The Art of Writing Dialogue: Reading List

This semester, I'm teaching a class that I'm really looking forward to called Talking the Talk: the Art of Writing Dialogue.  It's offered through Creative Writing at the University of Guelph and it will run for 8 weeks on Wednesday evenings starting September 28. Perhaps obviously, it will focus on techniques for writing dialogue. The main projects will be a short story, a screenplay, and a stageplay.

I want this class to fill up, so short of sending out mass emails (which I have done already) I thought I'd post the reading list here to give people an idea as to the types of things we will be looking at in the course. I'll certainly provide supplemental readings as warranted, but for now, here's the plan:

General Readings:  “How do you Make Something Good,” Ursula K. Le Guin “On Writing,” Robert J. Sawyer

Fiction: “What We Talk About When We Talk Love,” Raymond Carver; “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” Flannery O’Connor; “Lamb to the Slaughter,” Roald Dahl

Stage: “Topdog/Underdog,” Suzan Lori-Parks; “Waiting for Godot,” Samuel Beckett

Screen: Selections from “Pulp Fiction,” Quentin Tarantino; Selections from “Bridesmaids,” Annie Mumulo & Kristin Wiig.

Please pass this along to anyone you think might be interested!