WHY SETTING MATTERS with Emily Adrian
SOLD OUT
6 Weeks | Thursdays, 8pm - 10pm ET (on Zoom) | Jan 11 - Feb 15, 2024
$420 | REGISTER
Fiction can introduce us to foreign cities, complicate our relationship to our own hometown, or make us long for places we’ve never seen. Why does it matter where a story takes place? Could Kazuo Ishiguro have set The Remains of the Day in Los Angeles? What techniques did Marilynne Robinson use to bring to life her fictional Fingerbone, Idaho? How does setting shape plot, develop character, inform voice and perspective, and ultimately raise a story’s stakes? In this class, we will read and discuss six short stories—from a diverse range of time periods and perspectives—in which setting is as vivid and consequential as a main character. Reading assignments will include work by Willa Cather, James Joyce, James Baldwin, Mary Gaitskill, Karen Russell, and Arundhati Roy.
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 six weeks, students will have an opportunity to submit a short story or novel excerpt to the instructor 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 four novels including The Second Season and Everything Here Is Under Control. Her short fiction has appeared in Granta, Joyland, and Epoch. She is a teacher, editor, and co-founder of Great Place Books.
"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