The Art of the Interview

Catalog description

What makes for a compelling published and/or broadcasted interview? How do nonfiction writers make ethical use of interviews to craft powerful stories? What are the most common interviewing challenges and how might we overcome them? In this course we explore and practice interviewing as a central component in telling engaging nonfiction stories. You'll read, listen to, watch, and analyze interviews as you build your own skills, through conducting interviews of your own and using them to craft essays, narratives, and/or audio/video pieces. You'll workshop these assignments with your peers and contribute to a final course publication. In the process, we will discuss how conducting effective interviews--and even being an effective interview subject--may be relevant to work that students do after Brown. Writing sample and instructor permission required. S/NC.