IOWA SUMMER WRITING FESTIVAL

How to Write a Short Story: An Easy-to-Follow Road Map with Robert Anthony Siegel (Four-Week Workshop)

Dates/Time:

Mondays on Zoom, April 12–May 3, 2021

6:00–8:00 p.m. Central Time (7:00–9:00 Eastern; 4:00–6:00 Pacific; 5:00–7:00 Mountain)

Fee: $450

Course Description

Writing a short story can seem confusing, especially when there’s so much you want to say and so little space to say it in. What do you do with all those important details, those great side characters, and those pages of history? And how do you tie it all up in a meaningful way?

This course is designed to give you a simple, clear roadmap to the writing of the short story, and to travel that road with you step by step, so that you become familiar with each twist and turn. We meet via Zoom once a week for four weeks, 6:00­–8:00 p.m. Central Time. Through a series of in-class exercises, you will develop a character, design a world for her/him to inhabit, discover a plot, and then write a narrative with a clear beginning, middle and end. By the end of the course, you will have a complete first draft of a short story to take home and revise—and to serve as a model for future stories.

During our four weeks, I will meet with each student for a 30-minute Zoom conference outside of class.

Instructor

Robert Anthony Siegel is the author of a memoir, Criminals, and two novels, All the Money in the World and All Will Be Revealed. His nonfiction has appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian, The Paris Review, and other magazines. He was a Fulbright Scholar in Taiwan and a Mombukagakusho Fellow in Japan. Other awards include O. Henry and Pushcart Prizes. Robert is an associate professor in the Department of Creative Writing at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, where he teaches fiction and nonfiction. Visit his webpage at www.robertanthonysiegel.com.

Registration & Fees

The fee for this course is $450. Payment in full is required to register.

Registration for this course opens at 11:00 a.m. Central Time, Wednesday, March 31, 2021.

Registrations are accepted on a first-come, first-served basis.

Class size is limited to 10.

Note: Your credit card payment will be processed by an external provider and will appear on your credit card statement as “UI Writing—Magid Center.” 

Cancellation Policy

A $100 cancellation fee will be applied to refunds for cancellations received by Monday, April 5, 2021. Thereafter, no refunds are available. 

Terms & Community Policy

The Iowa Summer Writing Festival is a community built on an assumption of shared enterprise, in the spirit of mutual respect. We reserve the right to a) revoke the registration of or b) dismiss from the program any person who disrupts the learning/working environment of others. Participants in the Festival are subject to all University of Iowa policies governing conduct in our community, whether online or in person.

Questions?

Contact the Iowa Summer Writing Festival: iswfestival@uiowa.edu. Phone: (319) 335-4160.

Our tiny staff is working remotely. If you phone and we miss you, please leave a message!