Close Reading: The Craft of Reading Fiction Like a Writer

CLOSE READING:
The Craft of Reading Fiction Like a Writer
Dylan Landis

Monday, March 26 and Wednesday, March 28, 1-3 p.m.

Price: $65 ($50 members)

Book

Stones for Ibarra, Harriet Doerr

A seminar for readers and writers

In this two-part class we'll take an exquisite and wrenching story, "The Inheritance," from Harriet Doerr's Stones for Ibarra, read it aloud a paragraph or two at a time, and hold each part up to the light. (It helps to read the story in advance; you may not be able to keep from reading the book.)

Close reading is a slow, pleasurable, and surprisingly exciting process. It's how writers improve their craft as they read. It's also a craft in itself that can help a reader slow down at critical moments and appreciate more keenly how a story is made. Close-reading "The Inheritance," we'll examine how Doerr established sense of place and internal conflict; how she ramped up tension, revealed character, and left the reader's imagination room to create the scene. We'll also see how one story expands the larger novel-in-stories.

Readers will leave with a heightened appreciation for the craft of fiction; writers will refine their ability to learn from what they read. 

ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR

Dylan Landis is the author of the novel-in-stories Normal People Don't Live Like This, one of Newsday's Best Books of 2009, and the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship.