NWRW 0327 The Great American Short Story | Continuing & Professional Education at The New School

Now Enrolling: Parsons certificate courses and Parsons Academy. Applications are also open for Parsons Summer Intensive Studies courses.

Course Description

This workshop is for short story writers of all levels. Tumultuous times call for chroniclers who observe and distill, and we will hone these skills through exercises to tap the material around us, along with plumbing memory and imagination. We’ll focus on such aspects of the craft as creating characters with compassion, making dialogue sizzle, and ratcheting up suspense. To study these techniques, each week we look under the hood of a story, play, graphic narrative, including the work of Z.Z. Packer, Jhumpa Lahiri, Viet Thanh Nguyen, David Mamet. Stories by workshop members are critiqued in both writing and discussion, then revised. The semester ends with a group reading.