Where do fiction and legal theory overlap? David Schuman, teaching professor and director of the creative writing specialization in the Department of English as well as the Howard Nemerov Writing Scholars Program, and Christopher Grant, a labor attorney and adjunct law school professor, bring together an enthusiastic yet disparate group of undergraduates, MFA writing students, and law students to find out. 

“Fiction and the Law” (LAW 5813), which Schuman and Grant debuted in spring 2026, will be offered again in spring 2027. Cross-listed between the English department and WashU Law, the course combines literary analysis, legal theory, and creative practice. According to Schuman, it is the first course of its kind in Arts & Sciences.

Using an interdisciplinary approach, the course reviews legal themes through a variety of short stories, essays, and films. Topics include natural and positive law, elements of due process, concepts like equal protection, the legal bases of personal choices, and theories of punishment. At the same time, the course considers the craft of writing in a workshop setting, exploring characterization, point-of-view, metaphor, and analogy. 

“We are cognizant that law school students may not have much experience writing stories and that MFA and English students may not possess in-depth knowledge of the law,” said Schuman. “That’s a feature, not a bug. The class is intended to make more sensitive readers, writers, and thinkers overall.” 

Grant, who’s been involved in several important legal cases in Missouri over the last few years, counts literature as a major inspiration in his law career. He’s a self-professed reader and believes that writing is the cornerstone of being a successful attorney. But literature offers even more. 

“When you become a practicing lawyer, it’s easy to get consumed by work,” he said. “The beauty of fiction is that it helps us think differently, and confront the good and the ugliness of the world. It helps us become more empathetic.”

Some of the works that generated the most discussion in the course included ZZ Packer’s “Brownies,” which students read alongside the 1927 Supreme Court case “Buck v. Bell” to explore disability rights and race. Ursula K. Le Guin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” prompted lively debate about utilitarianism, while George Saunders’s “The Semplica Girl Diaries” sparked conversations about inequality. Although the legal cases and concepts students applied to these texts were specific, the discussions ultimately centered on broader questions of justice, morality, and ethics.

Andrew Shen, a student who took the course during his final semester of law school, believes that the course and literature in general grounded his legal practice and made him a more effective advocate. “Law undergirds every part of life, but we don’t think about it. Stories like this make it visible,” he said. 

Shen believes that by becoming a more compelling storyteller, he’ll naturally be a better lawyer, with a greater awareness of how law impacts people’s lives.

His classmate River Alsalihi approached the class as a writer first and a legal scholar second. A senior majoring in sociology with minors in writing and legal studies, Alsalihi is also a Howard Nemerov Writing Scholar and no stranger to the workshop. As a poet, she’s used to having her writing analyzed by classmates, who offer face-to-face feedback throughout the writing process. 

An undergraduate, Alsalihi appreciated being able to interact with MFA and law students, those ahead of her on paths she’s considering. Ultimately, however, her favorite thing about the course was that it gave the students the chance to ask today’s most pressing questions.

“Fiction is often how we, as a society, process things that happen and decide what is good and what is bad,” Alsalihi said. “It makes a lot of sense for those who are going out in the world to be the arbiters of justice and injustice to participate in this type of exercise.” 

According to Schuman, the workshop community that emerged was one of the course’s greatest successes, marked by frank discussion, honest critique, and strong mutual support despite the wide range of stories students brought to the table. 

Their work spanned genres and themes, from speculative fiction imagining future corporations at war, to fantasy tales featuring fairies and a scholarly golem, to works of domestic psychological realism set in homes and workplaces.

The course had a surprise waiting list in its first semester, and law students circulated a petition asking WashU to offer additional sections. Schuman also urges undergraduates considering a legal career to take the course. 

Its popularity, he said, reflects students’ appetite for interdisciplinary learning and opportunities to grapple with questions that extend beyond the specific facts of legal cases.

“The law involves a search for narrative, and also involves pushing boundaries under its own constraints, searching for meaning, and envisioning various scenarios,” Schuman said, “It’s natural that students interested in law would be drawn to a class about storytelling.”