New Fiction Writing Workshop

Hey Creative Writers! One of our club mentors, Prof. Laura Tanenbaum asked if we would share some exciting info on a new course she will be teaching at LaGCC Spring I 2011. Register ASAP if you're interested!

*NEW COURSE*
Fiction Writing Workshop
ENG 276.5672
Mondays and Wednesdays, 6-7:30 PM

Distilled moments, chance encounters, the internal thought and the external action, the spoken and the unspoken, the familiar made strange and the strange made familiar: in this class we will explore the boundless possibilities of short fiction. Students will be encouraged to experiment with a variety of forms and techniques, share their work with one another, give and receive constructive feedback, and to take risks throughout the writing and revision process.

We will use a reader containing short fiction (and some creative non-fiction) by a range of writers with diverse backgrounds and styles, including Jorge Luis Borges, Dorothy Allison, Sherman Alexie, Jamaica Kincaid, John Dos Passos, Raymond Carver and Miranda July. We will use these writers as inspiration, as idea-generators and as the jumping off point for a variety of writing projects.

We will undertake writing exercises and games that explore such elements of fiction as character, dialogue, description, plot, time, and place, using techniques and elements including collage, found texts, observation, chance, and collaboration. Throughout we will focus on multiple and overlapping elements of the writing process, with a special emphasis on the various possible approaches to revision.

All students will have the opportunity to have selected work published in a chapbook that will be created by the group. We will also discuss other opportunities for publication.

Please feel free to contact Prof. Tanenbaum at Laura.tanenbaum@gmail.com with questions.