Writing Workshops

Writing Short Fiction: Where to Begin with Amy Silverberg (January 2024)

$295

4 Sessions

Out of stock

Once a week Mondays, 7:00 pm EDT - 9:00 pm EDT January 8 to January 29, 2024

Online via Zoom

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This workshop has reached its capacity. To join the waitlist, please email Randy Winston at [email protected].

This course has two main goals: to examine how other authors have approached writing their short stories, and then using those approaches to help write our own. In every class, we will study a different short stories and discuss the way in which the writers “began.” We will read broadly across the literary fiction genre, including but not limited to Jennifer Egan, Ben Percy, Alice Munro, Danielle Evans, Charles Yu, Jamaica Kincaid, and Aimee Bender. Did they enter the story through a setting, an autobiographical memory, an exchange of dialogue, a narrative voice, a question, a fear, a list, etc? Then, we’ll experiment in using these elements to begin our own short stories.

By the second half of the course, you will have a collection of “beginnings,” and an idea of what works best for you depending on what you’re trying to write. We will continue to study published work, while you further develop one (or more) of your own “beginnings.” To that end, students will have the opportunity to participate in in-class workshops in order to get feedback on their own work from the instructor and their peers. By the end of the course, you will be well on your way to a completed short story, and a toolbox with which to begin again and again.

This course is open to writers of all experience levels.

Course Outline

Week 1. Introduction: A Survey of Beginnings
Assignments: Alice Munro’s “Fiction” and Kevin Moffett’s “Buzzers” + Writing Assignment 1.
Week 2. Entering through an Autobiographical Moment
Assignments: Aimee Barrodale’s “William Wei” and a student story for workshop + Writing Assignment 2
Week 3. Entering through Setting
Assignments: Jennifer Egan’s “Why China?” and a student story for workshop + Writing Assignment 3
Week 4. Entering through a Strong Narrative Voice
Assignments: Aimee Bender’s “Off” and a student story for workshop

Led by

Amy Silverberg

Amy Silverberg

Amy Silverberg is a comedian and writer based in Los Angeles. Her fiction has appeared in Best American Short Stories, the Paris Review, Granta, TriQuarterly, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and elsewhere. Her debut novel First Time, Long Time is forthcoming from Grand Central Publishing in 2025. She also writes television, most recently The Movie Show on the SYFY Channel. She holds a PhD in Literature & Creative Writing from USC, where she currently teaches.

About this series

Writing Workshops

We strive to make our classes the most inviting and rewarding available, offering an intimate environment to study with award-winning, world-class writers. Each class is specially designed by the instructor, so whether you’re a fledgling writer or an MFA graduate polishing your novel, you’ll find a perfect fit here.

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