Student Project on Lost in the City
As an example of uniquely “Only at GW” and only in DC moments, creative writing students recently curated a virtual Instagram tour of Washington DC based on Edward P. Jones’ stories!
In Professor Annie Liontas’ Advanced Fiction workshop, students enlist in apprenticeships and participate in mini independent studies.
As part of this work, they identify an area of craft they’d like to focus on for the semester. Topics in the past have included Character Development, Transitions, Pacing, Villains, Humor, “I have too much going on in my stories,” and Time in Fiction.
This is an exercise intended as reflexive practice, and it is also a place for play! Students are encouraged to take risks, see how they can show up on the page anew.
Rachel Krumholz selected Scene versus Summary, while Bryn Taylor chose Supporting Characters. As part of their inquiry, Rachel and Bryn presented on short stories from Edward P. Jones’ Lost in the City, creating a dynamic demonstration for their classmates using Instagram stories.
Their demo maps sites that are featured in Jones’ stories set in the 50s/early 60s in Washington, DC (“Places to Visit”), and reflects how the changing urban landscape appears today (For instance, CVS has replaced Peoples Drug Store).
Additionally, the students did some great analysis on dialogue, pacing, and secondary characters.
