Rachel Williams-Smith, dean of the School of Journalism and Communication and author of the book, “Born Yesterday,” is teaching Literary Journalism this semester. The class is only offered once every two years and led to a book publication in 2010.
The Literary Journalism class combines reporting, research and literary techniques to tell a long-form story, Williams-Smith said in an interview with the Accent. By the end of the semester, each student will need to complete a 20 to 30 page written work.
“The difference between a novel and literary nonfiction [is that] with a novel, you create a plot. With literary nonfiction, you have to … look at the plot points and decide how to lay them out, but you can’t just go create a plot,” she explained. “So, it’s all true. But you can manage how it’s put together so that it has the most appeal not just to the mind, but to the emotion as well. And, it pulls the reader in.”
The Literary Journalism class is an elective course and it is not required for any major, according to Williams-Smith.
“Anyone who signs up [for the class] is doing it because they truly want to,” she said. “And I think that … [creates] a really great atmosphere because everyone is challenging themselves to do this as opposed to doing something because it’s the requirement for graduation. So, obviously, it’s for someone who loves writing and is ready to tackle the writing.”
Junior English major and film minor Paula Macena said she decided to take the class to hone her writing skills.
“I’ve fallen in love with memoirs lately, and I knew that Literary Journalism teaches a similar style of writing,” Macena said. “So, I wanted to learn the ropes and improve my craft.”
Macena said she decided to work on more than one piece since she could not decide on one topic.
“I’m personally working on two pieces: The thriving but hidden punk scene in the South, and my experience being thrown into the film program headfirst this semester while having no idea what I’m doing,” Macena said. “I couldn’t decide on just one, so I decided to do both for fun.”
Another student, senior mass communication – media production major Josué Vega, said his topic has to do with sexual assault.
“My friend was sexually assaulted by [a teacher at his Christian school] and had to learn how to rediscover his faith,” Vega said. “That’s about as much as I can share right now just because I haven’t done all the research. … But that’s the general synopsis of how … after being assaulted … how he was able to find peace and restoration in a different type of Christianity.”
After he finishes the project, Vega said he is interested in expanding his work and venturing into book publishing.
“Dr. Rachel said that, in fact, she was going to encourage us all to pursue publication and she would help us along the way,” Vega said.
One of the objectives of the course is to introduce or familiarize students with the publishing industry, according to Williams-Smith. She said her own experience with publication has helped her teach the class. She said she is also planning on bringing in a published guest presenter so he can speak about his experience with the publishing industry.
“I want people to understand that the publishing industry is a tough one to break into and to have some idea of how to go about it,” Williams-Smith said.
