Borrow Like a Writer: A Seven Week Generative Fiction Course

In his essay “The Ecstasy of Influence” Jonathem Lethem argues for the eager plundering of earlier art to make new art. The idea is that all writing is recycled, the key is to channel age-old ideas and write pieces that are distinctly our own. Each week we will read and discuss two published stories by authors like Nabokov, Justin Torres, Mary Gaitskill and more, to look deeply at the ways the author constructed their own unique narrative. With fundamental craft points in mind, the instructor will then cycle through prompts based on the story’s specific strengths. It is always easier to be creative, to enter a piece of writing with constraints in mind. We will then have time to read aloud from these exercises and practice recall. The goal is for students to leave class with the habits of mind that inform their own healthy writing practice, feeling inspired as both a reader and a writer, with a notebook full of new starts and at least one complete story to be read aloud during the last class. 

Space is Limited. 8 Seats Available.

About Kate:

Kate Wisel is the author of Driving in Cars with Homeless Men, winner of the 2019 Drue Heinz Literature Prize. Her fiction can be found in places that include Prairie Schooner, Gulf Coast, Tin House online, Adroit Journal, The Best Small Fictions 2019, Redivider (as winner of the Beacon Street Prize), W.W. Norton’s Flash Fiction America and elsewhere. She is the recipient of the “Poetry on the T” prize and the Marcia Keach Prize. She was a Carol Houck fiction fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and is also a screenwriter in the Writers Guild of America.