This is an online workshop that takes place via Zoom
The Nuts and Bolts of Storytelling
Why do we tell stories? And how do we make them immersive? This fiction workshop focuses on making short stories memorable by working with the nuts and bolts of craft.
Each week, the class will focus on a key element of storytelling—plot, character, dialogue, place, or point of view—and examine how writers make deliberate choices on the page. Through close readings of work by Louise Erdrich, William Trevor, Miranda July, Jamaica Kincaid, and John Cheever, along with craft essays by George Saunders, Chris Offutt, and others, participants will practice reading like writers.
In class, students will complete short writing exercises that put these techniques to work directly on their own writing. Everyone will submit a short story or novel excerpt for feedback at least once during the workshop.
Ariel Katz holds an MFA from the Iowa Writers Workshop and a BA from Yale. Her fiction has been published in the Sewanee Review, Missouri Review, Colorado Review, The Threepenny Review, and elsewhere; her essays appear on the Ploughshares blog. She is pursuing a PhD in Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Houston, where she is an Inprint C. Glenn Cambor fellow and fiction editor for Gulf Coast.