In shaping the lumpy mess of the world into an aerodynamic short story, writers need to make choices—whom to follow, what to include, what to exclude, where to look, what to tell the reader and when, etc. And to make these choices, writers ask themselves a series of questions, often subconsciously, that get to the heart of characterization, plot, point of view, conflict, setting—in a word, craft. In this class, we will focus on nine essential questions of craft and examine how they’ve been answered by some of the form’s contemporary masters (including D’Ambrosio, Gaitskill, Lahiri, Saunders, and many more). Through a mixture of discussion, in-class exercises, and workshops, you will understand how every work of fiction, no matter how wild, has a firm foundation—and at the end of ten weeks, you will have your own short story, polished and concise, that will help your reader make sense of the world.