This course will be held once per week on Mondays, 6:00-8:00pm EST, from June 23 to August 11. We’ll meet in person at the Center for Fiction in Fort Greene, Brooklyn (near the Atlantic/Pacific Terminal).
You can register here.
The review is a familiar genre, yet it’s one of the most misunderstood. Reviews frequently resemble summaries, book reports, or rants, losing their true value and becoming disposable in the process. Learning to write a good review can open doors for any writer, and a great review can extend the cultural life of the artwork under discussion, even if it’s not a rave.
In this workshop, we’ll treat the review as a genre of creative writing with specific characteristics, tasks, and opportunities for the writer. What is and isn’t a review, and how have they evolved? How do we craft a narrator, and how can description, character, opinion, and rhythm inform the review? What are great choices we can make when writing reviews?
Together we’ll read reviews by an array of critics with an eye toward these craft questions. We’ll discuss how they work and learn how to harness our voices to write great reviews. We’ll also talk about craft considerations when reviewing art and pop culture in different media, focusing on reviews of films, books, visual art, and performances intended for the general interest reader. Our meetings will involve discussion of readings, writing exercises, workshops, and feedback. Participants will leave with polished work suitable to use as clips when pitching publications in the future.
Course Outline:
Week 1: What is a review?
Week 2: Attention, rhetoric, and the reviewer
Weeks 3 & 4: Crafting the narrator, using the personal, and class workshop
Week 5: Film reviewing
Week 6: Art reviewing
Week 7: Performance reviews
Week 8: Book reviews
This course will be held in person at The Center for Fiction.