Short Fiction Workshop II
Interested in seeing the creative writing of former Short Fiction Workshop II students? Visit the Duke TIP e-Studies online anthology, The Writers' Guild.
Courses
- Abnormal Psychology
- Academic Writing
- Academic Writing II: Writing about Literature
- Advanced Topics in Mathematics
- Anatomy and Physiology
- Astronomy
- Environmental Science
- FUNdamentals of Chemistry
- Java for Video Games
- Mathematical Problem Solving
- Molecules, Proteins, and Genes: Building Blocks of Biology
- Nanotechnology
- Plugged In: Media Studies in the 21st Century
- Screenwriting
- Short Fiction Workshop
- Short Fiction Workshop II
- Social Psychology
Score Requirements: (Score Table 2)
Prerequisites: 1) Short Fiction Workshop (e-Studies or Summer Studies) or another creative writing course and 2) a piece or excerpt of original fiction (500-1,000 words) submitted with the application.
About the Course: This course is the sequel to Short Fiction Workshop, offering a challenge to the creative writer who is ready to explore literary genre and technique at a higher level of complexity. Building on their foundational understanding of literary elements, students will expand their knowledge of writing craft to improve the complexity, subtlety and fluidity of their short stories and flash fiction. They will confront questions about plot and motivation, experiment with non-linear structures, try their hand at shifting points of view, incorporate unifying themes, improve their focus and selection of details, and become more accomplished sculptors of individual sentences. Students will first approach these craft questions in published writers’ work, address them on discussion boards and in chat rooms, and then explore them in their own writing. Learning how to read as a writer will be a key component of this course. Being a thoughtful critic of one’s own and other writers’ work is fundamental to the workshop and revision process. After engaging in the workshop process, students will consider revision strategies, first by studying multiple versions of a single published story, then delving into the rewriting of their own work.
About the Instructor: Delia DeCourcy holds a B.A. in English with highest honors from Oberlin College and a master’s degree from the Breadloaf School of English at Middlebury College. A nine year veteran of the independent school English classroom, Delia worked concurrently as an administrator, most recently as Assistant Head of the Middle School at Cary Academy in Cary North Carolina. Previously, she directed Summerbridge Louisville at Kentucky Country Day School, an academic enrichment program for public school students in which all teaching is performed by high school and college students. Delia also served as a teacher-editor for the online educational publication MidLink Magazine sponsored by North Carolina State University, SAS Institute, and the University of Central Florida. Delia is currently a student in the creative writing program at the University of Michigan- Ann Arbor and she is at work on her first novel.
Instructor(s) subject to change.