Participants in this program will engage creative writing—their own and that of published authors—as a nexus for critical and creative inquiry, delving into the content and characteristics that mark the work and words of women writing today in very different voices from different perspectives. What are women saying to us—about themselves, about us, about the world? How do fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry serve as modes of critical engagement? What can we say in these modes that can’t be said any other way? How do we as readers and writers of any gender or sexual identification listen to what is said by women? How can we respond? How do we speak for ourselves and for others?

Program participants will "locate" themselves and their work in a cultural and critical context, and will contribute to the discourse of contemporary writers. We will study and practice the elements of narrative and lyrical discourse through workshops, presentations, seminar, critique and through iterative critical and creative writing assignments. There will be an emphasis on formal hybridity, the relationship between critical and creative thought and practice,  as well as on development of a sustaining creative writing practice. Participants will experiment with different ways of engaging their work independently and as a community of artists: developing a daily writing practice, building and participating in an online community, and going away together to the Washington coast for a 4-day writing retreat.

Participants will develop two significant creative projects throughout the quarter, and will produce a research project on a woman writer of their choice, using primary creative texts, secondary critical texts, and biographical works to conduct a rich and dimensionally complex investigation.

Authors currently being considered for the program reading list include Claudia Rankine, Lidia Yuknavich, Maggie Nelson, Lia Purpura, Anne Carson, Casey Plett and others.