Method Writing The Flip-Side:

Pres-requisite: you must have taken at least the first two regular classes.

There are five basic levels to Method Writing based on Jack’s two books, Method Writing: The First Four Concepts and Advanced  Method Writing: The Art of Tonal Dynamics, and Lisa Segal’s book, Method Writing: Level One, The Brush-Up.

During the break between the regular classes 7-week classes, Jack teaches a series of classes that are open to anyone who has completed at least the first two levels. Classes for the “Flip-Side” run for 5 weeks and deal with concepts not covered in the regular 7-week Method Writing Levels. You might say, that the “Flip-Side” classes are a separate track not to be confused with the sequence of classes in the regular Method Writing program. When doing a “Flip-Side” class, you can choose from 30 different “Modules,” with each “Module” consisting of several possible “Sequences” of novels, memoirs, short story collections, poetry, specific genres, etc. Modules #1 and #2 are stand-alone with no “Sequences,” while all other Modules have many sequences to choose from. If it were candy, you’d have a sugar high reaching to the moon. Though it’s not candy, you’ll have a high lasting weeks. Needless to say, there are multiple options. Enough to give you a headache along with the high. See below for the full curriculum. When RSVP’ing, Jack will send you the complete syllabus with all the sequences, and you can then specify which module and sequence you would like to take, or contact Jack and he will help you navigate the best route to the imaginative lake in the magic mountain of your creative journey.

Upcoming Schedule

• Module #1: Building a Character
• Module #2: Writing in 3rd Person Point of View
• Module #3: Creating a Style: 16 different sequences: Pick One
  • Sequence #1:
    • Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner,
    • Marcel Proust, Henry James
  • Sequence #2:
    • Virginia Woolf, James Baldwin,
    • Eudora Welty, Samuel Beckett
  • Sequence #3:
    • Zora Neal Hurston, J.D. Salinger,
    • Ford Maddox Ford, Lawrence Durrell
  • Sequence #4: Four Southern Writers:
    • Reynolds Price, Carson McCullers,
    • Thomas Wolfe, Toni Morrison
  • Sequence #5: Four More Southern Writers:
    • Jean Toomer, Erskine Caldwell,
    • Kate Chopin, Dorothy Allison
  • Sequence #6: Four Other Southern Writers:
    • James Agee, Bobbie Ann Mason,
    • Flannery O’Conner, Padget Powell
  • Sequence #7: Four More Southern Writers:
    • Richard Wright, Truman Capote,
    • John Kennedy Toole, Walker Percy
  • Sequence #8: Four More Southern Writers:
    • Harry Crews, Attica Locke,
    • Jesmyn Ward, Barbara Kingsolver
  • Sequence #9: Four More Southern Writers:
    • Lee Smith, Delia Owens,
    • Alice Walker, Hillary Jordan
  • Sequence #10: Detective/Crime Novel Stylists:
    • James Crumley, Dashiell Hammett,
    • Raymond Chandler, Graham Greene
  • Sequence #11: Four More Detective/Crime Novel Stylists:
    • Dorothy Hughes, Robert Parker,
    • John D. MacDonald, Jim Thompson
  • Sequence #12: Four More Detective/Crime novel Stylists:
    • Thomas Harris, Dorothy L. Sayers,
    • Wilkie Collins, Umberto Eco
  • Sequence #13: Four More Detective/Crime Novel Stylists:
    • Richard Stark, Michael Connelly,
    • Mickey Spillaine, Andrew Vachss
  • Sequence #14: Four More Detective/Crime Novel Stylists:
    • Patricia Highsmith, Daphne Du Maurier,
    • James M. Cain, Josephine Tey
  • Sequence #15: Four African-American Writers:
    • Ann Petry, Ralph Ellison,
    • Jamaica Kincaid, Bernice L. McFadden
  • Sequence #16: Four More African-American Writers:
    • Colson Whitehead, Ishmael Reed,
    • Ta-Nehisi Coates, Octavia Butler
• Module #4: Modern 20th Century International Poets, 32 Sequences:
  • Sequence #1 – Four Contemporary African Poets:
    • Wole Soyinka, Keorapetse Kgositsile,
    • Titilope Sonuga, Warsan Shire
  • Sequence #2 – Four Modern 20th Century French Poets:
    • Arthur Rimbaud, Guillaume Apollinaire ,
    • Jules Supervielle, Pierre Reverdy
  • Sequence #3 – Four More French Poets:
    • Paul Verlaine, Paul Eluard,
    • Paul Valery, Jacques Prévert
  • Sequence #4 – Four Modern 20th Century Italian Poets:
    • Cesare Pavese, Umberto Saba,
    • Eugenio Montale, Rocco Scotellaro
  • Sequence #5 – Four More Modern Italian Poets:
    • Giuseppi Ungarretti, Pier Paolo Pasolini,
    • Vincenzo Cardarelli, Salvatore Quasimodo
  • Sequence #6 – Four Modern 20th Century Spanish Poets from Spain:
    • Antonio Machado, Pedro Salinas,
    • Rafael Alberti Merello, Frederico Garcia Lorca
  • Sequence #7 — Four More Modern 20th Century Spanish Poets from Spain:
    • Juan Ramón Jiménez, Miguel Hernandez,
    • Jorge Guillen, Gerardo Diego
  • Sequence #8 – Four More Spanish Poets NOT from Spain:
    • Césare Vallejo (Peru), Pablo Neruda (Chili),
    • Octavio Paz (Mexico), Nicanor Para (Chili)
  • Sequence #9 – Four Modern Women Spanish Poets from the Americas:
    • Gabriela Mistral (Chile), Alfonsina Storni (Arg),
    • Julia de Burgos (PR), Excilia Saldana (Cuba)
  • Sequence #10 — Four Modern Spanish Poets from the Americas:
    • Maria Elena Cruz Varella (Cuba), Carlos Andrade (Brazil),
    • Jorge Teillier (Chili), Claribel Alegrià (Nicauraga)
  • Sequence #11 – Four Modern 20th Century Russian Poets:
    • Anna Akmatova, Vladimir Mayakovsky,
    • Marina Tsvetayeva, Yevgeny Yveteshenko
  • Sequence #12 – Four More Modern Russian Poets:
    • Osip Mandelshtam, Boris Pasternak,
    • Sergei Yesenin, Andrei Voznesensky
  • Sequence #13 – Four Modern 20th Century Greek poets:
    • George Seferis, Odysseus Elytis,
    • Yannis Ritsos, Constantine Cavafy
  • Sequence #14 – Four More Modern Greek Poets:
    • Eleni Vakalo, Angelos Sikelianos,
    • Dinos Christianopoulos, Miltos Sachtouris
  • Sequence #15 – Four Modern Poets from Scandinavia:
    • Tomas Transtromer, Rolf Jacobsen,
    • Edith Sondergran, Nelly Sachs
  • Sequence #16 – Four Modern Poets writing in German:
    • Rainer Maria Rilke, Bertolt Brecht,
    • Georg Trakl, Paul Celan
  • Sequence #17 – Four Classic Chinese Poets of the 8^th Century T’ang Dynasty:
    • Li-Po (701-762), Du-Fu (712-770),
    • Wang-Wei (701-761), Po-Chü-I (772-846)
  • Sequence #18 – Four Contemporary Caribbean Poets:
    • Mara Pastor (Puerto Rico), Nancy Morejon (Cuba),
    • Aurora Arias (Dominican Republic), Lenelle Moise (Haiti)
  • Sequence #19 – Harlem Renaissance Poets Pre WWII: 1920-1939
    • Countee Cullen, Claude McKay,
    • Jean Toomer, Arna Bontemps
  • Sequence #20 – African-American Poets: The Breakthrough: Post WWII
    • Audre Lorde, Amiri Baraka,
    • Lucille Clifton, June Jordan
  • Sequence #21 – African-American Poets: The Breakdown: 50s-60s
    • Robert Hayden, Clarence Major,
    • Ishmael Reed, Al Young
  • Sequence #22 – African-American Poets: The Breakout: 60s-70s
    • Ted Joans, Melvin Tolson,
    • Bob Kaufman, Gwendolyn Brooks
  • Sequence #23 – African-American Poets: the Breakaway: 70s-80s
    • Yusef Komunyakaa, Thylias Moss,
    • Wanda Coleman, Rita Dove
  • Sequence #24 – African-American Poets: The Breakin: 80s-90s
    • Natasha Trethway, Tracy K. Smith,
    • Allison Joseph, Jericho Brown
  • Sequence #25 – African-American Poets: Free at Last: 90s-2000s
    • Carl Phillips, Claudia Rankin,
    • Patricia Smith, Will Alexander
  • Sequence #26 – African-American Poets: Home Free:
    • Nikki Giovanni, Michael S. Harper,
    • Toi Derricotte, Nathaniel Mackey
  • Sequence #27 – Four Latinx Poets:
    • Ada Límon, Francisco X. Alarcón,
    • Juan Felipe Herrera, Alberto Ríos
  • Sequence #28 – Four More Latinx Poets:
    • Luis J. Rodríguez, Martin Espada,
    • Cynthia Cruz, Marisela Norte
  • Sequence #29 – Four Asian-American Poets:
    • Victoria Chang, Marilyn Chin,
    • Ocean Vuong, Cathy Song
  • Sequence #30 – Four More Asian-American Poets:
    • John Yau, Jessican Hagedorn,
    • Amy Uyematsu, Li-Young Lee
  • Sequence #31 – Four Irish Poets:
    • W. B. Yeats (1865-1939; Nobel Prize), Seamus Heaney (1939-2013; Nobel Prize),
    • Eavan Boland (1944-2020), Alice Kinsella (b. 1993)
  • Sequence #32 – Four Israeli Poets:
    • Yehuda Amichai, Yonatan Berg,
    • Shimon Adaf, Hagit Grossman
  • This module will focus on the poet’s work, style, political outlook, and critical ideas that inform these poets’ work. You can take any of the modules in either the Monday class, which meets from 11am to 4pm, or the Wednesday class, which meets from 7am to noon.
• Module #5: Writing the Memoir: Choose any four:
  • Just Kids, Patti Smith, 2010; Speak Memory, Valdimir Nabokov, 1951; A Moveable Feast, Ernest Hemingway, 1964; Girl, Interrupted, Susanna Kaysen, 1993; Angela’s Ashes, Frank McCourt, 1996; Lucky, Alice Sebold, 1999; Reading Lolita in Tehran, Azar Nafisi, 2003; Night, Elie Wiesel, 1960; Eat, Pray, Love – Elizabeth Gilbert, 2006; Hunger: A Memoir of My Body, Roxane Gay, 2017; A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Dave Eggers, 2000; Darkness Visible, William Styron, 1990; What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, Haruki Murakami, tr. Philip Gabriel, 2008; Out of Africa, Karen Blixen, 1937; The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls, 2005; Leaving Isn’t the Hardest Part, Lauren Hough, 2021; Punch Me Up to the Gods, Brian Broome, 2021; Negative Space, Lilly Dancyger, 2021; Somebody’s Daughter, Ashley C. Ford, 2021; Fierce Attachments, Vivian Gornick, 1987; The Situation and the Story, The Art of Personal Narrative, Vivian Gornick, 2002; The Old Woman and the City, Vivian Gornick, 2015 Approaching Eye Level, Vivian Gornick, 1996; The Woman Warrior, Maxine Hong Kingston, 1976; Fun Home, Alison Bechdel, 2006; The Liars’ Club, Mary Karr, 1995; Hitch-22, Christopher Hitchens, 2010; Men We Reaped, Jesmyn Ward, 2013; Palimpsest, Gore Vidal, 1995; Giving Up the Ghost, Hilary Mantel, 2003; A Childhood, Harry Crews, 1978; Dreams From My Father, Barack Obama, 1995; Patrimony, Philip Roth, 1991; All God’s Dangers: The Life of Nate Shaw, Theodore Rosengarten, 1974; Lives Other Than My Own, Emmanuel Carrère. French trans by Linda Coverdale, 2011; A Tale of Love and Darkness, Amos Oz. Hebrew trans by Nicholas de Lange, 2004; This Boy’s Life, Tobias Wolff, 1989; A Life’s Work, Rachel Cusk, 2002; Boyhood, J.M. Coetzee, 1997; Conundrum, Jan Morris, 1974; Wave, Sonali Deraniyagala, 2013; Always Unreliable: Unreliable Memoirs, Falling Towards England, and May Week Was in June, Clive James, 2004; Travels With Lizbeth, Lars Eighner, 1993; Hold Still, Sally Mann, 2015; Country Girl, Edna O’Brien, 2013; Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi. French trans by Mattias Ripa & Blake Ferris, 2003; Negroland, Margo Jefferson, 2015; Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys. Viv Albertine, 2014; Experience, Martin Amis, 2000; Slow Days, Fast Company, Eve Babitz, 1977; Growing Up, Russell Baker, 1982; Kafka Was the Rage, Anatole Broyard, 1993; Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates, 2015; The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion, 2005; Barbarian Days, William Finnegan, 2015, Personal History, Katharine Graham, 1997; Thinking in Pictures, Temple Grandin, 1995; Autobiography of a Face, Lucy Grealy, 1994; Truth & Beauty, Ann Patchett, 2004; Dancing With Cuba, Alma Guillermoprieto. Spanish trans by Esther Allen, 2004; Minor Characters, Joyce Johnson, 1983; The Memory Chalet, Tony Judt, 2010
• Module #6: Writing Magical Realism: Choose any four novels below:
  • One Hundred Years of Solitude, Grbriel Garcia Marquez; Midnight’s Children, Salman Rushdie;, The House of the Spririts, Isabel Allende; Beloved, Toni Morrison; Like Water for Chocolate, Laura Esquival; Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka; The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Haruki Murakami; Kafka on the Shore, Haruki Murakami; The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Neil Gaiman; Nights at the Circus, Angela Carter; Red Sorghum, Mo Yan; Life of Pi, Yann Martel; The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, Aimee Bender; The Snow Child, Eowyn Ivey
• Module #7: Writing the Young Adult Novel: Choose any four novels below:
  • The Fault in Our Stars, John Green; Looking for Alaska, John Green; The Sterile Cuckoo, John Nicols; The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Stephen Chbosky; Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda, Becky Albertalli; The Sorrows of Young Wether, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe; The Temple of Gold, William Golding; Speak, Laurie Halse Anderson; The Poet X, Elizabeth Acevedo; A Separate Peace, John Knowles; Anne of Green Gables, L. M. Montgomery; Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl, Anne Frank; Lord of the Flies, William Golding;  The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger; A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin; The Giver, Lois Lowry; Stargirl, Jerry Spinelli; The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Ann Brashares; Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi; The Book Thief, Markus Zusak; The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros; The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins;

Take the class that fits your schedule best, they’re both the same.
Classes will be limited to 12 people in any 3-hour period.