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NAVIGATION

Creative Writing & Literature

The Creative Writing and Literature department at New Mexico School for the Arts was founded in 2019. The program provides a four-year arts mastery education in the core writing disciplines of fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and dramatic writing under the guidance of master teachers. Students in the Creative Writing and Literature program are required to engage with all four of these disciplines throughout their learning progression. Within these, students produce a wide range of creative writing work and study a diverse collection of novels, short stories, poems, essays, journalism, stage, and screenwriting.

The Creative Writing and Literature department was founded upon the expectation that students not only write their own work, but that the reading and critical analysis of an eclectic curriculum of literature is essential to this aim. Various forms of critique are essential, including workshop, seminar, or Socratic discussion, reflection, presentation, and formal essays. The program fosters a reading culture that supports the artistic practice of our students. Students graduating from the program will be prepared as artists, and for undergraduate study in creative writing or a related discipline where written expression and critical analysis are fundamental.

NMSA also offers a minor in Creative Writing for students in one of the other arts majors: theatre, dance, visual arts, or music. Classes are offered as electives during the academic portion of the day, and may be offered by NMSA or as a dual-credit class with the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) or other participating college.

Liza Stewart

Creative Writing & Literature
Department Chair
liza.stewart@nmsa-ai.org

Quarter I: Syntax/Structure | Nonfiction & Journalism: An Introduction to Telling True Stories

8/21-10/13
Nonfiction & Journalism: An Introduction to Telling True Stories

Reading objectives: close read in-class and self-selected texts; map and analyze sentence and whole piece structure; annotate to identify and study descriptions of people and places, direct and indirect quotes, and the creation of a first person character

Writing objectives: write a personal essay that uses narrative and “thinking on the page” to make the personal universal; write a profile based on an interview that attempts to be both fair and true while illuminating the subject’s epic quest

Quarter II: Craft & Narrative | Fiction I: Character & Conflict

10/16-12/15
Fiction I: Character & Conflict

Reading Objectives: close read in-class and self-selected texts; annotate and analyze passages to identify direct and indirect characterization, conflict development, and mood or voice

Writing Objectives: Write a short story that develops an engaging central character and explores one conflict; write a flash fiction piece with elements of magical realism, lyricism, mood or voice

Quarter III: Complexity, Accrual, Theme | Playwriting

1/8-3/1
Playwriting

Reading analyze conflict in scenes and one act plays to explain the relationship between plot, character, and theme

Writing draft and revise an original scene and first act with authentic characters, conflict, and dialogue that develops a theme

Quarter IV: Audience, Purpose, Voice | Poetry and the Environment

3/4-5/3
Poetry and the Environment

Reading Objectives: close-reading strategies around the progression of poetry from Transcendentalists through slam poetry; analyze and investigate poetic devices; structure and form; line breaks; themes and ways poets use audience as means to craft aesthetics and activism around nature and the environment

Writing Objectives: Write about nature in personal experiences and memory; impacts of nature/setting on crafting imagery; ekphrastic relationships to paintings and experiences in nature; craft a slam poem that addresses an environmental issue; investigate how slam poetry, through both style and voice, creates performative qualities such as musicality, rhythm; investigate slam poetry in relationship to audience

Grade 9 
(two 500-1,000 word drafts)

Quarter I: Syntax/Structure | Poetry & the Senses: Life in Verse

8/21-10/13
Poetry & the Senses: Life in Verse

Reading Objectives: close read, analysis, in-class and self-selected texts, investigations of the ways writers craft sensory details or imagery in poetry; explore unique syntaxes and structures including fragmentation and nonlinear story elements through verse

Writing Objectives: Write poetry pieces based on experiential activities, sensory experiential writing practices that focus on crafting imagery; begin crafting story elements into a longer poem, using voice, tone, mood and perspective; practices in rhyme and meter; figurative language development and extended metaphors

Quarter II: Craft & Narrative | Fiction II: Setting & Theme

10/16-12/15
Fiction II: Setting & Theme

Reading Objectives: close read in-class and self-selected texts; annotate and analyze short stories and excerpted scenes to identify examples of symbolism, imagery, figurative language, tone and explain how craft is used to develop setting and theme (SIFT protocol)

Writing Objectives: Write two _____ page/word short stories that incorporate symbolism, imagery, figurative language, and tone to craft a single strong setting or scene and clear theme

Quarter III: Complexity, Accrual, Theme | Nonfiction & Journalism II: Following Curiosity

1/8-3/1
Nonfiction & Journalism II: Following Curiosity

Reading objectives:  close read in-class and self-selected texts; annotate to analyze the combination of poetic language, experimental form, narrative, and fact; examine how writers incorporate research and enter into conversations on the page 

Writing objectives: cultivate dedicated and joyful daily writing habit; discover research as a skill to follow curiosity and fold it in to three different types of writing: lyric, braided, and brief essays; revise for flow, beauty, concision, connection 

 

Quarter IV: Audience, Purpose, Voice | Writing for Television

3/4-5/3
Writing for Television

Reading evaluate the effect of character motives, actions and consequences, and pacing in tv episodes and scripts  

Writing draft and revise a pilot script with character motives and actions that drive a balanced three-act episode

 

Grade 10 
(two 1,000-1,500 word drafts)

Quarter I: Syntax/Structure | Writing for the Screen/From Script to Screen

8/21-10/13
Writing for the Screen/From Script to Screen

Reading goal: critique script and film world-building, including the story structure/timeline, characterization, visual/stylistic choices, subtext, mood, and tone

Writing goal: world-build through story structure, characterization, mood, tone, and subtext; radically revise story structure, character, mood, and tone to craft an alternate scene

 

Quarter II: Craft & Narrative | Fiction III: Dialogue, Plot, Voice

10/16-12/15
Fiction III: Dialogue, Plot, Voice

Reading Objectives: close read in-class and self-selected texts; annotate and analyze short stories or novel excerpts to identify voice (language, style, tone, mood) and describe how dialogue informs character development, pacing, and plot, and generates internal and external conflict

Writing Objectives: Write one short story (long form, 1st half and 2nd half with draft / revision process) with an intentional, consistent voice and authentic dialogue that drives plot, generates conflict, develops character, and comments on theme

Quarter III: Complexity, Accrual, Theme | Poetry: Memoir in Verse

1/8-3/1
Poetry: Memoir in Verse

Reading Objectives: close read, analysis, in-class and self-selected texts, long-form poetry such as novels in verse, annotate to analyze how poets develop stories in verse in unique and contrasting ways from prose, critique craft elements that contribute to thematic unity in longer form poetry through poetic devices, character and voice, and connections between poems; make stylistic and form connections across pieces; ask questions around how poetic forms, especially sonnets, might enhance stories in verse 

Writing Objectives: advanced practices around full quarter writing project/memoir in verse; connections across portfolios; crafting thematic elements in memoir; practicing writing about memories through poetry; cohesion and connection with sonnet forms and long-form experiments in students’ own writing

Quarter IV: Audience, Purpose, Voice | Nonfiction & Journalism III: Archives Edition

3/4-5/3
Nonfiction & Journalism III: Archives Edition

Reading objectives: close read in-class and self-selected texts that are grounded in archival research; consider the writer’s journey in research and thought: where they started versus where they ended up; analyze what form and methods the writer uses to convey narrative, research, thought 

Writing objectives: Engage in a sustained quarter-long project that starts with curiosity and ends with student designed exploration on the page; discover power in research skills to (re)discover, (re)examine, and (re)write; experiment with other media (if desired); explore ways to work through burnout and writer’s block

Grade 11 
(two 7-10 pg shorts)

Quarter I: Syntax/Structure | Senior Thesis: Word for Word

8/21-10/13
Senior Thesis: Word for Word

Reading objectives: close read in-class and self-selected texts, formal project proposals and author bios; annotate to analyze sentence, structure, language usage

Writing objectives: plan and propose a manuscript; radically revise proposal and writing sample for sentence-level clarity, language usage, cohesion, coherence, concision

 

Quarter II: Craft & Narrative | Senior Thesis: Remaining Visible

10/16-12/15
Senior Thesis: Remaining Visible

Reading objectives: close read in-class and self-selected texts; annotate to analyze craft & narrative; make connections across readings to recognize and comment on  texts-in-conversation

Writing objectives: develop positive writing habits; incorporate and radically revise elements of craft & narrative into 10-20 pages of new material

Quarter III: Complexity, Accrual, Theme | Senior Thesis: Emotional Landscapes

1/8-3/1
Senior Thesis: Emotional Landscapes

Reading objectives: close read complex in-class and self-selected texts; annotate to analyze how authors develop unified themes through the use of symbolism, imagery, language, repetition, motif, and other techniques; make connections across readings to recognize and comment on  texts-in-conversation

Writing objectives: build consistent writing habits; develop theme through consideration of and attention to details that create meaning, internal resonance, logic, or consistency; incorporate feedback to radically revise 10-20 pages of new material

 

Quarter IV: Audience, Purpose, Voice | Senior Thesis: The Art & Craft of Revision

3/4-5/3
Senior Thesis: The Art & Craft of Revision

Reading objectives: read texts that explore the relationship of the writer to the reader, editor, publisher, and self; close read to analyze voice and style

Writing objectives: self-evaluate progress, audience, purpose, and voice; recognize, respond to and engage with intended audience and purpose;  radically revise for voice and structure that reflect style and ownership 

 

Grade 12 (Cross-Genre) 
(10 page minimum)
Each Quarter Ends with a Portfolio