6-Week Fiction Workshop: The Nature of the Fun
Date & Time
Thursdays, 6:30-8:30 p.m.
Jul. 11-Aug. 15
2019
Class Size
8 Students
Thursdays, 6:30-8:30 p.m.
Jul. 11-Aug. 15
2019
8 Students
In this six-week workshop, students will share and critique original works of fiction in a constructive environment dedicated to discovering, or rediscovering, the "fun" in our writing process.
Through conversation and readings emphasizing the role of "work as play" in fiction, you will, as David Foster Wallace wrote in his essay of the same name, "go deep inside yourself and illuminate precisely the stuff you don't want to see or let anyone else see [...] precisely the stuff all writers and readers everywhere share and respond to, feel."
Students will leave the course with feedback on two fiction submissions (two shorter works or two parts of one longer work), and a greater familiarity with contemporary masters of literary fiction. Each student will have the opportunity to meet one-on-one with the instructor for individualized feedback and a chance to discuss writing goals. Class is best-suited for students with some previous workshop experience.
COURSE TAKEAWAYS:
- Intensive peer and instructor critiques on two fiction submissions
- One private conference with the instructor to discuss your writing style, goals, and areas for improvement
- Practical advice about taking the next step as a professional writer - from applying to MFAs to preparing work for submission to agents and publishers
- Greater familiarity with contemporary masters of literary fiction
- More confidence as a writer, on and off the page
- Access to Catapult's list of writing opportunities and important submission deadlines, as well as a 10% discount on all future Catapult classes
COURSE EXPECTATIONS:
- Workshop and revise two new stories, or other short pieces of fiction
- Participate in the constructive critique of classmates' work
- Read 10-20 pages a week of thematic craft advice from major authors (plus reading your peers' stories for workshop each week)
- Discuss and analyze strategies for centering "fun" in the writing process with the group
Kristopher Jansma is the author of the novel Why We Came to the City and the winner of the 2014 Sherwood Anderson Award for Fiction. His first novel, The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards, received an Honorable Mention for the 2014 PEN/Hemingway Award. He has written for The New York Times, Alaska Quarterly Review, Prairie Schooner, ZYZZVA, The Believer, and more. He is the Director of Creative Writing and an Associate Professor of English at SUNY New Paltz College. Find more at www.kristopherjansma.com.
"Like A LITTLE LIFE and THE LOVE AFFAIRS OF NATHAN P., Jansma's Why We Came to the City shows us, with beauty and insight, what it's like to be young and smart in this time, and in this place. It's a major achievement."
“A tremendous accomplishment: an elegant and deeply moving meditation on friendship and mortality, both fearless and finely wrought. I believe this book will stay with me for a very long time.”
“Stunning . . . A beautiful, sprawling, and generous book. Jansma is a brilliantly talented writer, but he also has a unique insight into what friends mean to one another, and what it means to be part of a city in which you never quite belong, but can’t quite bring yourself to leave. It’s a heartfelt novel, tender and painful and cathartic all at once, and even if the characters belong to New York, the story belongs to us all.”
“Jansma’s novel is a love letter to Manhattan, the letter so many of us who moved here in our 20s have written. . . . Like the rest of us, his characters learn that things don’t always work out the way we plan, but if we stick with our city, our city delivers.”
“Why did we come to the city, anyway? And why on earth would we ever leave? In Jansma's able hands, these are and are not metaphors. We came because we are more ourselves as part of a collective. We came to learn our limits. We came so that we might know when to leave. This is a lively, addictive party of a book, and you're invited."
"During my semester with Kristopher Jansma, I always felt comfortable sharing my work with the class; Kristopher’s own feedback on my writing was always detailed and astute, and class discussions were lively, focused, and amicable. He managed to guide discussions without imposing his own views, always making sure every side in a debate was heard. Kristopher has seemingly infinite reserves of energy and focus. I look to him as a model of the kind of teacher I’d like to be someday."
"Kristopher is an empathetic reader with a sharp eye. He goes beyond simple comments and line edits by digging to the heart of what motivates your work. I could not have gotten through a very personal writing project without that openness and encouragement."
"Kristopher's teaching style is encouraging and enthusiastic, he's the sort of teacher who makes you work hard without it feeling hard. The lessons I learned in his classes have stuck with me for years, and continue to affect how I read, write and think about the world. He is passionate about his subject, and this genuine enthusiasm becomes contagious in his classes. He inspires you to read, write and even think in new and different ways."
