J-O-U-R-850, Criminal Confessions as Literature.

Two credits.

In this four-week summer session, Woodington Program students will analyze lengthy, real-world

pieces of spontaneous confession from American convicts in prison between 1968 and 2022.

In studying these prose-like, intensely personal histories on the page, and the paranoia

and delusions some of the subjects reveal.

Students will examine the ethics and boundaries of publishing controversial nonfiction.

Text to be studied include the East Lansing Strangler Manifesto, the police confessions

of Eliza G. Norris, the sentencing protests of serial murderer Mark Linson-Libby, and

the extraordinary statement of the recently convicted Randall Shiggis.

My name is Randall Shiggis.

My stage name, since I turned 40, is Randy Schilling.

Four hours ago, in the middle of the night, my sister called me from the side of Gallyan

Road and told me about sitting in soup.

I've been at stupider auditions, but I never did get the story of why they made her sit

in soup.

I guess there's no reason that would really make sense.

The laundry told me, and I could barely hear, that she was thumbing back to Mom and

Dad's, all the way to Salt and Sea, said she was never coming back to this stupid town.

Didn't seem to care that I couldn't possibly afford the rent.

She was doing that thing she always did, looking at the glass half empty because another one

of us had gotten an acting job in all the years we'd been trying.

...