Jo Ann Beard

Undergraduate Discipline

Writing

Graduate Program

MFA Writing Program

BFA, MA, University of Iowa. Essayist and novelist, author of The Boys of My Youth, In Zanesville, Festival Days, Cheri, and The Collected Works of Jo Ann Beard—published in the United States and abroad—as well as essays and journalism published in magazines and anthologies; recipient of a Whiting Writers' Award, fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the New York Foundation for the Arts, and a Literature Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. SLC, 2000–2005, 2007–​

Undergraduate Courses 2023-2024

Writing

Creative Nonfiction

Intermediate/Advanced, Seminar—Fall

Prerequisite: one or more creative writing courses

This is a course for creative writers who are interested in exploring nonfiction as an art form. We will focus on reading and interpreting outside work—essays, articles, and journalism by some of our best writers—in order to understand what good nonfiction is and how it is created. During the first part of the semester, writing will be comprised mostly of exercises and short pieces aimed at putting into practice what is being illuminated in the readings; in the second half of the semester, students will create longer, formal essays to be presented in workshop.

Faculty

Graduate Courses 2023-2024

MFA Writing

Nonfiction Workshop: Interpreting Memory

Workshop—Fall

In this course, we will read and analyze a series of personal-history narratives to discover what makes a compelling memoir. This will require both self-discovery and discovery of something outside the self. As always, in order to write meaningfully about the world, we must be fully engaged with it through deliberate thought and through focused exploration. In this course, we’ll practice the art of thinking and of self-examination—both involving silence and separation from distraction, the ongoing work of developing a relationship with one’s own intellect, and one’s own past. We’ll work on fluency in writing and will apply keen editing skills to our own sentences and paragraphs. Students should come to class with a personal story or some aspect of their history that they would like to explore in a workshop setting.

Faculty

Previous Courses

MFA Writing

Nonfiction Workshop: Interpreting Memory

Workshop—Fall

In this course, we will read and analyze a series of personal-history narratives to discover what makes a compelling memoir. This will require both self-discovery and discovery of something outside the self. As always, in order to write meaningfully about the world, we must be fully engaged with it through deliberate thought and through focused exploration. In this course, we’ll practice the art of thinking and of self-examination—both involving silence and separation from distraction, the ongoing work of developing a relationship with one’s own intellect, and one’s own past. We’ll work on fluency in writing and will apply keen editing skills to our own sentences and paragraphs. Students should come to class with a personal story or some aspect of their history that they would like to explore in a workshop setting.

Faculty

Nonfiction Workshop: The Brief Encounter Essay

Workshop—Spring

In this class, we will focus first on close reading and then on close writing—developing small essays that encompass something very large. We will do much of our work on the micro- as opposed to the macro-level, distilling ideas and language down into perfect sentences, one after another, until we have created concise, beautiful works of art. We’ll read and discuss short, powerful pieces by outside writers, studying their craft techniques in order to perfect our own styles and voices. Of our six conferences, four will be individual meetings and two will be group meetings held in the evening to watch and discuss documentary films. In addition, there will be four monthly peer group meetings. Note: This is not a class in which to work on thesis material; the essays will be generated through writing exercises designed with specific topics and goals in mind.

Faculty

Nonfiction Workshop: The Personal Essay

Workshop—Fall

In this course, we will study the writings of great essayists to discover how the form works to create universal meaning from personal stories. We will discuss the process of writing and practice (through informal classroom exercises) moving thoughts and ideas from the mind to the page with fluency. From there, we will focus on elements of craft and style and work specifically on writing good sentences and then good paragraphs and, ultimately, formal, polished essays that will be submitted to workshop.  

Faculty

Nonfiction Workshop: Writing About Ideas

Workshop—Spring

In this course, we will read and analyze essays that are, at most, only nominally about the person who is writing them. This will not, therefore, be a class in which the focus is on self-discovery; instead, it will be on discovery of something outside the self. In order to write meaningfully about the world around us, we must be engaged with it through thought and through other kinds of exploration. In this course, we’ll practice the art of thinking—which is harder than we might, well, think it is. It involves silence and separation from distraction and the hard work of developing a relationship with one’s own intellect. We’ll work on fluency in writing and will apply keen editing skills to our own sentences and paragraphs. It will be really fun.

Faculty

Writing

Creative Nonfiction

Sophomore and Above, Seminar—Fall

This is a course for creative writers who are interested in exploring nonfiction as an art form. We will focus on reading and interpreting outside work—essays, articles, and journalism by some of our best writers—in order to understand what good nonfiction is and how it is created. During the first part of the semester, writing will be comprised mostly of exercises and short pieces aimed at putting into practice what is being illuminated in the readings; in the second half of the semester, students will create longer, formal essays to be presented in workshop.

Faculty

Nonfiction Writing as Literature

Open, Seminar—Year

This is a course for students who have taken a creative writing class and are interested in exploring how nonfiction can be literary and artful. The first semester will focus on reading and interpreting outside work—essays, articles, and journalism by some of our best writers—in order to understand what good nonfiction is and how it is created. Writing will include mostly exercises and short pieces aimed at putting into practice what is being illuminated in the readings. We will look at fiction and poetry to better understand language and image and at documentary films to study narrative structure, and we will write in class and outside class. During the second semester, students will create longer, formal essays to be presented in workshop.

Faculty

The Brief Encounter

Open, Seminar—Fall

In this class, we will focus first on close reading and then on close writing—developing small essays that encompass something very large. We will do much of our work on the microlevel, as opposed to the macrolevel, distilling ideas and language down to perfect sentences, one after another, until we have created concise, beautiful works of art. We’ll read and discuss short, powerful pieces by outside writers, studying their craft techniques in order to perfect our own styles and voices. Of our six conferences, four will be individual meetings and two will be group meetings held in the evening to watch and discuss documentary films.

Faculty