The goal of this course is for you to write fiction, and to discover what it feels like to be a writer. Although most of us probably don’t want to make a career of writing fiction, the purpose of this course is to help you discover the role writing (and reading as a writer) can play in your life regardless of career choice. Stories are always relevant, enlivening, and an integral part of how we make sense of the world. In this class, we will cultivate some basic skills with which to create invigorating short stories that are in conversation with the contemporary literary landscape. This course consists of reading, writing, and discussion of the two. We will be examining both published work and peers’ work and discussing how craft is applied in the short story form.

Required Texts: 

The Scribner Anthology of Contemporary Short Fiction – Edited by Lex Williford and Michael Martone

The Art and Craft of Fiction – Michael Kardos