Myla Goldberg

Okay, you’ve gotten the words out—but now what? While no workshop can sit beside you while you stare at the screen, wondering what you’re supposed to do next, this class aims to get you (somewhat, maybe even very) excited about revision. Together, we’ll examine the underlying architecture of stories and have discussions that generate the kind of specific, constructive feedback that makes the revision process less like walking blindfolded. I aim to foster a community of readers with the kindness, toughness, honesty, and sensitivity that can make the workshop a unique and valuable writing tool. Ambition and risk-taking will be encouraged. Through the work, we’ll discuss the makings of strong plots, memorable characters, and strategies for creating and sustaining narrative momentum. After two weeks of craft discussions and in-class writing, the rest of the semester will be devoted to reading and responding to workshop submissions. Our discussions will be supplemented by wide-ranging outside reading geared to the needs and concerns of the class. Likely suspects include Lesley Arimah, Richard Bausch, Edith Pearlman, and Tom Perrotta.

In this class, you’ll train your writerly eyes on published work and each other’s work with the same goal in mind: to understand what makes good writing tick. Outside reading—by writers like Aimee Bender, Ayse Bucak, Richard Bausch, Ted Chiang, and Lauren Groff, plus fresh looks at canonical works by the likes of Kafka and Gogol—will be designed to take you in and out of your comfort zones, running the gamut from realism to fabulism, and featuring a multitude of rule makers and rule breakers to admire and inspire, love and loathe—sometimes simultaneously. We’ll take a craft approach to examine fantastical and verité writers from across time and the globe to get at some of the universal writing principles that underlie powerful, memorable writing of all persuasions. In workshop, we’ll band together to create a constructive community of readers with the kindness, toughness, honesty, and sensitivity that can make group critique a unique and valuable writing tool. Ambition and risk-taking will be wildly encouraged.

It’s not a stupid question, especially at a time when writing may seem harder than ever. We’ll spend the first two weeks of the semester engaging in writing exercises, thought experiments, intelligence gathering, and craft discussions designed to get your own ideas flowing and to provide seeds for new stories as well as approaches to deepen writing you may already be doing. The rest of the semester will be devoted to workshopping your stories, with the class coming together to create a constructive community of readers with the kindness, toughness, honesty, and sensitivity that can make a workshop a unique and valuable writing tool. Ambition and risk-taking will be encouraged, as we address a slew of other not-stupid questions such as: What makes a plot strong? Does a character have to be likable? How much fact goes into fiction? Outside reading will be designed to take you in and out of your comfort zones, running the gamut from realism to fabulism and featuring a multitude of rulemakers and rule-breakers for you to admire and inspire, love and loathe—sometimes simultaneously. All flavors of fiction are welcome.

The fun (and challenge) of writing speculative fiction is building a story that defies real-world rules while still earning the reader’s trust.  We’ll take a look at impossible stories by the likes of Aimee Bender, Kevin Brockmaier, Ayşe Papatya Bucak, Angela Carter, Julio Cortazar, Nikolai Gogol, and Lauren Groff, among others, to explore the way in which craft fundamentals apply (and sometimes don’t) within radical narrative departures. We’ll also examine the speculative spectrum—the ways the term can be applied to include not only the outright fantastical but also a more subtle warping of reality. Classes will include teacher- and student-led discussions, in-class writing exercises, and a culminating workshop.

In this class, you’ll train your eyes on published work and each other’s work with the same goal in mind: to understand what makes good writing tick. Outside reading—by writers like Aimee Bender, Kevin Brockmaier, Ayse Bucak, Angela Carter, Julio Cortazar, Edith Pearlman, and Karen Russell—will both confirm and challenge your notion of what speculative writing can be, as we explore the way craft fundamentals apply (and sometimes don’t) to stories that leave the world as we know it behind. We’ll take a craft approach to examine fantastical writers from across both time and the globe to get at some of the universal writing principles that underlie powerful, memorable writing of all persuasions. In workshop, we’ll band together to create a constructive community of readers with the kindness, toughness, honesty, and sensitivity that can make group critique a unique and valuable writing tool. Ambition and risk-taking will be wildly encouraged.

It’s not a stupid question. We’ll seek to answer it by spending the first third of the semester engaging in writing exercises, thought experiments, intelligence gathering, and craft discussions designed to get your own ideas flowing and to provide seeds for the stories that you’ll be writing. The rest of the semester will be devoted to workshopping what you’ve written, with the class coming together to create a constructive community of readers with the kindness, toughness, honesty, and sensitivity that can make a workshop a unique and valuable writing tool. Ambition and risk-taking will be encouraged, as we address a slew of other not-stupid questions such as: What makes a plot strong? Does a character have to be likable? How much fact goes into fiction? Outside reading will be designed to take you in and out of your comfort zones, running the gamut from realism to fabulism and featuring a multitude of rulemakers and rule breakers for you to admire and inspire, love and loathe—sometimes simultaneously.