Syllabus 

“SPIRITUAL WRITING”—Self-Guided Version 

FIVE-WEEK ONLINE CLASS (ASYNCHRONOUS)
Mon. July 1-Sunday Aug. 4, 2024

Curious about how I teach? Check out “Shaping the Spiritual.”

Class Description

This self-guided class will ask what, if anything, can make nonfiction writing “spiritual.” You will read selections from essays and memoirs in the spiritual writing genre and try composing your own versions of this material. How can we write about something so personal and powerful and share it with an audience of differing beliefs or traditions? How do writers move beyond saccharine sentimentality to illuminate a truth? You will choose a spiritual question or subject to explore in depth by writing two optional 500-word pieces and one article/essay between 1,000 and 3,000 words. The course will provide tips and inspiration for getting started, gathering material, and revising your work for publication. Writers from all backgrounds and faiths are welcome.

How It Works

You will go through the class as a group without an instructor. New lessons will open on 7/1, 7/8, 7/15, 7/22, and 7/29. The course site will close on 8/4, after which you will be sent a zip file of all course materials (written lectures, readings, exercises, discussion questions).

Each week provides:
• option for online forum discussions of assigned readings and other writing topics with peers; since class is asynchronous, students will post comments through the learning platform at their own time.
• written lectures and a selection of readings 

Some weeks also include:
• writing exercises and/or assignments
• opportunities to share a full-length essay for optional peer review (1,000 to 3,000 words)
• Though class is without an instructor, for an extra $50 you can join me for one open office hour live on Zoom to discuss your writing on any of these three dates/times (Eastern): Mon., July 8 1-2 p.m., Mon., July 15 3-4 p.m., or Tues., July 23 2-3 p.m.

There is no need to be online at any particular time of day.

Class Plan

WEEK 1: SHAPING THE SPIRITUAL (July 1-7)
This week will cover how writers working in the genre might begin to define or describe “spiritual writing.” You'll take a look at how the body, culture, or identity might shape its parameters and your approach. Writing itself can serve as spiritual practice, both playful and prayerful. To get the juices flowing, you will have the option to write a short piece (up to 500 words) to share with the class, and you will choose a subject for your primary assignment.

WEEK 2: FRAMING THE “I” IN FAITH (July 8-14)
You'll confront challenges of placing individual perspectives of faith—so close to the heart—on the page as art. Often, we do not speak of spiritual or religious subjects because they can be just as divisive as inclusive, as sappy as salient. How can you mine your relationship to belief without alienating readers or losing the complexity that marks lived experience, particularly in the realm of emotion? You'll consider how form, voice, or narrative distance can frame such issues in creative ways. In preparation for the primary assignment, you will have the option to write another short piece (up to 500 words) to share with the class. First office hour option for those registered.

WEEK 3: ENGAGING THE OTHER (July 15-July 21)
Spiritual writing often engages people, places, or things that perplex, disturb, or mystify, and that draw us out of ourselves. Whether you face a religious institution’s complicated history, a family tradition, a desert, or a baffling stranger, you encounter uncertainty in stuff seen and unseen. You’ll imagine how to embrace such tensions with the “Other” in your work, and the ways in which you might incorporate disparate backdrops or backgrounds without losing the personal element or forward flow. You will also complete your primary assignment (an essay/article between 1,000 and 3,000 words). Second office hour option for those registered.

WEEK 4: SPEAKING TO YOU (July 22-July 28)
Martin Buber writes that you “not only speak of God but also speak to him,” and Madeleine L’Engle adds that you don’t love in general, you love in particular—to live a spiritual life means risking closer communion with each other, with the earth, with the divine. Study how writers might embody such desire—and its difficulties—through character or charism, prophecy or plea. If they choose to participate, you will also have the option of sharing your primary assignment with a small group of classmates for peer review. Third office hour option for those registered.

WEEK 5: RE-SEEING AND REPRESENTING YOUR WORK (July 29-Aug. 4)
This week will cover techniques to revise and sharpen a spiritual writing piece to make it ready for publication. You’ll learn about submitting work to journals but also consider the bigger picture: allowing for risk and even failure, loving the roadblocks, and sustaining a practice.

© 2015, 2017, 2024 Jonathan Callard