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You create an architecture of light. Which is exactly what the novelist must do.
--Philip Gerard

A novel comes alive, even to its author, as it precipitates onto the page.
--Jane Smiley

Every great novel offers incomprehensible abundance in some form.
--Jane Smiley

I wasn't writing poetry and prose so that the reader would think me a nice person, but in order that my sets of words should convey ideas of truth and wonder, as indeed they to myself as I was writing them.
--Muriel Spark

Hasn't [the novel] already mined all its possibilities, all its knowledge, and all its forms? I've heard the history of the novel compared to a seam of coal long since exhausted. But isn't it more like a cemetery of missed opportunities, of unheard appeals? There are four appeals to which I am especially responsive. The appeal of play. The appeal of dream. The appeal of thought. The appeal of time.
--Milan Kundera

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 and we'll figure it out. Just email me if the regular times don't work for you. We can almost always find another time. Email: mayas@uw.edu

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!

Goals for the Quarter

See Learning Goals page for details

Requirements in brief

• 12,000+ words of your novel (see Writing Assignments page for details)
• Weekly progress reports
• Weekly world-building exercises
• Peer reviews
• Notebook devoted to your novel
• Outline of short published novel
• Outline or non-outline of your novel
• Brief presentation on the type of novel you are writing
• Syllabus Annotation
• Participation

Books

Required

• Matt Bell, Refuse to Be Done
• Keri Smith, The Imaginary World of ___________ (bring to class every time)
  
• Other required readings will be available through Canvas

Optional

• Jeff VanderMeer, Wonderbook
  

Short Novels (choose one)

• James M. Cain, Double Indemnity
• Yuri Herrera, Signs Preceding the End of the World
• Rachel Ingalls, Mrs. Caliban
• Jamaica Kincaid, Annie John
• Victor LaValle, The Ballad of Black Tom
• Ali Smith, Girl Meets Boy

Grading

See Grading Page for details