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 stimulate 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 include research for stories, and together mine a deeper understanding of the writing process by reading novels, short stories, and excerpts from a wide range of writers, including John Edgar Wideman, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Charles Johnson, Maxine Hong Kingston, Kay Gibbons, Michael Malone, and Zora Neale Hurston. In addition to in-class writing, students will be asked to maintain
writing journals, participate in workshop discussions, critique one another’s stories, and write and revise work on a weekly basis. Requirements include: approximately 100 pages of reading per week, writing responses to readings (3-5 pages), personal writing journals, individual stories (3-5 pages), and readings. Class limit: 15 (No audits)