“Good stories are good stories, no matter how they’re categorized.” -Octavia Butler 

This course explores a variety of contemporary fiction styles and subgenres—from fantasy and science fiction to literary and humor—to understand how they become valued and make meaning on individual and cultural levels. We begin by reading and discussing contemporary stories across genres and craft essays freely available within the online literary community, taking them as inspiration as we experiment with writing exercises. As the course progresses, we’ll transition to instructor-facilitated peer workshop of student stories, with each student composing two stories that experiment with different genres or techniques. By the end of this course, we’ll have engaged with a variety of diverse voices within the fiction writing community and developed working understanding of the tools, vocabulary, and storytelling elements present in the contemporary fiction landscape.