Let's Get Critical
Let’s Get Critical: How to Write a Thoughtful Review of Just about Anything
Wednesday, November 17
T.S. Eliot said that “It is part of the business of the critic to […] see literature steadily and to see it whole.”
Many writers get their first and most consistent publication credits by writing reviews. In this class, we’ll go over the hows and whys of what makes a good piece of critical writing, as well as how and where to place such pieces.
Whether you’re interested in reviewing books or albums, plays or performances, films or food, this one-night workshop will help you explore the techniques by which you can cultivate a finely honed critical sensibility and the voice necessary to communicate it to readers.
Participants should come prepared to read and respond to various literary excerpts. Students will be able to share these exercises with the class for critique and improvement, and will walk out at the end of the evening with eyes better trained to “see it whole.”
Writer’s Roadmap
This is an excellent course for writers of every level and in every genre who are interested in engaging more actively with the literary landscape, and in seeking publication of their reviews.
About the Instructor: Kathleen Rooney is a founding editor of Rose Metal Press (publisher of the popular Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction and Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Prose Poetry), and the author of the critical study Reading with Oprah: the Book Club that Changed America, the memoir Live Nude Girl: My Life as an Object, the essay collection For You For You I Am Trilling These Songs, and the poetry collections Oneiromance (an epithalamion) and That Tiny Insane Voluptuousness (with Elisa Gabbert). Currently at work on her first novel, she lives and writes in the Edgewater neighborhood of Chicago with her husband, the writer Martin Seay. She blogs sporadically at www.kathleenrooney.com.