[As another Fall
semester kicks off, a series of preview posts—this time focusing on new things
I’ll be trying this semester. Leading up to a special pedagogy post this
weekend!]
On how you can help
me plan my next Adult Learning course!
Later this fall,
I’ll have the chance to teach my fifth Adult Learning in the Fitchburg Area
(ALFA) course. Whether they’ve been contributing
immeasurably to my third book or challenging
my pedagogical perspective, each of my prior four ALFA courses has been a
pinnacle teaching and professional experience. And I don’t expect this one,
which will focus on short stories (or excerpts from longer works) by very
new/young American writers, to be any different.
But one thing is
definitely different about this ALFA class: I’m not sure what authors and texts
to include! The topic for this course was a request from ALFA’s students and
curriculum committee, and I was happy to oblige. I certainly have a few ideas
about contemporary writers I might include, but I also feel that many of my
initial thoughts are of writers who have in fact been working for some time now
(Junot Díaz, George Saunders, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie). And for this course I’m
really hoping, again, to highlight very new/young writers, folks who are just
emerging onto our literary and cultural landscape and with whose works the ALFA
students and I can engage for the first time together. So rather than allow
myself to be limited by the horizons of my own knowledge, I’m doing one of the
things I (hope I) do best: crowd-sourcing!
So if you have
thoughts on new, emerging writers I might include, I’d love to hear them! They
don’t have to have written short stories—while the readings for an ALFA course
are indeed generally short, I could (and have in the past) excerpt longer works
just as easily as provide complete shorter ones. So any and all suggestions and
nominations very welcome and much appreciated!
Pedagogy post
this weekend,
Ben
PS. So
suggestions and nominations for this course very welcome!
Ben, what if you subscribed to a small literary journal, like One Story, and read new work by old and up-and-coming writers? https://www.one-story.com/
ReplyDeleteThat's an excellent idea, thanks! I'll check that out pronto.
ReplyDeleteBen
Ben, I just suggested that you use a small literary journal like One Story so you can read established and up-and-coming authors. https://www.one-story.com/
ReplyDeleteThanks Nancy--nice to know who "Unknown" was! ;)
ReplyDelete