READING JOY WILLIAMS
with GPB cofounders Emily Adrian and Alex Higley
4 Weeks | Wednesdays, 8pm - 10pm ET (on Zoom) | January 8 - 29, 2025
$350 | REGISTER
What does it mean to know an author? How might our reading of a story change when we consider it within the author’s body of work? Can we apply an author’s techniques, style, and obsessions to our own fiction without sacrificing originality? In this course, we will read four canonical Joy Williams stories and discuss what makes these texts riveting, beautiful, and profound. We will analyze Williams’s approach to narrative, characterization, dialogue, setting, and the passage of time, allowing her craftsmanship to inform our own works-in-progress.
This course won’t take the form of a traditional workshop. The majority of our class time will be used for discussion, as well as for in-class writing assignments. At the end of four weeks, students will have an opportunity to submit a short story or novel excerpt to their instructors for extensive written feedback.
New and experienced writers will benefit from this course. PDFs of each reading assignment will be provided. Please write to emily@greatplacebooks.com with questions.
EMILY ADRIAN is the author of several novels including Seduction Theory, forthcoming from Little, Brown in 2025. Her short fiction has appeared in Granta, The Point, EPOCH, and Joyland. She currently teaches at the 92nd Street Y and the Sewanee School of Letters. She is a founding editor of Great Place Books.
ALEX HIGLEY is the author of True Failure, forthcoming from Coffee House Press in 2025, as well as Cardinal (nominated for the PEN/Bingham Award) and Old Open. He is a founding editor of Great Place Books. Raised in Colorado, he currently lives in North Carolina.
"Emily's class opened my eyes to so many new ways of thinking about fiction, as a reader and writer. I felt like I got to know the other writers in the class well, which is so rare for an online class, and is entirely thanks to her teaching. And Emily's feedback on my writing was encouraging and insightful. I loved her class so much."
— JAIME GREEN, AUTHOR OF THE POSSIBILITY OF LIFE