Fall 2025: Undergraduate English Courses
ENG 201 001 INTRODUCTION TO SHAKESPEARE
Instructor: Jonathan Walker
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies:
In this course we will read and discuss four Shakespearean plays: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, King Richard II, Othello, and Pericles, Prince of Tyre. Othello appeared around the middle of Shakespeare’s career and it overturns a number of racial and generic expectations with its action. Classified as a chronicle history play in the 1623 Folio—the first collection of Shakespeare’s plays, from which this course takes its title—Richard II recounts English historical events 200 years before the play was written. Instead of being called a “history” play, however, the first printed edition was titled The Tragedie of King Richard the second (1597). Pericles didn’t appear in a Shakespeare Folio collection until 1663/4 and is now usually called a “romance,” which is a modern label for a group of only four Shakespearean plays, but Renaissance playgoers probably would have called it a “tragicomedy,” a hybrid genre. Finally, A Midsummer Night’s Dream is one of Shakespeare’s premier early comedies, featuring romantic rivalry, fairies, magic, and mistaken identities.
Our guiding questions in this class will center on the generic or formal identities of these plays. In other words, we will discuss what it is that makes these plays either comical, historical, or tragical, while at the same time considering the possibility that such classifications might themselves be forms of mistaken identity. We will examine how the literary forms of comedy, history, and tragedy predispose us as readers and playgoers to interpret dramatic action in certain ways, and, in turn, how the plays’ disruption or frustration of our formal expectations transforms the possibilities of our interpretations. We will likewise give attention to questions of social class, race, nationality, sexuality, and gender (among other issues) as they are posed by these four plays and by the larger English Renaissance culture from which they come.
Most of our class time will involve discussing such questions in these four texts, along with four short critical readings. There will be very few lectures. The course will therefore require you to have read the plays carefully and to be prepared to discuss and ask questions about them during class meetings. Because of the course’s discussion-based format, its success will depend upon everyone’s active participation as we explore and answer these various questions together.
ENG 205 001 SURVEY OF BRITISH LIT II
Instructor: Susan Reese
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
ENG 300 001 LIT FORM AND ANALYSIS
Instructor: John Beer
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
ENG 300 002 LIT FORM AND ANALYSIS
Instructor: Josh Epstein
Instructional Method: Online - No Scheduled Meetings
Never again will a single story be told as though it were the only one.
–John Berger, G
A core class in the PSU English major (though open to all students), ENG 300 aims to prepare students for advanced coursework in English, and, I hope, for a lifetime of engagement with the challenges and pleasures of the written word. We shall focus on a set of poems, plays, and novels that test the limits of their genres, prompting us to interpret the multiplicity of meanings that a “single story” can encompass. ENG 300 emphasizes the following skills:
- Close reading: formulating sophisticated critical questions about literature, and investigating those questions through careful textual analysis;
- Formal interpretation: analyzing how the formal qualities of a literary text construct and complicate its meanings and effects on readers;
- Facility with terminology appropriate to the analysis of literary genre, form, and technique;
- Argumentation: shaping insights about a text into cogent written arguments.
Readings will include the following, in addition to short stories and poems:
- Federico García Lorca, The House of Bernarda Alba (trans. Gwynne Edwards). Macmillan, ISBN 978-0713686777.
- Michael Ondaatje, In the Skin of a Lion. Vintage, ISBN 978-0679772668.
- Tsitsi Dangarembga, Nervous Conditions. Macmillan, ISBN 978-1644450710.
This course will be taught online/asynchronously. There are no prerequisites, but it is a 300-level English class that presumes college-level writing and reading skills. Students without the background of at least one or two college English courses often find that the course requires extra time and review. Feel free to contact me at jepstein@pdx.edu if you have any questions or concerns. I look forward to working with you.
ENG 300 003 LIT FORM AND ANALYSIS
Instructor: Maude Hines
Instructional Method: Online - No Scheduled Meetings
What is literature? How have we determined what is "great" literature? Do we need to know "what the author intended"? Is there more than one way to find "meaning" in a story? "Aren't we reading too much into it?" Questions like these will guide us throughout this course, which is designed as an introduction to literary theory. Rather than surveying particular schools or movements, we will focus on central questions and problems. Our primary texts will be ghost stories, a genre that foregrounds interpretive acts and moves toward revelation of things “hidden.”
ENG 305U 001 TOP IN FILM
Instructor: STAFF
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
ENG 306U 001 TOP: VIDEOGAMES AND E-LIT
Instructor: Kathi Berens
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
ENG 306U 002 TOP: CLIMATE FUTURES
Instructor: STAFF
Instructional Method: Online - No Scheduled Meetings
ENG 307U 001 SCIENCE FICTION
Instructor: Bill Knight
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
ENG 326 001 LIT, COMMUNITY, DIFFERENCE
Instructor: Anoop Mirpuri
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
Why do we read novels? While this question has provoked a variety of different responses, most of them refer to humanity’s love of stories. But if we read novels simply for the love of stories, can’t this love be more easily satisfied by watching movies or television, or by listening to audiobooks or podcasts? And yet, so many people still choose to spend some of their limited time on earth reading novels.
What, then, is unique about the novel form that makes it different from other forms of storytelling? And what is unique about the experience of reading a novel that makes it different from the experience of listening to the audiobook, or of watching the film adaptation? Finally, in a world in which literary education is compelled to shape and justify itself according to criteria imposed by people who don’t actually care about literature, how can the study of literature be reclaimed by and for people who simply love to read?
This course fulfills the “Culture, Difference, and Representation” component of the English and Creative Writing majors at PSU.
Required Texts:
- Edith Wharton, The Age of Innocence (Penguin Classics)
- Patricia Highsmith, The Talented Mr. Ripley (Norton)
- James Baldwin, Another Country (Vintage)
ENG 327 001 CULTURE, IMPER, GLOBALIZATION
Instructor: Sarah Lincoln
Instructional Method: Online - No Scheduled Meetings
ENG 330U 001 JEWISH & ISRAELI LITERATURE
Instructor: Michael Weingrad
Instructional Method: Online - No Scheduled Meetings
ENG 331U 001 INTRO RHETORIC & COMP
Instructor: Dan DeWeese
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
ENG 335U 001 TOP: REFUGEES AND MIGRANTS
Instructor: Bishupal Limbu
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
ENG 340U 001 MEDIEVAL LITERATURE
Instructor: Keri Behre
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
Early English literature echoes all around us. In this course, we will undertake a close study of literary works by medieval women and men, paying close attention to genre, historical context, and the wonderful (and sometimes overlooked) diversity of the medieval period. Our text will be The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Middle Ages, 10th Edition. Course work will include class participation, short responses, and multiple drafts of a final interpretive essay. This version of the course has grown out of my enjoyment of teaching the material through the lens of a variety of digital adaptations and reflections. We’ll incorporate short clips of these and other media to engage questions of relevance, theme, and critical issues of adaption for many of our texts. This course is a great fit for anyone who needs or wants to understand more about English literature and global culture in the Middle Ages; no prior background in the subject matter or language is required.
ENG 342U 001 EIGHTEENTH CENTURY LITERATURE
Instructor: Bill Knight
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
ENG 344U 001 VICTORIAN LITERATURE
Instructor: STAFF
Instructional Method: Online - No Scheduled Meetings
ENG 351U 001 AFRICAN AMERICAN LIT I
Instructor: Anoop Mirpuri
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
This course will explore the origins of what we now refer to as African American literature. We will pay special attention to the origins of the African American novel, and its connection to nineteenth-century slave narratives. How did black authors of the nineteenth century impose narrative structure onto the experience of slavery? What social and political realities shaped these narrative endeavors? How did the relation between black authors and fiction writing differ from that of other authors? Finally, how did these origins shape the development of what would later come to be called African American literature? And what does this have to tell us about the relation between race and the literary world today?
For English majors, this course fulfills the historical literacy requirement.
Required Texts:
- Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (Oxford University Press)
- Frederick Douglass, et al, Three Great African-American Novels (Dover)
- Herman Melville, Billy Budd, Bartleby, and Other Stories (Penguin Classics)
ENG 368U 001 LITERATURE AND ECOLOGY
Instructor: Alastair Hunt
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
ENG 372U 001 TOP: LESBIAN&WOMXN IDS IN LIT
Instructor: STAFF
Instructional Method: Online - No Scheduled Meetings
ENG 387U 001 WOMEN'S LITERATURE
Instructor: Susan Reese
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
ENG 467 001 ADV TOP: HARLEM RENAISSANCE
Instructor: Maude Hines
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
This course will look at the photography, performance, art, music, politics, and above all literature of this important cultural movement. While the graduate section of the course shares a syllabus and some assignments with the undergraduate component, the two sections will be evaluated differently. Undergraduate evaluation will be geared toward breadth of knowledge about the Harlem Renaissance, while graduate students will pursue individual interests in depth. Except for the informal response papers, the graduate work in this class will build toward one final product: from initial research (the annotated bibliography) to public exchange of ideas (the presentation) to early organization of an argument (the précis) to completion (the term paper).
ENG 494 001 TOP: MARXIST CRITICISM
Instructor: Bishupal Limbu
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
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Fall 2025: Graduate English Courses
ENG 500 001 PROBLEMS AND METHODS
Instructor: Jonathan Walker
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
As its title suggests, this graduate course will introduce you to some of the central problems that scholars address in literary texts as well as some of the key methodologies that they use to examine those problems. Our approach will be both practical and theoretical. This approach will allow us to develop specific, applicable skills in our writing and conversations, while also understanding some of the conceptual underpinnings and implications of literary critical work. Our readings will therefore range from nuts-and-bolts questions to more abstract ideas that modify the way we read and grapple with literary texts.
The course assignments will support both the practical skills and theoretical knowledge you will acquire. By virtue of your presence in the graduate program, I will assume that you already possess some dexterity with literary analysis, but I do not expect you to be experts, so I encourage you to ask plenty of questions and to be patient with yourselves and your peers as you wrestle with new concepts. A ten-week term is a short time, however, so our focus and readings will be selective and strategic. Nonetheless, by the end of term you should be a stronger close-reader, be more attuned to the elements and vocabulary of literary form, be able to engage with scholarship in effective ways, gain more control over your own scholarly writing, and develop an awareness of how theory informs the work of literary criticism. Here are our course objectives:
- To develop and expand close-reading skills as an entryway into larger questions of interpretation.
- To understand and appreciate the significance of formal elements and rhetorical devices, including genre and generic conventions.
- To understand critical arguments and scholarly conversations, including the ability to identify and summarize critical positions and use secondary material strategically.
- To refine writing skills: constructing interpretive questions, crafting arguments, organizing paragraphs, using appropriate evidence, developing style, assessing rhetorical situations, addressing specific audiences, and writing with purpose.
- To engage with theoretical essays and approaches.
ENG 507 001 SEM: ROMANTICISM/CAPITALISM
Instructor: Alastair Hunt
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
ENG 518 001 TEACHING COLLEGE COMPOSITION
Instructor: Keri Behre
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
This course introduces and develops the theoretical and practical expertise of the graduate teaching assistant in the area of college composition teaching. May be taken up to three times for credit. Prerequisite: appointment to teaching assistantship in English Department.
ENG 567 001 ADV TOP: HARLEM RENAISSANCE
Instructor: Maude Hines
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
This course will look at the photography, performance, art, music, politics, and above all literature of this important cultural movement. While the graduate section of the course shares a syllabus and some assignments with the undergraduate component, the two sections will be evaluated differently. Undergraduate evaluation will be geared toward breadth of knowledge about the Harlem Renaissance, while graduate students will pursue individual interests in depth. Except for the informal response papers, the graduate work in this class will build toward one final product: from initial research (the annotated bibliography) to public exchange of ideas (the presentation) to early organization of an argument (the précis) to completion (the term paper).
ENG 594 001 TOP: MARXIST CRITICISM
Instructor: Bishupal Limbu
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
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Fall 2025: Undergraduate Writing Courses
WR 121Z 001 COMPOSITION I
Instructor: STAFF
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
WR 121Z 002 COMPOSITION I
Instructor: STAFF
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
WR 121Z 003 COMPOSITION I
Instructor: STAFF
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
WR 210 001 GRAMMAR REFRESHER
Instructor: STAFF
Instructional Method: Online - No Scheduled Meetings
WR 212 001 INTRO FICTION WRITING
Instructor: Gabriel Urza
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
WR 212 002 INTRO FICTION WRITING
Instructor: STAFF
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
WR 213 001 INTRO POETRY WRITING
Instructor: STAFF
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
WR 213 002 INTRO POETRY WRITING
Instructor: Consuelo Wise
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
WR 214 001 INTRO NONFICTION WRITING
Instructor: Paul Collins
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
An introduction to writing literary nonfiction, including essays, oral history, and field writing. Beginning with the raw material of exercises in object description, setting, and dialogue, students will write and discuss short works of creative nonfiction. This course may be applied to the Minor in English, the Minor in Writing, or the Required Writing Course requirement of the BFA in Creative Writing. It also serves as a prerequisite for WR 456, 457, 458, and 459.
Texts:
- Bechdel, Alison. Fun Home (ISBN 9780618871711)
- Kitchen, Judith and Dinah Lenney. Brief Encounters (ISBN 9780393350999)
- Roach, Mary. Fuzz (ISBN 9781324036128)
WR 222 001 WRITING RESEARCH PAPERS
Instructor: STAFF
Instructional Method: Online - No Scheduled Meetings
WR 222 002 WRITING RESEARCH PAPERS
Instructor: STAFF
Instructional Method: Online - No Scheduled Meetings
WR 227Z 001 TECHNICAL WRITING
Instructor: STAFF
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
WR 227Z 002 TECHNICAL WRITING
Instructor: STAFF
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
WR 227Z 003 TECHNICAL WRITING
Instructor: Sidouane Patcha
Instructional Method: Online - No Scheduled Meetings
WR 227Z 004 TECHNICAL WRITING
Instructor: STAFF
Instructional Method: Online - No Scheduled Meetings
WR 300 001 TOP: PROFESSIONAL WRITING
Instructor: Kate Comer
Instructional Method: Hybrid
WR 301 001 WIC: CRITICAL WRTING ENGLISH
Instructor: Keri Behre
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
This course explores how literature can bear witness to resilience, reckon with inheritance, and illuminate acts of care across time, cultures, and communities. Through novels, essays, poems, and plays, we will examine how small gestures—of tenderness, resistance, memory, and attention—can sustain life and meaning, especially in the face of loss or rupture. Students will practice reading closely, thinking relationally, and writing critically about the ways literature models care as both an emotional and political act. Centering voices that illuminate both personal and communal resilience, our readings will ask how attention, compassion, and creativity – perhaps most especially storytelling and narration itself – help us to envision and shape a livable future.
We will develop skills in analyzing poetry, prose, and drama; familiarize ourselves with genre; establish a working vocabulary of literary terms; consider historical context as part of the reading experience; and interpret texts critically. We will encounter several major theoretical approaches to reading and writing about literature practiced by contemporary scholars, which will help you to better understand the secondary sources you will engage in your research and writing. All the while, we will practice writing based in close reading, interpretation, and careful research through three writing projects designed to give you a solid process-based grounding in the creation of academic arguments. Students will be invited to examine how literary form and narrative structure can help transform loss and trauma, and to consider how reading and writing can themselves be transformative practices. We have a busy term together, but one which, I hope, you will leave with renewed confidence about the disciplinary practices that set English scholars apart.
WR 301 002 WIC: CRITICAL WRTING ENGLISH
Instructor: Sarah Lincoln
Instructional Method: Online - No Scheduled Meetings
WR 312 001 INTERMED FICTION WR
Instructor: Justin Hocking
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
Cross-Genre Approaches to the Short Story:
What new and vibrant species of narrative emerges when writers cross-pollinate a short story with a poem or an essay, or realistic fiction with a fairy tale? What happens when we dress up “high literature” in clothing usually reserved for horror or speculative fiction? Or accessorize flash fiction with visual art? What connections might we draw between the terms genre and gender, and what part does genre-crossing play in queering the literary canon? While exploring the freedoms that exist beyond genre, how might we also rethink conventional notions about plot, character, point of view and setting? This intermediate course will examine these and other questions, along with generative writing exercises, weekly student workshops, and a strong emphasis on writing as a process rather than a product.
This is a no-cost course; all course readings will be shared as free PDFs. The reading list includes short stories and craft essays by Carmen Maria Machado, Ursula K. Le Guin, Walidah Imarisha, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Barry Lopez, Beth Nguyen and others.
(Important Caveat: Though our reading list focuses on cross-genre and hybrid forms, your own workshop submissions do not necessarily need to have any cross-genre or hybrid elements.)
WR 312 002 INTERMED FICTION WR
Instructor: Gabriel Urza
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
WR 313 001 INTERMEDIATE POETRY WRITING
Instructor: Consuelo Wise
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
WR 314 001 INTERMEDIATE NONFICTION WRITIN
Instructor: Paul Collins
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
In this course students will draft, workshop, and revise their own creative nonfiction, along with exploring flash nonfiction, personal essay, memoir, and field writing by authors including Wayétu Moore, Sabrina Imbler, and John McPhee. This course may be applied to the Minor in English, the Minor in Writing, the Elective requirement for the BA/BS in English, or the Writing Elective requirement for the BFA in Creative Writing.
Texts:
- Brief Encounters -- Judith Kitchen and Dinah Lenney (ISBN 9780393350999)
- The John McPhee Reader -- John McPhee (978-0374517199)
- The Dragons, The Giant, The Women -- Wayétu Moore (9781644450567)
- The Collected Schizophrenias -- Esmé Weijun Wang (9781555978273)
WR 323 001 WRITING AS CRITICAL INQUIRY
Instructor: STAFF
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
WR 323 002 WRITING AS CRITICAL INQUIRY
Instructor: Susan Reese
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
WR 323 003 WRITING AS CRITICAL INQUIRY
Instructor: Josh Epstein
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
WR 323 is a writing course for upper-division students, which helps students to develop sophisticated approaches to writing and reading. Students enhance critical thinking abilities by reading and writing challenging material, refining their rhetorical strategies, practicing writing processes with special attention to revision and style, and writing and reading in a variety of genres. Includes formal and informal writing, sharing writing with other students, and preparing a final portfolio of work.
Students are asked to acquire A Pocket Style Manual, by Diana Hacker and Nancy Sommers (9th ed.), and are advised to budget for printing costs. All other readings will be provided via Canvas or distributed in class.
WR 323 004 WRITING AS CRITICAL INQUIRY
Instructor: STAFF
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
WR 323 005 WRITING AS CRITICAL INQUIRY
Instructor: STAFF
Instructional Method: Hybrid
WR 323 006 WRITING AS CRITICAL INQUIRY
Instructor: STAFF
Instructional Method: Online - No Scheduled Meetings
WR 323 007 WRITING AS CRITICAL INQUIRY
Instructor: STAFF
Instructional Method: Online - No Scheduled Meetings
WR 323 008 WRITING AS CRITICAL INQUIRY
Instructor: STAFF
Instructional Method: Online - No Scheduled Meetings
WR 323 009 WRITING AS CRITICAL INQUIRY
Instructor: STAFF
Instructional Method: Online - No Scheduled Meetings
WR 323 010 WRITING AS CRITICAL INQUIRY
Instructor: Susan Kirtley
Instructional Method: Online - No Scheduled Meetings
WR 327 001 TECHNICAL REPORT WRITING
Instructor: STAFF
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
WR 327 002 TECHNICAL REPORT WRITING
Instructor: Sidouane Patcha
Instructional Method: Online - No Scheduled Meetings
WR 327 003 TECHNICAL REPORT WRITING
Instructor: STAFF
Instructional Method: Online - No Scheduled Meetings
WR 398 001 WRITING COMICS
Instructor: STAFF
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
WR 410 001 TOP: LITERARY MAGAZINES
Instructor: STAFF
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
WR 410 002 TOP: COMICS PUBLISHING
Instructor: STAFF
Instructional Method: Online - Scheduled Meetings
WR 412 001 ADVANCED FICTION WRITING
Instructor: Janice Lee
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
In this class, students will engage with topics related to craft (point of view, character, narrative, setting, etc.), look more closely at their own relationship with language, and aim to produce one complete draft of original fiction. Students will also participate in workshops and provide generative feedback for the works of their peers. Our work will be guided by various writing & revision exercises, as well as readings by diverse contemporary authors. This term, we’ll focus on rethinking the cultural values of craft alongside the core text for the class this term: Craft in the Real World by Matthew Salesses.
WR 412 002 ADV FICTION WRITING
Instructor: Leni Zumas
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
WR 416 001 SCREENWRITING
Instructor: STAFF
Instructional Method: Hybrid
WR 425 001 ADVANCED TECHNICAL WRITING
Instructor: Sarah Read
Instructional Method: Online - Scheduled Meetings
Note: No previous experience with technical writing required!
Study and practice of foundational ways of thinking and professional skills for students planning to pursue a role or a career as a technical writer across a variety of industries and disciplines, including technology, health, engineering, science, manufacturing and non-profits. Course topics include audience analysis, writing and editing in plain language for diverse audiences, common genres, ethics, collaborative writing, and project management. Students author individual and collaborative projects for a personal or program professional portfolio.
WR 431 001 ADV TOP TECH WRITING TECHNLOGY
Instructor: STAFF
Instructional Method: Online - Scheduled Meetings
No previous experience with these technologies are necessary: This course is a resume builder for your technologies proficiencies! This course demystifies the technical tools and technologies essential to technical writers in today's dynamic digital landscape. The course begins with XML (Extensible Markup Language), XHTML (Extensible Hypertext Markup Language), and DITA (Darwin Information Typing Architecture). The course will also cover translation and localization workflows using XML-based content, focusing on translation memory systems and best practices for global content delivery to ensure efficient and accurate translations. Finally, the course will introduce relevant applications of XML and foundational coding skills that enhance a technical writer's ability to work effectively with technical content. As a result, students will become proficient in using industry-standard technical tools and possess a strong understanding of how these tools contribute to efficient and high-quality technical communication.
WR 434 001 SCIENCE WRITING
Instructor: Sarah Read
Instructional Method: Hybrid
The goal of this course is to prepare students to be effective writers and communicators about science for both scientific and public audiences. Students will study a variety of genres of scientific writing, including scientific research reports, research posters, research proposals, science journalism, science non-fiction and various digital genres (e.g., blogs and websites). Students will learn rhetorical and stylistic strategies for writing across multiple audience types about science. Students can choose a focus on writing for scientific or public audiences for the course project. Opportunities for collaborative work as well.
WR 457 001 PERSONAL ESSAY WRITING
Instructor: Justin Hocking
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
The word “essay” derives from the French “essai,” meaning “to attempt, try, or experiment.” In this workshop we will subvert formulaic approaches to writing, and instead embrace the personal essay as a dynamic art form that allows us to meditate on a subject without necessarily arriving at any pat conclusions. Together we’ll explore various purposes for “essaying,” from attempting to heal past traumas, to enacting political or cultural change, to simply expressing delight. We will experiment with lyrical flights of fancy, poetic moves, and fictional technique—all of which are all admissible within the bounds of a single essay. You will also learn to choreograph various levels of narrative intimacy and distance by engaging with works that dive deep into personal and emotionally charged material, while also expanding outward, well beyond the self, to weave in news from the wider world.
WR 460 001 INTRO TO BOOK PUBLISHING
Instructor: Robyn Crummer
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
WR 461 001 BOOK EDITING
Instructor: STAFF
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
WR 462 001 BOOK DESIGN SOFTWARE
Instructor: STAFF
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
WR 466 001 DIGITAL SKILLS
Instructor: Kathi Berens
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
WR 474 001 PUBLISHING STUDIO
Instructor: Robyn Crummer
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
This course is no-cost.2
Publishing Studio & Lab are cross listed and split listed courses, which means they run concurrently. Enrollment depends on whether you need a one-credit or four-credit course as an undergraduate or graduate student for your individual degree requirements. There are no prerequisites.
Publishing Studio & Lab are the courses for hands-on learning at Ooligan Press. Designed to give students the freedom and responsibility of running a real-world trade book publishing house, students are assigned to projects where they will work on a variety of publishing tasks. Project teams will work collaboratively to assess, plan, and execute editorial, design, digital content, marketing, and sales tasks throughout the term.
Publishing Studio: Graduate students in Publishing Studio should expect assignments to take approximately 12 hours per week; undergraduate students in Publishing Studio should expect 9 hours per week.
Publishing Lab: Graduate students in Publishing Lab should expect assignments to take approximately 4 hours per week; undergraduate students in Publishing Lab should expect 3 hours per week.
By the end of this course, students will be able to:
- explain and understand the book production cycle;
- competently use industry-standard terminology;
- analyze disruptions to their project as they arise and actively problem-solve to address issues;
- track, maintain, and update project management software, in the form of Trello;
- communicate efficiently through email and face-to-face meetings;
- complete assigned tasks efficiently as an individual and within a group; and
- perform various tasks at a professional level, as assigned by a team manager.
WR 475 001 PUBLISHING LAB
Instructor: Robyn Crummer
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
This course is no-cost.2
Publishing Studio & Lab are cross listed and split listed courses, which means they run concurrently. Enrollment depends on whether you need a one-credit or four-credit course as an undergraduate or graduate student for your individual degree requirements. There are no prerequisites.
Publishing Studio & Lab are the courses for hands-on learning at Ooligan Press. Designed to give students the freedom and responsibility of running a real-world trade book publishing house, students are assigned to projects where they will work on a variety of publishing tasks. Project teams will work collaboratively to assess, plan, and execute editorial, design, digital content, marketing, and sales tasks throughout the term.
Publishing Studio: Graduate students in Publishing Studio should expect assignments to take approximately 12 hours per week; undergraduate students in Publishing Studio should expect 9 hours per week.
Publishing Lab: Graduate students in Publishing Lab should expect assignments to take approximately 4 hours per week; undergraduate students in Publishing Lab should expect 3 hours per week.
By the end of this course, students will be able to:
- explain and understand the book production cycle;
- competently use industry-standard terminology;
- analyze disruptions to their project as they arise and actively problem-solve to address issues;
- track, maintain, and update project management software, in the form of Trello;
- communicate efficiently through email and face-to-face meetings;
- complete assigned tasks efficiently as an individual and within a group; and
- perform various tasks at a professional level, as assigned by a team manager.
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Fall 2025: Graduate Writing Courses
WR 507 001 SEM: MFA POETRY
Instructor: John Beer
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
WR 507 002 SEM: FICTION
Instructor: Leni Zumas
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
WR 510 001 TOP: ACADEMIC WRITING
Instructor: Kate Comer
Instructional Method: Online - No Scheduled Meetings
Writing is essential to academic success but often neglected in graduate coursework. As a result, developing scholars often find themselves struggling with anxiety and/or inefficiency that can undermine their performance and career prospects. They also risk missing out on the real pleasures of intellectual labor and community engagement that make this work worthwhile.
Based on feedback from PSU students, this course has been designed to boost your confidence and competence in academic communication. Welcoming students from all fields and stages of graduate work, the course offers a transferable lens for engaging scholarship, practical strategies for reading and writing, and opportunities to apply them to your own research. Sharing these learning experiences with grad students from across campus will also foster personal insights and mutual support systems that will serve you well in the future.
WR 510 002 TOP: COMICS PUBLISHING
Instructor: STAFF
Instructional Method: Online - Scheduled Meetings
WR 521 001 MFA CORE WORKSHOP FICTION
Instructor: Janice Lee
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
In this workshop, we will examine the entire spectrum of the writing process, exploring the relationship between our own expectations of creative practice, language, genre, and narrative and the values we weave into our own writing. We will read various essays on craft, writing, language, and ways of engaging with the world, and also work on our own definitions & reconceptions of major craft concepts, training ourselves to read and “listen” more deeply to form and language as expression, including work outside of our home genres. Students will be invited to write in any genre or form.
This workshop will be a generative workshop, meaning we will work on generating new writing, as well as collaborating on generative revision exercises where we will apply a variety of of revision procedures to our work while re-envisioning the structural frameworks that shape not only our texts, but also our language at the micro-level of line, sentence, and paragraph. We will also think critically about writing as a unique and collaborative process of becoming, and engage in critical analyses and discussions of peers’ work, participating in generative feedback as a collaborative process for amplifying, expanding, and multiplying possibilities in our work.
Additionally, this fall workshop will be a co-created container for nurturing community within the program and across strands and act as a portal into the greater PSU creative writing community.
This pilot is required for all incoming MFA students (all genres) and will be open to returning MFA students (all genres) as space allows.
Required Text:
- Craft in the Real World by Matthew Salesses
WR 525 001 ADVANCED TECHNICAL WRITING
Instructor: Sarah Read
Instructional Method: Online - Scheduled Meetings
Study and practice of foundational ways of thinking and professional skills for students planning to pursue a role or a career as a technical writer across a variety of industries and disciplines, including technology, health, engineering, science, manufacturing and non-profits. Course topics include audience analysis, writing and editing in plain language for diverse audiences, common genres, ethics, collaborative writing, and project management. Students author individual and collaborative projects for a personal or program professional portfolio.
WR 525 is a core requirement for the master’s in technical and professional writing. Master's students must take it their first fall quarter in the program.
WR 531 001 ADV TOP TECH WRITING TECHNLOGY
Instructor: STAFF
Instructional Method: Online - Scheduled Meetings
Note: No previous experience with these technologies are necessary.
This course is a resume builder for your technologies proficiencies! This course demystifies the technical tools and technologies essential to technical writers in today's dynamic digital landscape. The course begins with XML (Extensible Markup Language), XHTML (Extensible Hypertext Markup Language), and DITA (Darwin Information Typing Architecture). The course will also cover translation and localization workflows using XML-based content, focusing on translation memory systems and best practices for global content delivery to ensure efficient and accurate translations. Finally, the course will introduce relevant applications of XML and foundational coding skills that enhance a technical writer's ability to work effectively with technical content. As a result, students will become proficient in using industry-standard technical tools and possess a strong understanding of how these tools contribute to efficient and high-quality technical communication.
WR 534 001 SCIENCE WRITING
Instructor: Sarah Read
Instructional Method: Hybrid
The goal of this course is to prepare students to be effective writers and communicators about science for both scientific and public audiences. Students will study a variety of genres of scientific writing, including scientific research reports, research posters, research proposals, science journalism, science non-fiction and various digital genres (e.g., blogs and websites). Students will learn rhetorical and stylistic strategies for writing across multiple audience types about science. Students can choose a focus on writing for scientific or public audiences for the course project. Opportunities for collaborative work as well.
WR 550 001 PORTLAND REVIEW
Instructor: STAFF
Instructional Method: Online - No Scheduled Meetings
WR 550 002 PORTLAND REVIEW
Instructor: STAFF
Instructional Method: Online - No Scheduled Meetings
WR 560 001 INTRO TO BOOK PUBLISHING
Instructor: Robyn Crummer
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
WR 561 001 BOOK EDITING
Instructor: STAFF
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
WR 562 001 BOOK DESIGN SOFTWARE
Instructor: STAFF
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
WR 566 001 DIGITAL SKILLS
Instructor: Kathi Berens
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
WR 574 001 PUBLISHING STUDIO
Instructor: Robyn Crummer
Instructional Method: Online - Scheduled Meetings
This course is no-cost.2
Publishing Studio & Lab are cross listed and split listed courses, which means they run concurrently. Enrollment depends on whether you need a one-credit or four-credit course as an undergraduate or graduate student for your individual degree requirements. There are no prerequisites.
Publishing Studio & Lab are the courses for hands-on learning at Ooligan Press. Designed to give students the freedom and responsibility of running a real-world trade book publishing house, students are assigned to projects where they will work on a variety of publishing tasks. Project teams will work collaboratively to assess, plan, and execute editorial, design, digital content, marketing, and sales tasks throughout the term.
Publishing Studio: Graduate students in Publishing Studio should expect assignments to take approximately 12 hours per week; undergraduate students in Publishing Studio should expect 9 hours per week.
Publishing Lab: Graduate students in Publishing Lab should expect assignments to take approximately 4 hours per week; undergraduate students in Publishing Lab should expect 3 hours per week.
By the end of this course, students will be able to:
- explain and understand the book production cycle;
- competently use industry-standard terminology;
- analyze disruptions to their project as they arise and actively problem-solve to address issues;
- track, maintain, and update project management software, in the form of Trello;
- communicate efficiently through email and face-to-face meetings;
- complete assigned tasks efficiently as an individual and within a group; and
- perform various tasks at a professional level, as assigned by a team manager.
WR 575 001 PUBLISHING LAB
Instructor: Robyn Crummer
Instructional Method: Online - Scheduled Meetings
This course is no-cost.2
Publishing Studio & Lab are cross listed and split listed courses, which means they run concurrently. Enrollment depends on whether you need a one-credit or four-credit course as an undergraduate or graduate student for your individual degree requirements. There are no prerequisites.
Publishing Studio & Lab are the courses for hands-on learning at Ooligan Press. Designed to give students the freedom and responsibility of running a real-world trade book publishing house, students are assigned to projects where they will work on a variety of publishing tasks. Project teams will work collaboratively to assess, plan, and execute editorial, design, digital content, marketing, and sales tasks throughout the term.
Publishing Studio: Graduate students in Publishing Studio should expect assignments to take approximately 12 hours per week; undergraduate students in Publishing Studio should expect 9 hours per week.
Publishing Lab: Graduate students in Publishing Lab should expect assignments to take approximately 4 hours per week; undergraduate students in Publishing Lab should expect 3 hours per week.
By the end of this course, students will be able to:
- explain and understand the book production cycle;
- competently use industry-standard terminology;
- analyze disruptions to their project as they arise and actively problem-solve to address issues;
- track, maintain, and update project management software, in the form of Trello;
- communicate efficiently through email and face-to-face meetings;
- complete assigned tasks efficiently as an individual and within a group; and
- perform various tasks at a professional level, as assigned by a team manager.
WR 579 001 RESEARCHING BOOK PUBLISHING
Instructor: Rachel Noorda
Instructional Method: Hybrid
WR 579 002 RESEARCHING BOOK PUBLISHING
Instructor: Rachel Noorda
Instructional Method: Hybrid
WR 582 001 LIT AGENTS AND ACQUISITIONS
Instructor: STAFF
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
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