Spring 2026 Courses

ENGL-1000-001 | English 1A | Instructor TBA | JUN19 - JUL31 | TTH 0900 - 1200
Course Delivery: In-person

This course offers an introduction to university-level literary study, including the reading of creative literature (poetry, fiction, or drama); the theory and practice of literary criticism; the role of historical and cultural factors influencing literary texts; and research skills. Students' writing also receives significant attention.

ENGL-1000-770 | English 1A | Instructor TBA | MAY04 - JUL02 | TTH 1300 - 1500
Course Delivery: Online Synchronous

ENGL-1001-245 | English 1 | D. Wolf | MAY04 - JUL02 | MWF 0900 - 1200
Course Delivery: In-person

This section is reserved for students in the Community-based Aboriginal Teacher Education Program (CATEP) and the Winnipeg Education Centre (WEC) Program. This course offers a full introduction to university-level literary study, including the reading of creative literature (poetry, fiction, or drama); the theory and practice of literary criticism; the role of historical and cultural factors influencing literary texts; and research skills. Students' writing also receives significant attention.

ENGL-1001-247 | English 1 | P. DePasquale | MAY04 - JUL02 | MWF 0900 - 1200
Course Delivery: Online Synchronous

ENGL-1003-001 | Intro: Topics in Literature | I. Adeniyi | MAY04 - JUN01 | MWF 1300 - 1600
Course Delivery: In-person

This course introduces students to a variety of creative literature (poetry, drama, and/or fiction) through the lens of a particular theme, genre, nationality or period. Each section is a uniquely designed introduction to university-level literary study.

ENGL-1004-001 | Instructor TBA | MAY05 - JUN15 | MW 1300 - 1600
Course Delivery: In-person

This course explores the role that culture, as a set of practices encompassing a range of texts, events, experiences, and social institutions, plays in everyday lives. Students interpret cultural forms and practices such as written texts, film, television, visual, and performance art, music, and electronic media – and the institutions that shape them. May be of special interest to students who plan on pursuing further work in Cultural Studies.

ENGL-1005-001 | Intro: Reading to Write | Instructor TBA | JUN19 - JUL31 | MW 1300 - 1600
Course Delivery: In-person

This course introduces students to university-level literary study. Students read a variety of creative literature (poetry, drama, fiction, and creative non-fiction) from a writerly perspective, to explore and analyse writer’ techniques, and to gain a broader understanding of the art and craft of writing. Topics may include poetic structure, dramatic action, narrative strategies, organizational principles, imagery, setting, characterization, and voice. This course may be of special interest to students who plan to take Creative Writing courses at the 2000 level.

ENGL-2002-001 | The Creative Process | I. Adeniyi| MAY04 - JUN15 | MWF 0900 - 1200
Course Delivery: In-Person

This course addresses the complex processes involved in the creation of a literary text from initial inspiration to publication. Students' reading of fiction and poetry is supplemented with lectures based on documented evidence of the authors' own approaches to the craft of writing (including literary essays, interviews, drafts, letters, and/or occasional live appearances, when possible). The course examines the habits, beliefs, influences, and intellectual reasoning behind the decisions writers make while composing and revising their drafts. We also study the effects of those decisions. The reading list may vary from year to year, while maintaining the goals of gender balance and an emphasis on literature of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

ENGL-2102-001 | Intro to Creative Writing: Developing a Portfolio | L. Wong | JUN04 - JUL02 | MWF 1300 - 1600
Course Delivery: In-Person Workshop

“If you’re struggling with what you’re writing—if you’re afraid to be your true self on the page—I dare you to stop listening to the outside voices and try listening only to yourself this one time. Write the book you most want to write…Write the book that is the most unapologetically YOU, no matter how long it takes.”- Nova Ren Suma, author of The Walls Around Us

“Overnight success is almost always a myth. Half of this industry is luck and half is the refusal to quit”--Victoria Schwab, author of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

“The first draft isn’t about getting it right, it’s about getting it done.” –Ava Jae, author of Beyond the Red

The reason that fiction is more interesting than any other form of literature, to those who really like to study people, is that in fiction the author can really tell the truth without humiliating himself. -Jim Rohn

In this workshop-based course, students concentrate on developing a portfolio of creative writing, including literary short fiction, young adult, and genre fiction. The course introduces students to strategies for writing in various prose genres and to the discipline involved in seeing a project through several drafts to its final stages. Through weekly writing exercises/prompts and assigned readings, this class emphasizes skills involved in self-editing and the professional preparation and submission of manuscripts suitable for a portfolio.

Students will be responsible for active participation, thoughtful feedback on peers’ work, and a willingness to generate new writing. This is a safe, supportive and inclusive learning environment. The workshop is also encouraged to think about submitting work to literary journals such as the University of Winnipeg’s Juice: https://www.uwinnipeg.ca/english/juice-journal-submissions.html

As this is a 2000-level writing workshop, students should be fairly independent, committed, and motivated to improve their craft. Late assignments without permission will not receive instructor feedback and they will receive a zero if they are submitted a week after the deadline. This may sound harsh but I want us to adhere to the standards that professional writers follow in their daily practice.

Note: This course is recommended for students who plan to enroll in further creative writing courses at the undergraduate level.

ENGL-2102-490 | Intro to Creative Writing: Developing a Portfolio | J. Wills | MAY04 - JUN15 | TTH 1300 - 1530
Course Delivery: Stony Mountain Institution

In this course, students concentrate on developing a portfolio of creative writing, including both poetry and short fiction. The course introduces students to strategies for writing in both genres and to the discipline involved in seeing a project through several drafts to its final stages. Emphasis is placed on the skills involved in self-editing and the professional preparation and submission of manuscripts suitable for a portfolio.

ENGL-2185-250 | Literary Communities | Instructor TBA | JUN04 - JUL02 | MWF 1300 - 1600
Course Delivery: In-person

This section is reserved for students in the Community-based Aboriginal Teacher Education Program (CATEP) and the Winnipeg Education Centre (WEC) Program. Literary communities provide significant contexts for the writing and study of literature. This course explores the literary works, interrelated biographies, and historical/cultural contexts of communities of writers. This approach provides an alternative framework of study to those focusing on individual authors, literary periods, or genres. Possible literary communities for study in different offerings of this course might include the Bloomsbury Group, the Lake Poets, the Inklings, the expatriate American in Paris, the Beat Poets, and the Kootenay School of Writing.

ENGL-2603-001 | Short Fiction | A. Brickey | MAY04 - JUN15 | TTH 1300 - 1600
Course Delivery: In-person

This course considers the short story both in its nineteenth century and contemporary forms. Short fiction in different English-speaking cultures, principally in England, the United States, and Canada, will be discussed.

ENGL-2604-245 | Poetry nd Poetic Form | Instructor TBA | JUN19 - JUL31 | TTH 0900 - 1200
Course Delivery: Online Synchronous

This course introduces students to various features and forms of poetic discourse. While historical context informs lectures and class discussion, the course focuses on the figural elements of poetry (such as rhythm and rhyme, diction and tone, metaphor and allegory). By engaging in thorough discussions and varied writing assignments, students learn to become more appreciative, critical readers of poetry, and in the process expand the possibilities of their own writing.

ENGL-3113-760 | Writing Short Fiction | L. Wong | MAY04 - JUN01
Course Delivery: Online Asynchronous Workshop

Fiction is one of the few experiences where loneliness can be both confronted and relieved. Drugs, movies where stuff blows up, loud parties — all these chase away loneliness by making me forget my name’s Dave and I live in a one-by-one box of bone no other party can penetrate or know. Fiction, poetry, music, really deep serious sex, and, in various ways, religion — these are the places where loneliness is countenanced, stared down, transfigured, treated.”- David Foster Wallace

An autobiography can distort; facts can be realigned. But fiction never lies: it reveals the writer totally. - V.S Naipaul

The short story is arguably the most difficult genre to write. Unlike the novel, it requires brevity and flawless execution of craft. You must be detailed enough to draw the reader into the scene and make them care about your character, but you must be brief enough so that the backstory does not overwhelm the narrative arc. This workshop-based course is meant to challenge, provoke, and stretch your skill as a fiction writer; it’s meant to give you a stronger sense of what kind of writer you might aspire to be, and to help strengthen your application of craft through practice and intensive peer feedback.

In this generative workshop, we will focus on crafting original short stories. Student manuscripts will form the primary texts, in addition to some assigned reading and in-class writing exercises.

Questions that we will explore but are not limited to: how do we craft compelling pieces of short fiction? What is the difference between literary, upmarket and commercial fiction? Within a stylistical, literary, and ethical context, what should we be aspiring to, as practitioners of this genre, and how can we be successful in breaking into the industry?

Students will have the opportunity to workshop a draft of their short story during the term and they are responsible for placing as much attention on critique as on their own craft. Learning to write and evaluate short stories will be the focus of the workshop, and we will hone our creative processes to produce engaging works of fiction. You are welcome to submit both literary and genre fiction.

Regular participation in the online Discussion Forum on Nexus and thoughtful feedback on peers’ manuscripts are expected. Maintaining a safe, respectful literary community and virtual classroom space is a priority. A final grade will be based on online participation, peer feedback letters, writing exercises, and an exploratory draft of a short story.

Students are also encouraged to think about submitting work to literary journals such as the University of Winnipeg’s Juice: https://www.uwinnipeg.ca/english/juice-journal-submissions.html

As this is an intermediate writing workshop, students should be fairly independent, committed, and motivated to improve their craft. Late workshop submissions without permission will receive a zero if they are submitted a week after the deadline. Similarly, if you are being workshopped and you are unable to attend, we may not be able to accomodate you because of scheduling. It is your responsibility to switch with another student if you know that you will be away that day.

Students are selected based on a 5 page writing sample of prose (double-spaced) due by April 6, 2026. If there is still space in the class, students may also submit their portfolio after the deadline. Please submit your portfolio to li.wong@uwinnipeg.ca

ENGL-3709-001 | Topics in Canadian Literature and Culture | Instructor TBA | MAY04 - JUN15 | MW 0900 - 1200
Course Delivery: In-Person

This course focuses on a topic in Canadian Literature and Culture which varies from year to year. Possible topics are: memoirs and life writing; the gothic; travel writing; historical fiction; Canadian comics; Black Canadian writing; trauma and memory; Mennonite Writing; representations of disability; dystopias; and bestsellers and prize winners.

ENGL-3709-245 | Topics in Canadian Literature and Culture | Instructor TBA | MAY04 - JUN15 | TTH 0900 - 1200
Course Delivery: Online Synchronous

This section is reserved for students in the Community-based Aboriginal Teacher Education Program (CATEP) and the Winnipeg Education Centre (WEC) Program. This course focuses on a topic in Canadian Literature and Culture which varies from year to year. Possible topics are: memoirs and life writing; the gothic; travel writing; historical fiction; Canadian comics; Black Canadian writing; trauma and memory; Mennonite Writing; representations of disability; dystopias; and bestsellers and prize winners.

ENGL-3717-245 | Indigenous Literature and Culture | P. DePasquale | MAY04 - JUN15 | TTH 0900 - 1200
Course Delivery: In-Person

This section is reserved for students in the Community-based Aboriginal Teacher Education Program (CATEP) and the Winnipeg Education Centre (WEC) Program. This course explores literary and other cultural texts by a range of Native Canadian and American authors, with a focus on texts produced during and after the 1960s. The course studies texts that address issues about individual, communal, and cultural loss and renewal through new ways of thinking, seeing, and imagining. In our explorations, we employ various reading strategies and engage contemporary critical/theoretical perspectives. Each version of the course may have a different emphasis.

ENGL-3723-245 | Topics in Indigenous Literature and Culture | C. Lypka | JUN19 - JUL31 | TTH 0900 - 1200
Course Delivery: In-Person

This section is reserved for students in the Community-based Aboriginal Teacher Education Program (CATEP) and the Winnipeg Education Centre (WEC) Program. This course will focus on the connection between Indigenous storytelling and material art by combining hands-on learning in traditional beadwork with listening to and reading works of resistance and resurgence. Beading can be an Indigenous research methodology used to resist colonial violence by maintaining and preserving Indigenous identity, transmitting stories and knowledge, and enacting cultural resurgence. The class will reflect on and put into practice how Indigenous ways of knowing are activated through listening while working with your hands.

ENGL-4270-001 | Eighteenth-Century Literature and Culture: Libertines, Whores, Mollies, and Female Husbands: Transgressive Sexuality in the Restoration and Early Eighteenth Century | K. Ready | MAY04 - JUN15 | TTH 1300 - 1600

This course examines a range of representations of transgressive sexuality in England and Great Britain during the Restoration and early eighteenth century, with an effort to place these materials into cultural context, and to consider various theoretical frameworks for understanding them, including the work of Michel Foucault and Thomas Laqueur. For the study of sexuality, the Restoration period and eighteenth century arguably command special interest. In the backlash against Puritanism following the end of the Interregnum, English society saw more relaxed attitudes towards sex and more open expression of sexual desire (at least among elites) than ever before. Although moral censure and legal and other penalties remained potentially high, cults of libertinism flourished around the court of Charles II, and with these came greater tolerance for various forms of extramarital and homosexual sex. As the eighteenth century wore on, attitudes began to shift once again. In the meantime, understandings of sexuality and sexual difference were changing and becoming secularized as a result of developments in medicine and elsewhere. Some of the writers we will look act in this context include Aphra Behn; John Wilmot, the Earl of Rochester; Jonathan Swift; Alexander Pope; Mary Wortley Montagu; John Gay; John Cleland; and Henry Fielding. We will also be looking at visual materials from the period and a variety of primary source materials.