Monday, August 28
Orientation, 5-6, Klapper 710

August 30
Watch in advance: Charlie Chang, ChatGPT Tutorial (YouTube)
In class: On the Media: “What’s Up with the Hype Around ChatGPT?” & All Things Considered, “An Open Letter Signed by Tech Leaders, Researchers Proposes Delaying AI Development”
“Pause Giant AI Experiments: An Open Letter”
Eric Elliot, “What it’s like to Be a Computer: An Interview with GPT-3”
E. E. Cummnigs, “next to of course god america i” (1926)
AI Writing Experiment: ChatGPT vs. Bard

September 6
On the Same Page, 5:30 – 6:30, Klapper 710
Sawako Nakayasu, Say Translation Is an Art (Ugly Duckling Presse for a physical copy)
Sophie Hughes, “The Art, Craft, Work of Translation”
Gabriel Giondoroli & Robert Ito, “How Manga Was Translated for America”
For Class:  Marcin Frąckiewicz, “ChatGPT for Literary Translation: Advancement and Limitations” & Eugene Lim, “Intelligent Artifice” (from Search History)
Guest: Eugene Lim
Workshop: AI and Translation

September 13–Zoom
Grace LaPointe, “How Might AI LIKE ChatGPT Impact the Future of Writing and Books” (Book Riot)
Francesca Paris and Larry Buchanan, “35 Ways Real People Are Using AI Now”
Fabien Faurin, ChatGPT for Educators: Prompting 101
Vlad Ivanov, 320 ChatGPT Must-Try Prompts for Creative Writing (skim to find prompts that interest or excite or trouble you)
Workshop: Mashups

September 20
The Gutenberg Bible (Morgan Library)
Dennis Baron, “From Pixels to Pencils: The Stages of Literacy Technology”
Ewan Clayton, “A Brief History of Writing Materials and Technologies”
Eugene Lim, “The Future of Work–The Branch”
Jason Tougaw, “Spew: What Is a Queer Zine Anyway?” (period piece!)
Library Sesssion on Form <–> Writing Technologies: Illuminated manuscripts, printed books, typewriter forms, zines, chapbooks, and AI

September 27
Adrienne LaFrance, “The Coming Humanist Renaissannce”
Niamh Rowe, “‘It’s Destroyed Me Completely’: Kenyan Moderators Decry Toll of Training of AI Models”
Workshop: The Ethics of AI
Readings from LaFrance’s article: Everyone

Tuesday, October 3
Rescheduled: Eugene Lim’s Off the Page Reading, moderated by Kaz Uy (MFA Alum)

October 4
Vauhni Vara, “Ghosts”
Vivian Gornick, Introduction
The Author’s Guild, “More than 10,000 Authors Sign Authors Guild Letter Calling on AI Industry Leaders to Protect Writers”
Workshop: Playing with Off-Kilter Language / The Situation and the Story
Read from a text of your choice (5-7 minutes): Jen, Alex

October 11
Lillian Yvonne-Bertram, Travesty_Generator
Zach Whalen, Review of Travesty Generator (CSS Working Group 2020)
Maha Bali, “On Equity and Trust and AI”
Podcast: Hard Fork, “The Bing Who Loved Me” (You only need to listen to the first segment, but the rest are interesting too.)
Workshop: Getting around ChatGPT’s “Guardrails,” Finding Its Idiosyncracies
Read from a text of your choice (5-7 minutes): Turtle, Aly

October 18
Creative Nonfiction Now Event–Godwin-Ternbach Museum (Klapper Hall, 4th floor),
Featuring Bridgett Davis, Carina del Valle Schorske, and Cutter Wood, with Francesca Hyatt (MFA alum) moderating

October 25
George Orwell, “Politics and the English Language”
James Baldwin, Baldwin. “If Black English Isn’t a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is?“ &
“The Creative Process”
Workshop: The Politics of Our English
Read from a text of your choice (5-7 minutes): Jill, Aly, Meg

November 1
From The People’s Tongue; Americans and the English Laguage ed. Ilan Stavans: Sojourner Truth, “Ain’t I a Woman? (1857),” Emily Dickinson, “Many a Face Has the English Language (1886), Lucillle Ball and Desi Arnaz, “Ough” (1953), Richard Pryor and Paul Mooney, “Word Association” (1975), Julia Alvarez, “Bilingual Sestina” (1990), ChanG-RaE Lee, “Mute in an English-Only World (996), Joy Harjo, “A Map of the Next World” (2000), Judith Ortiz Cofer, “Homework: Define Caliente (2008), Kendrck Lamar, “DNA” (2017), John McWarter, “English Is a Living Language–Period (2022)
Workshop: The Archaeology of a Word or Phrase
Read from your own work: Al

November 8
Hanif Abdurraqib, The Josephine Baker Monument Can Never Be Large Enough”  (from Little Devils in America: Notes of Praise for Black Performance“)
Workshop:  Character: Writing a Cultural or Historical or Personal Figure
Read from your own work: Alex, Jill

November 15
OPEN HOUSE: 5 -6:30, followed by class as usual
Vivian Gornick, Chapter One: The Essay from The Situation and the Story
Read from your own work (10 minutes): Turtle, Avril, Meg

November 22
No class

November 29
Draft workshops: Meg, Alex
Submit via email to the group by Saturday, November 25

December 6
Draft workshops: Aly, Turtle
Submit by Friday, December 1

December 13
Draft workshops: Avril, Jill
Submit via email to the group by Friday, December 8

December 20
Revised Essays Due