ENG 395 — Literary Journalism
Literary Journalism is an often misunderstood genre that combines the evidence-based demands of journalism with the generic conventions of fiction. Often associated with the “New Journalism” of 1960s and 1970s (a movement that included Joan Didion, Hunter S. Thompson, Gay Talese, and Truman Capote among others), the genre of Literary Journalism has much deeper roots and continues into the present. In this course, students will explore the basics of literary journalism, focusing on how the genre balances the methods and ethics of traditional reporting with styles and techniques more commonly associated with fiction. The class will read, discuss, and interrogate various works of literary journalism in order to more clearly understand the field. Students will devise their own individual reporting projects, which they will workshop and develop into a substantial piece of original literary journalism.