Courses

A good short story is constructed with the precision of a Swiss watch. Any element that doesn’t contribute to the narrative’s development is usually excised. But when it comes to details, how do we know what to keep and what to cut? Do we tell the reader that the protagonist has brown eyes? Do we note that there’s a breeze whipping across the field of grass? In this course, we will focus on the importance of specificity in writing details, but also in other aspects of short fiction, from characterization to dialogue, and we’ll examine various motifs that make use of careful detail work to advance narrative. In the process, we’ll learn how to avoid “abject naturalism,” a phrase Frank Conroy used to describe the everything-and-the-kitchen-sink method of loading details into a story with no guiding principle. Through weekly exercises, students will practice writing with specificity that illuminates character and moves the narrative forward with knife-like precision. For guidance, we will read stories and selections from Edward P. Jones, Franz Kafka, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Aleksandar Hemon, among others. By the end of the course, students will have written and workshopped one carefully detailed story.