Fridays, 1-2 pm EST, February 16-March 22
online, 20 students max
$375
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In this class, we will read stories that bring into play curiosity, unfold through experimentation, and evoke wonder, including short work by Angela Carter, Julio Cortazar, Franz Kafka, Etgar Keret, and Zadie Smith. We will learn about the dramatic arc made famous by Aristotle in his study of tragedy and the ways it can be applicable to the writing of short stories. We will examine three-part and five-part structures by analyzing the mechanics of fairy tales and jokes. Finally, moving beyond the traditional set-up, build-up, and punchline formulas, we will explore non-traditional structures for storytelling which take inspiration from the natural world (stories shaped like hurricanes, waves, and honeycombs) relying on Jane Alison’s excellent craft book Meander, Spiral, Explode: Design and Pattern in Narrative. In-class writing prompts will allow students to experiment and try out different fiction-writing techniques focusing on the shape of stories. By the end of the course, each student will have acquired a practical understanding of story structure to support their next writing project.
Enroll in this class.
About the instructor
Omer Friedlander is the author of the short story collection The Man Who Sold Air in the Holy Land, winner of the Association of Jewish Libraries Fiction Award and a finalist for the Wingate Prize. The book was chosen as an American Library Association Sophie Brody Medal Honor Book for outstanding achievement in Jewish Literature and longlisted for the Story Prize. Omer has a BA in English Literature from the University of Cambridge and an MFA from Boston University, where he was supported by the Saul Bellow Fellowship. He was a Starworks Fellow in Fiction at New York University. His collection has been translated into several languages, including Turkish, Dutch, and Italian. His writing has been supported by the Bread Loaf Fellowship and Vermont Studio Center Fellowship. He currently lives in New York City and teaches creative writing at Columbia University.