In this literature course, aimed at creative writers, we’ll examine how authors build their speculative worlds through character, setting, and plot, and how these alternate realities defamiliarizes our world and society so we may look at it with fresh eyes. We’ll practice close reading to help us interpret and analyze the texts, build our writer’s toolbox, and try our hands at creating our own speculative writing. Sample authors include William Shakespeare, Qui Nguyen, Mary Shelley, Octavia Butler, William Blake, Emily Dickinson, W. B. Yeats, John Keats, Edgar Allan Poe, Craig Raine, Tracy K. Smith, Jorge Luis Borges, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Ted Chiang among others. Designed for the potential major in English and other interested students.