This six-week course will introduce participants to the practice of ‘reading with a
writer’s eye’ in an effort to improve their own short fiction. Initial meetings will combine
discussions of a range of classic and contemporary short stories with fun, generative
writing exercises designed to deepen our understanding of such fictional elements as
character, dialogue, setting, plot and figurative language—all with the aim of moving us
past that first blank page. Later meetings will offer participants the opportunity to read
and respond to each other’s drafts in a supportive workshop environment. The course
will meet on Wednesday evenings from 6:00 to 7:30 PM and will run from September
18th to October 23rd . Enrollment is limited to the first twelve individuals to register.
The instructor, David Lavender, was a long-time English teacher at the Telluride High
School, recently retired. He earned an MFA in Creative Writing from the Iowa Writers’
Workshop, where he served as a Teaching/Writing Fellow and taught the
Undergraduate Fiction Workshop. His work, which has received the Henfield/Trans-
Atlantic Review Award and Honorable Mention from the O. Henry Award, has appeared
in journals including Quarterly West, CutBank and The Georgia Review.