CRW 5130 Fall 2019 Winegardner

This course is a rigorous traditional workshop. As in any decent workshop, at its core is the premise that any student work under discussion could be better. In a great majority of fiction handed in to a graduate workshop, the thing that most needs to get better is storytelling. To attack that, this class will take a nuts-and-bolts approach to the mastering the fundamentals of structure--of what a story is and how it's put together.

The default mode here will be for students to workshop, revise, and re-submit two short stories (though you will have the opportunity workshop three). However, the workshop will be novel-friendly. If you wish to workshop any portion of a novel, we will meet one-on-one to custom-tailor a workshop strategy for that book (rather than treating it the way we would a short story).

"A writer," said Saul Bellow, "is a reader moved to emulation." "I know of no good, ignorant writers," wrote Richard Wilbur. "I think of great stories and novels," said Charles Baxter, "as permission-givers." This course will develop your writing in tandem with your reading, to eradicate ignorance, receive permission, and be moved to great heights of emulation. The strangeness of individual talent will not, I guarantee you, be blunted by such things. Quite the contrary.