Hi everyone,
I’ve run into a bit of a problem. My plan originally was to set up a creative writing club with one of the local high schools, but it’s looking like there may not be as much interest in that as there is for a more traditional book club. The teacher with whom I’m in conversation happens to love the science fiction writer Ted Chiang and his short stories, which I was hoping to introduce students to. I’m looking for ways to incorporate spatial poetry with a book club revolving around Ted Chiang’s science fiction short stories. His work is very realist, and he taps into questions of ethics and philosophy in a lot of his work. I’m just not sure how poetry, or creative writing in general, would work in this kind of setup.
My initial idea was to select certain stories from Chiang’s books and have the students read the work, then come together to meet and discuss what we thought about the story. The only logical next step that I could see myself taking would be to encourage the students to imagine themselves as one of the characters and to write a story from that perspective, whether within the bounds of the source story or not.
If anyone has any ideas or suggestions for ways to integrate spatial poetry, or creative writing more broadly, into this book club model, I’d greatly appreciate it.
Thanks,
Ulyses