Continuing Education Course Finder: ENGCS09-1a

Make a Long Story Short: Writing Mini Fiction (ENGCS09-1a)

Status: Open

Fee: $400.00

Timing: 10 sessions from October 7, 2009 - December 16, 2009 on Wednesdays, 7:00-9:00pm no class 11/25

Course Description: A class for fiction writers, poets, and essayists (in fact, all creative writers) who are looking to see how using vivid imagery, precise detail, and a strong narrative voice can give more power and potency to their writing.

We’ll investigate the number of ways to answer questions such as: How short can a story be? Can a five-page story ‘work’? What about a single-page story?

Using key elements of poetry (image, language, tone) and prose (character, setting, dialogue), we’ll explore the imaginative and surprising ways in which we can create big effects in small packages. And, by working on drafts of our stories, we will gain further clarity into pinpointing what we do well, and what we can improve upon.

Weekly exercises will be assigned and workshopped. We’ll also read stories by Ernest Hemingway, Raymond Carver, Grace Paley, and Terese Svoboda, alongside those included in the anthologies Micro Fiction and Sudden Fiction.

Additionally, we will look into literary journals to submit our work to at term’s end.

Instructor(s): Joe Caliguire

Instructor(s) Bio: Joe Caliguire is an MFA graduate of the Literary Arts program at Brown University. He has taught beginning and intermediate fiction at Brown, along with courses in the Summer & Continuing Studies program. Before arriving in Providence, Joe worked as a proofreader, copyeditor and fact-checker at dozens of publishing and advertising firms throughout Manhattan. His prose has been published in a handful of literary journals and was recently awarded Brown’s Weston Prize for Fiction. He has also been nominated for a Pushcart Prize for his short story “Closer.” Joe is now working on his first novel.