F206. Building a Space For Comics in the Creative Writing Program

Room 3B, Washington State Convention Center, Level 3
Friday, February 28, 2014
1:30 pm to 2:45 pm

 

As comics gain recognition in the literary world, and as more students attempt text/image work, writing programs face a curriculum challenge. It’s easy to add graphic novels to a syllabus, but how can programs shape thesis requirements to allow students to create graphic novels? How can traditional-text faculty overcome a lack of experience with the genre and open workshops to comics? In this panel, teachers and students share strategies for integrating comics into college writing programs.


Participants

Moderator:

Nathan Holic is the graphic narrative editor at the Florida Review and teaches writing courses at the University of Central Florida. He is the author of the online graphic novel Clutter and the serialized comic adaptation of Alex Kudera’s Fight For Your Long Day at Atticus Review.

Jeffrey S. Chapman is a professor of creative writing at Oakland University, just north of Detroit. He has published fiction and graphic stories in journals including the Florida Review, Cutbank, and Fiction International.

Matt Silady taught 8th grade in Illinois before moving west to study creative writing at UC-Davis. After publishing his first graphic novel, he accepted a teaching position at California College of the Arts, where he helped found their new MFA in Comics program.

Leslie Salas holds an MFA and writes prose, comics, and screenplays. She serves as an assistant editor for the Florida Review, a comics reader for Sweet, and a regular contributing artist for SmokeLong Quarterly. Her work has appeared in the Southeast Review, Burrow Press, and elsewhere.

Justin Hall is the creator of True Travel Tales, Hard To Swallow, and Glamazonia. He edited the Lambda and Eisner-nominated No Straight Lines: Four Decades of Queer Comics and has work in the Best American Comics and the San Francisco Bay Guardian. He teaches comics at the California College of the Arts.

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