Class Starts Monday, June 12th, 2023

Now Enrolling!

Any questions about this class? Use the Chat Button (lower left) to talk with us.

Taught by James Tate Hill, contributing editor for Lit Hub, fiction editor for the literary journal Monkeybicycle, and author of Blind Man's Bluff (W.W. Norton, 2021), which includes his essay from Prairie Schooner listed among the Notables in Best American Essays 2020.

In this 8-week course we will create and learn about short fiction that is risk-taking and full of discovery.

In Anne Lamott’s book Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life, she says, “Because this business of becoming conscious, of being a writer, is ultimately about asking yourself, “How alive am I willing to be?”

In this course, you will explore the art of fiction writing and learn how to craft compelling and engaging stories. No matter your experience level, we will cover the fundamentals of fiction writing, including character development, plot structure, dialogue, setting, and point of view.

In addition to reading essays on the craft of fiction, we will study a variety of published fiction texts to analyze and discuss the techniques used by established fiction writers. You will also have the chance to workshop your own fiction twice and receive constructive feedback from both James Tate Hill and your peers in the class.

By the end of this course, you will have a strong foundation in the craft of fiction writing and the skills necessary to continue developing your writing practice. Whether you are a beginner looking to try your hand at fiction writing or an experienced writer looking to refresh your skills, this course is designed to help you improve and grow as a fiction writer.

Together, we will work on allowing our writing to take us to surprising places, to show us what we are thinking, to bring us the spark of topics, places, and people we want to explore.

Throughout the course, you will complete two creative drafts of stories and you will grow as a reader and writer through providing feedback on your classmates’ writing.

COURSE TAKEAWAYS:

• Discover and develop the basic building blocks of short fiction
• Experiment with new techniques to stretch creative skills and voice
• Receive peer and instructor feedback on two short works

NOTE: Students are required to purchase Thrill Me by Benjamin Percy. Links to published stories will be listed in the syllabus and provided by the instructor via email.

ONLINE COURSE STRUCTURE:

This class is entirely asynchronous which means you complete the weekly assignments on your own schedule. There are no set meeting times in order to allow for greater participation; your cohort will consist of writers from across different time zones, which allows for a wonderful diversity of voices.

Along with your weekly deadlines there is plenty of interaction with JT and your peers within Wet Ink, our dedicated online classroom. Craft materials, lectures, reading assignments, and writing prompts are all available through the online classroom. Students also post work and provide and receive feedback within the online classroom environment.

You can get the work done as you see fit week-to-week, so it is perfect for any schedule. There are discussion questions each week inspired by the assigned readings and topics in the lecture notes. Students are encouraged to take these wherever is most compelling and/or useful for them. JT engages with these discussions throughout the week and you will receive feedback from all assigned writing activities.

HOW DOES WET INK WORK?

Wet Ink was built and designed specifically for online writing classes. Wet Ink is private, easy to use, and very interactive. You can learn more about the Wet Ink platform by Watching a Class Demo.

• Instructor: James Tate Hill
  

• Class size limited to 10 writers
  

• Starts June 12th, 2023
  

• Course is fully ONLINE; students can work according to their own schedule within weekly deadlines. Once you have enrolled the instructor will send you a link to our online classroom, provided via Wet Ink.
  

Watch James Tate Hill and his agent and fellow author Eric Smith discuss JT's debut memoir, Blind Man’s Bluff (W. W. Norton, 2021). In addition to the book’s themes of disability and self-acceptance, the two talked candidly about the writing process, the road to publication, and the author-agent relationship. This event concluded with an audience Q&A. Watch now:

Contact us HERE if you have any questions about this class.

Instructor James Tate Hill is the author of Blind Man's Bluff (W.W. Norton, 2021) and Academy Gothic (Southeast Missouri State University Press, 2015), winner of the Nilsen Prize for a First Novel. His fiction and essays have appeared in Literary Hub, Prairie Schooner, Hobart, Story Quarterly, and Waxwing, among others. Best American Essays 2019 listed "Do Audiobooks Count As Reading?" from Literary Hub as a Notable Essay. He's the fiction editor for the literary journal Monkeybicycle and a contributing editor for Literary Hub, where he writes a monthly audiobooks column. Born in Charleston, West Virginia, he's a graduate of the writing programs at Hollins University and the University of North Carolina Greensboro. He lives in North Carolina with his wife.

STUDENT TESTIMONIALS

“I took the online nonfiction class with James Tate Hill and I highly recommend it. It allowed me to savor in full the precision and mystery of writing essays. He is an exquisite mentor. The first story I submitted and revised in workshop has already been accepted by a Literary Magazine. I am thrilled I took this class.”

“James Tate Hill's 8-week online Writing Memoir and Personal Essay class was top-notch. His carefully-chosen and varied readings both inspired me to approach my own writing in a new way, and pushed me to go deeper, explore symbolism and find overarching themes--something I hadn't really done since grad school so many years ago. The participants had a wide range of writing abilities and life experiences, and yet J.T. expertly tailored his critiques to each of us, giving detailed, perceptive and constructive feedback to all of our submissions and comments. He also gave us practical and valuable information regarding submission and publication. I will likely be referring to the notes from this class for the rest of my writing career. J.T. and WWD provided us with a semester's worth (or more) of information, at a fraction of the price.”