This survey section will focus primarily on contemporary 20th and 21st century U.S. Latino/a literature (poetry, fiction, non-fiction and drama). We will start with excerpts from Mexican American authors and use a chronological procedure and contextual process to cover as much ground as possible in order to include writing in various genre by Chicano/a, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Dominican authors and others. Additionally, we will try to view at least one film documenting Latinx culture. Our primary required text is The Norton Anthology of Latino Literature edited by Ilan Stavans et al; this will be supplemented with at least two books by writers not included in the NALL.

This section of CRW 4122 will engage students in writing activities, assignments, workshops and readings to expand their understanding of foundational fiction theory, style, and constructive critique so that they may be able to produce fiction of varying lengths and  styles. Students will provide each other peer-feedback--verbal and written--in small and large groups with a focus on craft concerns and practices by which imaginative work is done. Students will work in a workshop environment that would expose them to prewriting and editorial skills through revision, the critique of one another’s work, and a full engagement with the intensity of the process of creative invention. This class will therefore be conducted and organized primarily as a workshop, and each student will be required to actively contribute to the process.

This course will survey the writing of Hispanic Women writers in a variety of genre. We’ll focus on the rich cultural and literary production of Hispanic Women Writers to provide students with a broader view of how they are enhancing literature and culture of the Americas. Students will examine how the fiction, non-fiction and poetry created by contemporary Hispanic Women Writers express identity from diverse national origins, woman-centered and feminist perspectives. Themes to be considered include the relationships among identity/self-representation, family, friendship/sisterhood, motherhood, beauty, voice, history, tradition, spirituality, home, political activism, and the "American Dream."  We will also explore how the texts challenge cultural boundaries of feminine and feminist identity and consider and compare the aesthetics of writers based in Latin America and those based in North America.