Phillip Hurst

This course focuses on short fiction. We’ll read, analyze, and discuss published stories, as well as workshop original stories of our own. Students will prepare written feedback (workshop notes) for story submissions and engage in rigorous group discussion. Over the course of the semester, students will write and submit two original short stories of approximately 2500 words each.

Learning goals include gaining familiarity with contemporary fiction, learning techniques to write successful original fiction, and learning how to constructively analyze and revise drafts of original fiction in terms of character and storyline, while considering foundational elements of craft such as effective characterization, point of view, dialogue, and plot. 

As one would expect with a workshop, the course will involve a lot of group discussion, in which everyone is expected to participate. Solid participation will require the stories, both published and student-submitted, be read and considered deeply prior to the class period in which they are up for discussion. In this way, we can all learn together, with the outcome being we improve our own stories as well as our editorial acumen.

This course focuses on short fiction. We’ll read, analyze, and discuss published stories, as well as workshop original stories of our own. Students will prepare written feedback (workshop notes) for story submissions and engage in rigorous group discussion. Over the course of the semester, students will write and submit two original short stories of approximately 3500 words each.

Learning goals include gaining familiarity with contemporary fiction, learning techniques to write successful original fiction, and learning how to constructively analyze and revise drafts of original fiction in terms of character, structure, and language, while considering foundational elements of literary craft such as effective characterization, story shape, point of view, dialogue, and sentence-level language choices. 

As one would expect with a workshop, the course will involve a lot of group discussion, in which everyone is expected to participate. Solid participation will require the stories, both published and student-submitted, be read and considered deeply prior to the class period in which they are up for discussion. In this way, we can all learn together, with the outcome being we improve our own stories as well as our editorial acumen.