Writing Workshops

Writing Short Fiction: Where to Begin with Amy Silverberg (June 2025)

$645

10 sessions

Out of stock

Once a week Wednesdays, 7:00 pm EDT - 9:00 pm EDT June 18 to August 20, 2025

Online via Zoom

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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 two different short stories and discuss the way in which the writer “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, Lorrie Moore, Wells Tower, 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.

Course Outline:

Week 1. Introduction: Flash Fiction
- In Class reading: Stuart Dybek’s “Misterioso;” Amy Hempel’s “Housewife” and “Memoir;” George Saunders’s “Sticks;” Mark Leyner’s “Ad Infinitum”
Week 2. Entering Through an Autobiographical Moment
- We will discuss Benjamin Percy’s “Refresh, Refresh” and Lorrie Moore’s “People Like That Are the Only People Here” and workshop stories.
Week 3. Entering Through Setting
- We will discuss Jennifer Egan’s “Safari” and workshop stories.
Week 4. Entering Through a Strong Narrative Voice
- We will discuss Danielle Evans’s “Virgins,” Aimee Bender’s “Off,” and Miranda July’s “Roy Spivey” and workshop stories.
Week 5. Entering Through Research / Pop Culture
- We will discuss Curtis Sittenfeld’s “The Prairie Wife” and Maggie Shipstead’s “You Have a Friend in 10A” and workshop stories.
Week 6. Entering Through a List
- We will discuss Dean Bakopoulos’s “Too Few to Mention” and workshop stories.
Week 7. Entering Through a Fairy Tale/Ghost Story
- We will discuss Kevin Wilson’s “A Birth in the Woods,” Carmen Maria Machado’s “The Husband Stitch,” Charles Yu’s “Fable,” and workshop stories.
Week 8. Entering Through Dialogue
- We will discuss Peter Orner’s “Spokane” and Sally Rooney’s “Color and Light” and workshop stories.
Week 9. Entering Through a Joke
- We will discuss Wells Tower’s “Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned” and Aimee Bender’s “The Motherfucker” and workshop stories.
Week 10. Conclusion
- We will discuss submitting short stories, writing a novel, getting an agent, the writer’s life, and more!

All Levels

This course is held online via Zoom.

Led by

Amy Silverberg

Amy Silverberg

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

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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