How to Write Creative Criticism
with J.C. Hallman
This four week online course for intermediate and advanced writers will help develop your ability to write an insightful review of a literary text for the literary section of a newspaper, literary journal or long form Substack, Medium or similar blog post.
The course covers writing about literature that itself aspires to the condition of literature and focuses on the kind of criticism that writers themselves produce, as opposed to strict literary critics.
[REGISTRATION DEADLINE EXTENDED]
Registration closes: 6 January 2023, Friday, 5 PM.
Summary
Course code: JH1
4 online seminars of 2.5 hours each
For Intermediate to Advanced Writers
Limited places available
Selective entry – we’ll offer places to writers based on writing samples sent on application
Dates
4 online seminars on:
4, 11, 18 & 25 February 2023
Saturdays
9am to 11:30am SGT
Venue
Seminars will take place online via Zoom
Successful participants will receive a private link to the sessions
Overview
This four week online course for intermediate and advanced writers will help develop your ability to write an insightful review of a literary text for the literary section of a newspaper, literary journal or long form Substack, Medium or similar blog post.
The course covers writing about literature that itself aspires to the condition of literature—that is, art about art—and focuses on the kind of criticism that writers themselves produce, as opposed to strict literary critics or academics.
The following specific kinds of creative criticism will be taught:
Week 1: “How to write about books you like (and ones you don’t)”
Week 2: “How to write a close read”
Week 3: “How to write about a a body of work”
Week 4: “Writing Creative Criticism in Singapore”
In the fourth online seminar, our guest writer, poet-critic Gwee Li Sui, will lead the session & focus on writing literary criticism in Singapore’s context. Participants will be brought to see the importance of criticism within Singaporean culture and its challenges. They will also learn how to overcome these challenges and how to write in a reliable and engaging way.
Learning Outcomes
After completion of this seminar/workshop, participants will:
- develop their ability, skills & techniques in developing, planning, writing, and editing creative criticism
- have their writing improved through peer critique and presenter guidance during the seminar/workshops
- come away with an understanding of what it takes to write creative criticsm on their own.
Who should register?
Writers including:
- Intermediate Writers — Writers who have chosen to pursue writing as a full time or part time career with a serious, professional intent but who are not yet published with a mainstream or recognised independent publisher.
- Advanced Writers — Writers who have published at least one book with a mainstream or recognised independent publisher, and/or published in at least one literary journal and/or anthology.
Participants will be selected by the Visiting Writer with assistance from the Asia Creative Writing programme. A waiting list will be maintained.
Registration and Pricing
Course Prerequisites
To sign up, please register via the link above with the following documents:
- A 300-500 word writing sample (your writing sample does not have to be from the genre of the course nor your current writing project; it will be an assesment of your standard and style of writing)
- A short summary of your writing project or writing interests of ~100 words
- A short biography of 50-100 words
If you have registered with us before, you may send the same information again with an updated bio.
Course Fees
- For 4 seminars/workshops of 2.5 hours each:
- $100 for adults
- $40 for students, unemployed, low income migrant workers
- Free for undergraduates from Singapore tertiary institutions
- Non-refundable if cancellation 2 weeks or less before course starts
- Please email us if financial assistance is needed
About J.C. Hallman
J.C. Hallman grew up in Southern California. He studied creative writing at the University of Pittsburgh, the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins, and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.
Hallman’s nonfiction combines memoir, history, journalism, and travelogue. His first book, The Chess Artist, tells the story of Hallman’s friendship with chess player Glenn Umstead. His second, The Devil is a Gentleman, is an intellectual apprenticeship with philosopher William James. In Utopia explores the history of utopian literature in the context of visits to six modern utopias in various stages of realization. Wm & H’ry examines the copious correspondence of William and Henry James. B & Me is an account of Hallman’s literary relationship with Nicholson Baker. Hallman’s latest, Say Anarcha, tells the harrowing story of the birth of modern women’s heath, and will appear from Henry Holt in June 2023.
Hallman has also published a book of short stories, The Hospital for Bad Poets, and edited two anthologies of “creative criticism,” The Story About the Story and The Story About the Story II.
Among other honors, Hallman was a recipient of a 2010 McKnight Artist Fellowship in fiction, and a 2013 Fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation in the general non-fiction category.
About Gwee Li Sui
Gwee Li Sui is a poet, a graphic artist, and a literary critic from Singapore. He has seven volumes of verse to date, the most recent being This Floating World (2021). His other works include Singapore’s first long-form graphic novel in English Myth of the Stone (1993), a guide to poetry reading FEAR NO POETRY! (2014), and a language companion Spiaking Singlish (2017). He has also translated into Singlish works by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (The Leeter Tunku), Beatrix Potter (The Tale of Peter Labbit), and the Brothers Grimm (Grimms’ Fairy Tales in Singlish) and edited several acclaimed anthologies.
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