifer Lewin Hamlin, Hannibal, ed. The King James Bible after Four Hundred Years: Literary, Linguistic, and Cultural Influences 978-0521768276 (paperback!) The Bible: Authorized King James Version (Oxford World's Classics) 978- 0199535941 Paperback Robert Alter, The Art of Biblical Narrative (second--revised and updated!--edition only: 978-0465022557)
ENGL 507 The Craft of Poetry Charles Martin Elizabeth Bishop's Poems (FSG, edited by Saskia Hamilton) Donald Justice's Collected Poems (Knopf, 2004) Naomi Replansky, Collected Poems (Black Sparrow/David R. Godine, 2011) In addition to the poets listed above, we’ll be reading in two books of criticism: Michael Theune, ed., Structure & Surprise: Engaging Poetic Turns (Teachers & Writers’ Collaborative, 2007)
Note that ‘structure’ as Theune and the other poet/essayists use it, is not synonymous with ‘form’ or ‘poetic form’. Once you read Theune’s introduction, you will probably want to read at least some of the essays on the different types of structure he and his writers identify.
Theune’s work has generated some very interesting websites devoted to the discussion of poetic structures. You might wish to have a look at his Structure & Surprise/Engaging Poetic Turns and Kim Addonizio’s Voltage Poetry. As acknowledged, some of the ideas in Theune’s book comes from Ellen Bryant Voight’s The Flexible Lyric. It will be useful for you to have read at least the title essay of that volume:
Ellen Bryant Voight, The Flexible Lyric (University of Georgia Press, 1999)
ENGL 553 The Romance of Arthur Mark Rasmussen James Wilhelm, ed., The Romance of Arthur, third edition, Routledge (ISBN 978- 0415782890) Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur, ed. Helen Cooper, Oxford (ISBN 978- 0199537341 ) Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Idylls of the King, Penguin (ISBN 978-0140422535) 2014 Booklist, p. 2
Mark Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Modern Library (ISBN 978-0375757808) Bernard Malamud, The Natural, Farrar Straus & Giroux (ISBN 978-0-374-50200-3)
If this edition of Twain's Connecticut Yankee is out of print. An acceptable (but more expensive) edition is: Mark Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, University of California (ISBN 978-0520268166). It is important to obtain one of these two editions, as they contain the original illustrations for the novel. Twain thought of his work with the illustrator, Daniel Beard, as a collaboration.
ENGL 592 The Contemporary Short Story David Huddle (listed in order for reading for the course)
Edward P. Jones, All Aunt Hagar’s Children, Amistad, 978-0060557577 Greg Bottoms, Fight Scenes, Counterpoint, 978-1593761295 George Saunders, Tenth of December, Random House Trade Paperback, 978- 0812984255 Rebecca Lee, Bobcat, Algonquin Paperback, 978-1616201739 Lydia Peelle, Reasons for and Advantages of Breathing, Harper Perennial, 978- 0061724732 Elizabeth Strout, Olive Kitteridge, Random House Trade Papers, Reprint Edition, 978-0812971835 Jess Walter, We Live in Water, Harper Perennial, 978-0061926624 Lorrie Moore, Bark, Knopf, 978-0307594136 Jamie Quatro, I Want to Show You More, Grove Press, 978-0802122230 Anthony Doerr, Memory Wall, Scribner, 9781439182840
ENGL 594 Literature of the American South John Grammer Required texts: Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Harriet Jacobs Penguin Classics ISBN-10: 0140437959 ISBN-13: 978-0140437959
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain Bedford/St. Martin's ISBN-10: 0312400292 ISBN-13: 978-0312400293
2014 Booklist, p. 3
Go Down, Moses, William Faulkner Vintage ISBN-10: 0679732179 ISBN-13: 978-0679732174
Delta Wedding, Eudora Welty Mariner Books; 1st Harvest/HBJ ISBN-10: 0156252805 ISBN-13: 978-0156252805
The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, Ernest Gaines Bantam ISBN-10: 0553263579 ISBN-13: 978-0553263572
Yazoo: Integration in a Deep Southern Town, Willie Morris University of Arkansas Press ISBN-10: 1557289832 ISBN-13: 978-1557289834
ENGL 598 Forms of Fiction, The Tyranny of Plot: Thirteen(ish) Ways of Engaging a Reader Michael Griffith Students are asked to read one long but wonderful book, Charles Dickens’s Our Mutual Friend, before they come to the mountain. In class we’ll read a total of eight short novels that do something interesting with plot (or its “absence”): Time’s Arrow, Martin Amis Dog of the South, Charles Portis Desperate Characters, Paula Fox Hell, Kathryn Davis The Driftless Area, Tom Drury The Mezzanine, Nicholson Baker The Loved One, Evelyn Waugh Students will choose the last novel based on a list provided. Note that these novels are short, with the spectacular exception of the Dickens: They range from 140-250 pages. Some essays and definitions/taxonomies of plot and narrative, starting with Aristotle’s, will be provided in class.
2014 Booklist, p. 4
WORKSHOPS
ENGL 509 Poetry Workshop Andrew Hudgins Contemporary American Poetry, Poulan and Waters. 8th ed. The Art of the Poetic Line, James Longenbach Poetic Meter and Poetic Form, Paul Fussell
ENGL 510A Fiction Workshop Michael Griffith O. Henry Prize Stories, 2013, Laura Furman, editor Cincinnati Review (issue 10.2) — available in the University Bookstore the first day of classes. Curious Attractions, Debra Spark
Recommended but not required: ENGL 510B Fiction Workshop Adrianne Harun Housekeeping, Marilynne Robinson Little Kingdoms, Steven Millhauser Go With Me, Castle Freeman William Trevor: The Complete Stories, William Trevor [Note: We will be reading only a handful of stories from the Trevor collection, to be assigned during the residency, but students should feel free to begin browsing in this monumental volume.] Suggested -- i.e., writing guides you might find useful to own but aren't strictly necessary for the workshop Narrative Design, Madison Smartt Bell The Art of Subtext, Charles Baxter The Art of Time, Joan Silber Reading Like a Writer, Francine Prose Burning Down the House, Charles Baxter The Art of Fiction, David Lodge
ENGL 512 Nonfiction Workshop Neil Shea Oracle Bones, by Peter Hessler Fire Season, by Philip Connors The Best American Essays 2013, edited by Cheryl Strayed.