Department of English

This workshop will help both new and experienced writers dig for the layers of experience buried in their own stories and uncovered through exercises that tap memory, imagination and visualization. We will explore the elements of fiction, from the focus on details to reveal the larger world of the story, to character development, dialogue, point of view, style and voice. We will mine a deeper understanding of the craft by reading short stories and excerpts from a wide range of writers, including Raymond Carver, John Edgar Wideman, Robertson Davies, Flannery O'Conner and Ursula Hegi. In addition to in-class writing, students will be asked to maintain writing journals, participate in workshop discussions and peer review, and write and revise work on a weekly basis.