Ready to get the stories in your head onto paper? If there’s a story you want to tell, but you have no idea where to begin (or you need a refresher), this course is for you. Over six weeks, you will learn the essentials of fiction and put them into practice by starting to write your own short stories. Each week, we will focus on a different aspect of fiction––such as character, dialogue, setting, and more––and explore it through published short stories by authors like Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Mariana Enriquez, Ken Liu, and Ottessa Moshfegh to illuminate that topic and inspire our own writing. We’ll put what we learn into practice through weekly exercises and writing prompts, and in the second half of class, you will have the opportunity to submit a full short story to receive feedback from the instructor and your fellow writers, to help you get a sense of what your strengths are, and how to build on them.

Any and all fiction genres are welcome. By the end of class, you’ll not only be versed in the fundamentals of fiction, but you’ll walk away with at least one story draft and the tools to continue developing it.