Class

Advanced Short Fiction Workshop

This workshop is for writers who are serious about the craft of the short story and are looking to take their writing to the next level. Most of our time will be spent discussing your work, helping you to make the stories the best they can be. The instructor will point out areas in your manuscript in process that show particular strengths, or some areas you may need to further develop in order to bring out the impact of your story. We'll review the basics of narrative craft—character, plot, point-of-view, voice—but we'll also challenge ourselves by exploring new ways of looking at the short story form. We'll examine the tension between symbolism and reality, how good writers show and tell, and how all dialogue is an attempt to say the unsayable. Last but not least, we'll try to answer that age-old question: Just what the heck is a short story anyway? Please obtain a copy of The Story Prize: 15 Years of Great Short Fiction, edited by Larry Dark, and read the story "Nirvana" by Adam Johnson before the first class.