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Creative Writing Program

Faculty | Schwartz

Richard B. Schwartz

Richard B. Schwartz
Professor
236 Tate Hall
Columbia, MO 65211
phone: 573-884-7038
email: SchwartzRB@missouri.edu
web: http://www.richardbschwartz.com

 

 

 

Biography

Richard B. Schwartz (Ph.D., University of Illinois), is the author of four novels: Into the Dark (2002), After the Fall (2002, which is being reissued as Proof of Purchase (2007), The Last Voice You Hear (2001) and Frozen Stare (1989), and a collection of memoir/stories, The Biggest City in America (1999). He has also authored four books on Samuel Johnson, and two additional books of criticism, Nice and Noir: Contemporary American Crime Fiction (2002) and After the Death of Literature (1997). Twice a recipient of grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, he has held the H.I. Romnes fellowship at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and received awards from the Institute for Research in the Humanities and the American Council of Learned Societies. He has served as a consultant to the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Science Foundation, and the United States Office of Education, in addition to numerous colleges and universities.

Teaching

Fall 2009

English 3110: Special Themes in Literature
Section 1

TR 11:00-12:15
"The Rise and Triumph of the Novel." The novel has become the predominant literary form for several reasons. Among these are its faithfulness to classic principles and its ability to sustain those principles in a vast variety of ways. It is, simultaneously, both predictable and malleable. We will discuss the origins of the novel in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and examine multiple examples (from the eighteenth century to the present) of the ways in which it can adhere to principle in fresh and varied ways. Approximately ten novels will be read.

English 4510/7510: Creative Writing: Advanced Fiction
Section

R 2:00-4:30
"Crime Fiction." We will block out plans for a novel, writing a short treatment, the first and last chapters and an outline of the major plot arcs. Particular attention will be paid to the complexities of the planning process and the writing techniques employed by noteworthy practitioners. We will look at exemplary works by Carl Hiaasen, James Ellroy, James Lee Burke, Thomas Harris and Raymond Chandler, paying attention to the elasticity of the genre as well as its central elements.

Books

 

 

The Jack Grant Novels:

 proof jacket voice jacket stare jacket
  Proof of Purchase The Last Voice You Hear Frozen Stare
biggest city jacket nice and noir jacket death of literature jacket daily life jacket
The Biggest City in America Nice and Noir After the Death of Literature Daily Life in Johnson's London