Four Thursdays: September 14, 21, 28 and October 5 from 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. ET Online
Discussion of craft techniques that contribute to the art of the short story. Those who wish can try their hand at these techniques for feedback— or not. This live class will be recorded and available for later viewing.
Everything Tillie Olsen wrote became an immediate classic. “She can spend no word that is not the right one,” wrote Dorothy Parker. Tillie’s four short stories published in 1954 caused women college professors across the country to incorporate her writings into their classes, and over her lifetime Tillie earned 18 honorary PhDs. If you read her short stories once, you will never forget them. They not only changed the direction of American fiction, but also set a standard for all writers in how to portray working class or immigrant women without stereotype or unwanted pity. The stories are brilliant and intense, so a good foil is the rollicking humor in short stories by Grace Paley about what she called “the motherhood trade.” Tillie Olsen, who died in 2007 and was as beautiful a person as she was a writer. Writers of stature still look to Tillie as one of the best. For those who wish it, suggested writing exercises based on techniques Tillie pioneered, will be offered.
Four Thursdays: September 14, 21, 28 and October 5 from 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. ET Online
Required Reading:
Tell Me a Riddle by Tillie Olsen (9780803245778)
Enormous Changes at the Last Minute by Grace Paley (9780374515249)
Joyce Winslow, former Associate Professor of English Literature at the University of Pittsburgh, met Tillie Olsen at the MacDowell Colony and was mentored and befriended by her for ten years until Tillie’s death. Winslow also knew Grace Paley. Winslow’s short stories are published in The Best American Short Stories anthology and won the Raymond Carver Award and F. Scott Fitzgerald Awards. She teaches Olsen as an “insider,” privy to Tillie’s manuscript changes.
REFUND POLICY: Please note that we can issue class refunds up until seven (7) days before the first class session.
