Calling all builders of miniature worlds! This is a workshop for short story writers of any level to generate new fiction or develop on-going projects. Together we practice aspects of fiction writing such as finding inspiration right nearby, creating layered characters, making dialogue sizzle, ratcheting up suspense, and distilling it all. To study these techniques, we look under the hood of contemporary short fiction, podcasts, poems, songs and other mediums for the telling of tales, including work by Jhumpa Lahiri, Karen Russell, Dinaw Megestu, cartoonist Adrian Tomine, and various StoryCorps interviews. Writing by workshop members will be shared with the group with an eye towards revision, and we’ll discuss ways to get fiction beyond the classroom walls, including literary magazines and online platforms, informed by the instructor’s experience as a developmental editor of successful novels and story collections, and a magazine fiction editor. The semester culminates in a reading for invited friends.