"The world," writes Alexis Wright, "desperately needs powerful storytellers to help us make sense of the unfathomable events taking place." In this seminar, we’ll focus on bearing witness to historical and contemporary events through fiction, non-fiction, and poetry, exploring both the techniques used to gather information and the literary craft needed to turn facts and research into compelling narratives. The course balances readings from authors such as Saidiya Hartman, Karla Cornejo Villavicencio, and Colson Whitehead with the actual practice of research and writing, thereby bridging the intellectual and creative to produce new knowledge. You'll draw on three specific tools: digital/real archives, oral history/ethnography, and community engagement. The final capstone project can take the form of poetry or creative prose, but may also be a performance, podcast, website, digital archive, or exhibit.

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