Looking for some new tools in your writer toolbox? Or maybe you have all the tools, but need to sharpen them (as we all do). Whether you write short stories, novels, personal essays, or memoir, this 8-week class will give you practical information you can use right away to improve your skills as a writer and enrich your experience as a reader.
Each week we will focus on one element of craft: character, point of view, plot/narrative, dialogue, voice, setting, or sensory detail. We will discuss a short craft essay on that element as well as short examples (both fiction and creative nonfiction) supplied by the instructor. Students will be invited to do writing exercises at home, based on each particular craft element, and share them the following week. This will be a low-homework-load class. The excerpts will represent a variety of styles, and some of them will be funny!
Readings supplied by instructor (you will get a packet at the first class): Short excerpts from two fiction and two nonfiction works, as well as short craft essays.
About the Instructor:
Sharon Harrigan is the author of the debut novel Half, which was published in summer 2020, and the memoir Playing with Dynamite, published in 2017. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from Pacific University and has published more than 50 personal essays, short stories, and reviews in such venues as Virginia Quarterly Review, New York Times (Modern Love), and Narrative. A starred Booklist review called Half "suspenseful, lyrical, and consuming," and Publishers' Weekly called the novel "riveting and inventive."
Sharon's current and former students have published their work in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Huffington Post, The Rumpus, NPR, Gravel, The Guardian, Gettysburg Review, Bay Journal, The Sow's Ear Poetry Review, Living Lutheran Magazine, Mothers Always Write, Fluvanna Review, Charlottesville Family, The Ethos Collection, and , among others.
