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This quarter's books

The language of literature is not an approximate language. It is the most precise language that human beings have yet developed. The spaces is allows are not formless vistas of subjectivity, they are new territories of imagination.

--Jeanette Winterson, Art Objects: Essays on Ecstasy and Effrontery

Professor Maya Sonenberg's Office Hours: Tuesdays 3:00-5:00 and by appointment (Padelford B-431). These will be held in person. If you would prefer to attend office hours over Zoom, please let me know ahead of time. There will be a link (to the left, waiting room enabled). Just email me if the regular times don't work for you. We can almost always find another time. Email: mayas@uw.edu.

Maya in a lovely park on Queen Anne

If you want to learn more about me or read some of my writing, check out my website Links to an external site..

If you have any questions, please email me. I check my email pretty obsessively, but am sometimes busy with other obligations and can't answer right away. I will respond within 24 hours during the week and 48 hours over the weekend. Do not leave questions about assignments to the last minute!

The reader for our class this quarter will be Henry Christopher. Henry will be helping me grade your writing assignments and meeting with your small groups during workshop sessions.

BIO: Henry Elizabeth Christopher is a trans writer from Akron, Ohio. His writing has been published in journals such as The Threepenny Review, Gordon Square Review, X-R-A-Y, Witness, and Gigantic Sequins, and has been nominated for Best of the Net and the Pushcart Prize. Henry works at CRAFT Literary as a section editor, marketing assistant, and editorial consultant, and freelances with American Dream Studios as a television development writer. Community engagement grounds his understanding of writing as a practice, and he has helped coordinate and participate in many reading and writing events around Seattle and Ohio. His debut novel, No One Dies in Palmyra Ohio, is available through What Books Press. He’s currently working toward his Master of Fine Arts at the University of Washington in Seattle and teaching English composition classes about community outreach through essay and zine publication.

Requirements in brief--

4 short writing assignments, rough & final drafts (see Writing Bingo Overview page for details)

Written peer reviews and 4 in-person workshops (see Peer Review Instructions page for details)

Readings and Viewings in preparation for each guest’s visit

Written question for each of our visitors (13 in all)

10 in-person discussion or group writing exercises

Syllabus Annotation

Grading Contract

Books

You may read the required books in any format that works for you: new, used, ebooks, or audio books (although you will need a physical copy if you write a book review so that you can easily provide quotations and citations), and acquire them from the University Bookstore, any other bookstore, or the library. These books are also on two-hour reserve at Odegaard Library.

Required

Betsy Aoki, Breakpoint

Ashna Ali, The Relativity of Living Well

Kate Lebo, The Book of Difficult Fruit

Sharma Shields, The Cassandra

Other required readings will be available through Canvas

Optional

Jericho Parms, Lost Wax: Essays