ENG-224 Writing Biography

Analysis of Texts (TA) Writing/Research Intensive (WR)
Prerequisite: any first year writing seminar
Biographers write histories of lives. Their storytelling is often novelistic but their standards of evidence are those of the historian. They confront distinctive questions: What lives are worth writing? What is the relationship between the individual and society? What rules govern the relationship between biographers and their subjects? How has the art of biography changed over the centuries, and what forces have driven those changes?

In this course, we’ll read both notable biographies and the critical literature on biography. We will apprentice ourselves to leading biographers to understand the craft, and we will develop the research tools necessary for uncovering and narrating lives that illuminate our world. The course will be workshop-based with students sharing their creative work, exploring prose techniques, and offering peer critique. 4