Department of English

“You don’t need an idea to start a story,” George Saunders writes. “You just need a sentence.” But how do we alight on that one sentence, and how do we expand from it? In other words, how do we write stories? This first-year seminar focuses on the fundamentals of storytelling. We’ll examine the tools of the craft that we have at our disposal—from plot and setting to character and point of view—reading published stories, both classic and new, paying close attention to the myriad choices authors have made and working to develop our own voices. The primary focus of this seminar will be on generating original prose, both in class and outside of it. We will read and look under the hood of work by writers such as Joan Didion, Danielle Evans, Lauren Groff, Lorrie Moore, Edward P. Jones, Jhumpa Lahiri, Grace Paley, Justin Torres, Tobias Wolff, and more. Together we will discuss points of craft, trying our hands at various techniques, and consider what makes a memorable piece of writing tick. Assignments will include analysis of and creative responses to assigned readings, an original short story or piece of creative nonfiction, and a revision. Students should be prepared to write often in class, participate in constructive conversation about each other’s work, and be ready to experiment, committed to their own writing practice and to the larger class community.