Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Student Choice at Uncanny Valley


Mike Meginnis of Uncanny Valley gives his creative writing students a cool assignment:

"So I wrote at the beginning of the semester about how I think the main thing students ought to be doing in an intro CW class is reading. Not reading "the right stuff," not reading even so much with the goal of figuring out how to write (I see that as a more long-term concern than intro should necessarily worry about) but reading as a way of beginning to discover what's out there, how many ways a young writer can begin to engage the world of writing. I want them to find what they love and worry about what that means later; I want them to discover themselves as readers in order to help them begin to discover and articulate themselves as writers."

...What his students discover are great pieces from PANK, Dark Sky Magazine, Storyglossia, and The Incongruous Quarterly. I'm thrilled and honored that one of his students chose an excerpt from my forthcoming novella Freight that was published at Dark Sky. Such a nice surprise.

Read the entire post HERE to see the pieces they chose and why they chose them.

In a follow-up post HERE, Mike learns that site design also played a big part in his students' choices.

Write on, y'all. Write on.