“Ways to Write About the World: Foreign Reportage, Narrative Nonfiction, Essays, and Memoir”

This seminar will focus on writing about foreign cultures, countries and communities in various journalistic and literary forms, including traditional foreign reportage, narrative nonfiction, immersion journalism, essays, first-person, and memoir. I have lived and worked mainly in Turkey so there will be somewhat of a Turkish slant to the subject matter but journalistic works from many regions will be studied and discussed.

The class will explore the process of learning about, understanding, and reporting on foreign environments, and will dissect the ways in which foreign countries – and especially foreign politics – are often misunderstood. But primarily this class will be a course on writing, with emphasis on form, structure, style and clarity (down to the sentence- level). Anyone interested in publishing their writing in magazines, newspapers, literary journals or in book form is especially encouraged.
All students will have the opportunity to work on one project over the course of the semester.

Who is Suzy?

Suzy Hansen is a journalist and editor who has lived in Istanbul for over ten years. Her first book, Notes on a Foreign Country, was published in 2017 by FSG. It was a Finalist for the 2018 Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction, and the winner of the Overseas Press Club’s Cornelius Ryan Award for Best Nonfiction Book on International Affairs. In 2020, she will be a Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton University, as well as an ASU Future Security Fellow at New America.

She is also a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine, and has written for many other publications. For several years, she was an editor at the New York Observer, and before that, an editor in the Books section at Salon. In 2007, she was awarded a two-year fellowship from the Institute of Current World Affairs to live in and write about Turkey.

Classes will meet at the following times: 3pm - 5pm
Sept. 16 - 3pm - 5pm
Sept. 23 - 3pm - 5pm
Oct. 7 - 3pm - 5pm
Oct. 21 - 3pm - 5pm
Nov. 4 - 3pm - 5pm
Nov. 18 - 3pm - 5pm
Dec. 2 - 3pm - 5pm

The workshop will have a total of 7 sessions. First priority for registration will be for students enrolled in the MA program in Near Eastern Studies (or GloJo-NEST), and to others with permission. There is a required reading list that will be sent to you once you register.

Participants from all disciplines are welcome to join. No prerequisite other than your enthusiasm.

Location: Hagop Kevorkian Center's Richard Ettinghausen Library, 255 Sullivan Street at Washington Square South.

Space is limited, if interested, please fill and send response back, as soon as possible. The DEADLINE is September  16, 2019.