This is an online workshop that takes place via Zoom.

Fiction Inspired by World Literature

In this generative workshop, we will take inspiration from a variety of translated stories to write our own surprising  and interestingly shaped and fiction. With novelists like Jon Fosse (Norway) and Annie Ernaux (France) winning the Nobel Prize, translated novels are becoming more widely read in the United States, though contemporary translated short stories still languish in relative obscurity. Yet where would American fiction be without the stories of Chekhov or Kafka? Global fiction can open up new ways to think about narrative shapes, the idea of resolution, the weight given to plot movement versus narrative layers, the role of time and memory in storytelling, how characters are shaped and so much more.

Over the course of eight weeks, we’ll take inspiration from the short fiction of Kobo Abe (Japan), Isaac Babel (Russia), Roberto Bolaño (Chile), Marie NDiaye (France), Can Xue (China), and others. We’ll discuss the effective use of detail, story logic, point of view, character creation, and narrative progression, as they relate to the published stories and to the stories we workshop in class. We will workshop participants’ writing, giving each other generous, insightful feedback.