Overview

Our goal in this class is to learn what makes a story work. We will read a range of published fiction, including work by George Saunders, Zadie Smith, and Jhumpa Lahiri, and discuss different craft elements, such as Character, Setting, and Narrative Urgency. The very best stories are often highly constructed, although they may appear perfectly natural. We will pick them apart, learn by dissecting literature with an eye for how a story is built and the choices the author made to create their work. This is primarily a workshop course, which means you’ll be reading work written by your peers, and then you will critique it and suggest ways it can be strengthened. Reading someone else’s work to see how it can be improved will help you to read your own work with a critical eye, which will make you a better writer. Hi Omer, thank you so much for your terrific and very detailed comments and letter! I really appreciate the insight and thought you put into this, and it already has me thinking through what revisions I want to make. Also, I just want to mention that I am really enjoying this class! You have managed to create an atmosphere of ease and trust with great discussions and where critiques can be smart and insightful without being scary! It’s great. ---- Former Student