Five Decades of Short Stories: The 70s thru 2010s
This six-week seminar is designed for writers interested in doing deep reads of contemporary literature from a craft perspective. We will dissect the structure and language from five very different short stories so that we can apply some of the same tools these writers use in their work to our own.
In this class, we’ll reflect on how the short story changed over the decades, and what stories are told. We will be using one text in this class: The Penguin Book of the Modern American Short Story, with a focus on stories from: Lauren Groff, Manuel Muñoz, Percival Everett, Dorothy Alison, and Alice Walker.
Note: There is no written feedback component to this course, though students will be encouraged to share work outside of class, and will be given workshop guidelines should they choose to do so!
Delve for Writers is an occasional series of seminars designed to help writers improve their craft through close readings of contemporary poetry and prose. These seminars focus on narrative structure, form, and stylistic choices, providing writers with tools to enhance their own writing practice.
Michelle Kicherer
Michelle Kicherer writes about books and music for the San Francisco Chronicle, Willamette Week and others. She is also a writing coach and former ghostwriter specializing in fiction and memoir. Michelle’s fiction has been published in The Master’s Review, Berkeley Fiction Review, 8142 Review and many others, and her novella Sexy Life, Hello is out in audiobook in Sept ‘24 and in print March ‘25 on Banana Pitch Press. Michelle believes there are no dumb questions in the classroom, only pretentious instructors.
