The Craft of Writing Literary Fiction

If you want to be a writer, you need to read like a writer. This fact—which might seem obvious—eludes people more often than you would think. In this workshop, we will hone our writing skills by learning how authors influence a reader through structure and style choices, to truly understand how fine pieces of literary fiction are crafted.

For our purposes, we will focus exclusively on literary short stories, studying the works of contemporary masters such as Charles D’Ambrosio, Mary Gaitskill, and Alice Munro. No genre fiction here—only authors who dig into the rich details of the real world, proving that a writer doesn’t have to have wizards or aliens or serial killers to tell exciting stories.

In the workshop, we will examine elements of craft that are central to successful literary fiction, such as tone, voice, lyricism, and character emotion. By applying this expanded knowledge to our own writing during supportive and respectful group critique sessions, we will learn how to write literary fiction that’s as gripping as a good thriller—a story that makes your reader keep turning the pages, desperate to learn how it all ends.

INSTRUCTOR: Benjamin Rybeck