Creative Writing Workshop

I don’t believe in rules to follow when writing and, if anything, I think writing is often most alive when it breaks preconceived rules. But what I do believe is that the key to writing is learning how to be a writer, which means learning how to exist in the space of the page and on the screen, the space of being alone in a room, and developing a practice by reading, rewriting, and repeating. Being a writer often means failing and, hopefully, making discoveries through this failure. As Samuel Beckett has written: “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” We will meet twice a week. In the first meeting, we will read and discuss student writing and then, by the second class, you will have read a range of wild texts that encourage playfulness with form—published fiction and essays on writing, including The Anchor Book of New American Short Stories. We will be reading as writers in order to artfully steal, instigating weekly failures and experiments of your own. Although you will only be bringing to workshop two pieces for the semester, we will be writing and sharing other short writing in and out of class. I will also expect you to bring new writing or rewrites in conference. Open to anyone serious about the work and play needed.