Incarcerated Yet Inspired: Exploring Criminal Justice Through Creative Writing
Christopher Wolfe
Christopher P. Wolfe SOA’18 was the inaugural Artist-in-Residence at the Eric H. Holder Jr. Initiative for Civil and Political Rights. Chris graduated from the United States Military Academy (West Point) in 2000 and served as a Field Artillery officer in the U.S. Army for six years. He is a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom and was awarded the Bronze Star Medal for meritorious service in a combat zone. After completing military service, Chris earned his MBA with a concentration in Investment Finance from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and worked on Wall Street as an investment banker during the height of the financial crisis. After five years on Wall Street, Chris earned his MFA from Columbia University in creative writing as a fiction concentrator. At Columbia, he was an instructor for The Columbia Veterans Creative Writing Workshop and was selected for the School of the Arts Teaching Fellowship.
Chris currently teaches creative writing at Rikers Island to incarcerated students as a part of Columbia University’s Justice-In-Education Initiative. His writing has been featured in the BOMB Magazine, Guernica, The New York Times Magazine and two anthologies including The Road Ahead: Fiction from the Forever War and The Kiss: Intimacies from Writers. In addition to serving as the Artist-in-Residence at the Holder Initiative, Chris has been appointed as an Adjunct Assistant Professor in Columbia University’s School of the Arts Writing Program.
COURSE DETAILS
WRIT UN 3107
Course Day/Time: Thursdays 12:10 - 2:00 pm
Course location: 606 Lewisohn Hall
COURSE DESCRIPTION
Welcome to Incarcerated Yet Inspired, a cross-genre, creative writing seminar. Over the course of this semester, we will conduct a close reading of literary works that are based on the lives of individuals who have been ostracized, incarcerated, and isolated from their communities. While some of the writers we will study have been personally affected by the criminal justice system, others have drawn upon their research, observations, and experiences working in the system to tell a compelling story. Through our weekly analysis and discussion, we will explore the thematic elements and artistic choices each writer employs in their work. We will also challenge our existing thoughts about prisons as an institution and develop a better understanding of how the prism of art and justice can be valuable to you as writers.
This semester, as part of our course experience, a cohort of incarcerated students from Rikers Island will conduct the class readings and weekly writing assignments as part of Columbia University's Justice In Education Initiative. To provide everyone with a more enriching learning experience, I will share the incarcerated students’ written responses to the reading and incorporate them into our class discussion. Please note that in return, our classes will be recorded and shared with the incarcerated students.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
Homework Assignments (30%): Each week’s discussion will be supplied in part by the writing you do for homework, which you should email to me 3 hours before class begins. Homework assignments will include a critical piece of writing that is 1 to 2 pages in length, which explores the thematic concerns, literary devices, and craft techniques of each set of readings. Please be prepared to read and / or discuss
your work in class.
Class Participation (40%): This class is organized around discussion, so be prepared to participate actively. If you miss a class, you are still responsible for turning in any assignment due that day, and for notifying me about the reason for the absence. Above all, be sure to have read the assigned material in its entirety.
Creative Writing Assignments (30%): This seminar is designed for writers. Therefore, each student will be required to develop and submit a work of original creative writing during the semester. This creative writing assignment will be a work of fiction or non-fiction no more than 1,500 words in length. This original work should be relevant to the course’s assigned readings.
**All submissions and exercises must be typed in 12 pt. Times New Roman font, double-spaced, with default margins (1 inch), and page numbers. Please include your name, the title, and the date.
Attendance
Class attendance is mandatory. Please be punctual. There are no unexcused absences. If you must miss a class, you must give notice beforehand or it will be considered an unexcused absence. After two unexcused absences, your grade will drop a full letter. Three tardies will also equal an unexcused absence.
Classroom Expectations
An atmosphere of mutual respect is a MUST if we are to have a class that’s rewarding and productive. The following are some guidelines for how to cultivate this atmosphere:
● Arrive on time and hand in your work on time.
● Listen to understand, not to respond. Be willing to be surprised, to learn something new. Speak
one at a time and give each person space to express themselves without interruption.
● The Golden Rule. If it seems like a gray area, put yourself in the position of the writer; treat
others’ work as you would wish for them to treat yours—diligently, honestly, fairly, and timely.
● Turn in work that is proofread, spell-checked, and meaningful.
● This will be a distraction-free environment at all times. Stay engaged.
● Maintain our class culture.
STATEMENT REGARDING ACADEMIC INTEGRITY
The intellectual venture in which we are all engaged requires of faculty and students alike the highest level of personal and academic integrity. As members of an academic community, each one of us bears the responsibility to participate in scholarly discourse and research in a manner characterized by intellectual honesty and scholarly integrity.
Scholarship, by its very nature, is an iterative process, with ideas and insights building one upon the other. Collaborative scholarship requires the study of other scholars’ work, the free discussion of such work, and the explicit acknowledgment of those ideas in any work that inform our own. This exchange of ideas relies upon a mutual trust that sources, opinions, facts, and insights will be properly noted and carefully credited.
In practical terms, this means that, as students, you must be responsible for the full citations of others’ ideas in all of your research papers and projects; you must be scrupulously honest when taking your examinations; you must always submit your own work and not that of another student, scholar, or internet agent.
Any breach of this intellectual responsibility is a breach of faith with the rest of our academic community. It undermines our shared intellectual culture, and it cannot be tolerated. Students failing to meet these responsibilities should anticipate being asked to leave Columbia.
Accommodations for students with disabilities
In order to receive disability-related academic accommodations, students must first be registered with Disability Services. More information on the Disability Services registration process is available online at www.health.columbia.edu/ods. Registered students must present an Accommodation Letter to the professor before an exam or other accommodations can be provided. Students who have, or think they may have, a disability are invited to contact Disability Services for a confidential discussion at (212) 854-2388 (Voice/TTY) or by email at disability@columbia.edu.
Course Schedule
Class 1 (01/20): Introductions; Read and discuss selected readings in class
Class 2 (01/27): Read and discuss Angela Davis: An Autobiography by Angela Davis (pgs 1-145)
Class 3 (02/03): Read and discuss Angela Davis: An Autobiography by Angela Davis (pgs 146-279)
Class 4 (02/10): Read and discuss Angela Davis: An Autobiography by Angela Davis (pgs 280 - 400)
Class 5 (02/17): Read and discuss “Letter From Birmingham Jail” by Martin Luther King Jr. (page count:12); “An Open Letter To My Sister, Angela Davis” by James Baldwin (page count: 5); “The Barriers toCredibility” by Robert Wright (page count: 4)
Class 6 (02/24): Read and discuss Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson (pgs 3 - 146)
Class 7 (03/03: Read and discuss Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson (pgs 147 - 314)
Class 8 (03/10): Read and discuss My Time Will Come by Ian Manuel (pgs 3 - 111)
Class 9 (03/24): Read and discuss My Time Will Come by Ian Manuel (pgs 112 - 225)
Class 10 (03/31): Read and discuss If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin (pgs 3 - 105)
Class 11 (04/07): Read and discuss If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin (pgs 105 - 197);
**Creative Writing Assignment Due **
Class 12 (04/14): Read and discuss The Sellout by Paul Beatty (pgs 4 - 150)
Class 13 (04/21): Read and discuss The Sellout by Paul Beatty (pgs 151 - 289)
Class 14 (04/28): Read and discuss “Old Boys, Old Girls” by Edward P. Jones (page count: 12); “Oversoul” by Mitchell Jackson (page count: 10)
*As mentioned in the Course Requirements and Grading section of the syllabus, you are required to submit a 1 to 2-page critical piece of writing that explores the thematic concerns, literary devices, and craft techniques of each set of readings. This assignment is due 3 hours before the start of each class.