Grackle painting by Cynthia Burke.
Art and literary reviews have traditionally been separated from creative practice. The class will trouble this binary by looking at publish reviews in outlets such as Guernica, The Paris Review, Los Angeles Review of Books, BOMB, and The Washington Post that blur the lines between criticism and autobiographical writing, epistolary and ekphrasis. We’ll examine the works of authors such as Chris Kraus, Olivia Laing, Tobi Haslett, and Niela Orr. We’ll read, view, and discuss works that inspire us. Through generative exercises, we’ll map out our own responses to various artworks and texts to get at the heart of what we want to say about them, and as a result, what we want to say about the world around us. We’ll then workshop these pieces, looking for challenges and sites of potential and expansion.
Rosa Boshier González is a writer and editor from Los Angeles. Her fiction, essays, and art criticism appear in Guernica, Catapult, Joyland, Literary Hub, The New York Times, Artforum, Hyperallergic, The Rumpus, The Guardian, The Washington Post, and The Los Angeles Review of Books, among others. She serves as the Editor-in-Chief of Gulf Coast Journal.