Writing Short Stories: The nuts and bolts (and some power tools)

Led by Bret Anthony Johnston | Hosted by Religion & the Arts

In many ways, short fiction is the most blue-collar literary form — so we’ll spend the morning with the basic and advanced tools that help get the job done. From story structure to character development, from dialogue to setting to that dreaded four-letter word (pl*t), we’ll look at how to avoid common mistakes and how to draft and revise your own stories in your own vision and voice.

All are welcome. No prior writing experience required.

Registration is required. Register here.

About the Instructor

Bret Anthony Johnston is the internationally bestselling author of Encounters with Unexpected Animals: Stories, the novels We Burn Daylight and Remember Me Like This, and the multi-award-winning collection Corpus Christi: Stories. His honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship, the Glasgow Prize, the Jesse H. Jones Award, and The Sunday Times Short Story Award, described as “the world’s richest and most prestigious prize for a single short story.”

His work has been widely translated and has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Esquire, The Paris Review, The New York Times Magazine, Virginia Quarterly Review, and The Best American Short Stories, among others. After directing the creative writing program at Harvard University for more than a decade, he now serves as Director of the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas at Austin, where he holds the Mari Sabusawa Regents Chair in Writing.

Questions? Contact Bradley Varnell