This is a course for fiction writers on how to write a short story, a genre we’ll define using the formula first proposed by Edgar Allan Poe: a work of fiction that can be read in one sitting. Students can expect to read about forty stories over the semester from a wide range of periods and traditions; write frequent exercises to begin the term; and produce two complete stories that will be workshopped. We will study closely how creative choices and the exercise of conscious literary style combine to produce “infinite riches in a little room” (Christopher Marlowe).

Students are not allowed to take more than one Reading and Writing course per term.

Corequisite: Students will be required to attend Wednesday literary evenings.