Overview of Course

What inspiration can travel offer fiction writers? Much in fact! Visiting new places, immersing yourself in the people and cultures, exploring the geographical and sociopolitical landscapes, absorbing the colors, textures, voices, tastes, aromas, and rhythms, enriches the literary imagination. In this fiction writing workshop, you will leverage the benefits of travel, finding inspiration in the world around you for creating short fiction. As you journey from one country to the next, reading fiction set in many of the places that you visit, you will keep a journal of the sights and sounds that intrigue you. Writing exercises on setting, characterization, plot, point of view, and other narrative features will sharpen your understanding of the elements and craft of fiction writing. Drawing on your journal, insights gleaned from exemplary fiction writers, and techniques learned in the workshop, you will produce two short stories, one of which you will workshop and revise in response to peer review and professor feedback. You will build your stories over the course of the voyage, allowing your travels to lend authenticity to the fictionalized narratives that you create.