Begins Monday, June 1, 2026

Class will meet weekly via Wet Ink (asynchronous)

Now Enrolling!

Any questions about this class? Use the Chat Button to talk with us.

Instructor Amy Cipolla Barnes is the award-winning author of three collections: Mother Figures, Ambrotypes, and Child Craft (Belle Point Press, 2023). She has work at The Rumpus, SmokeLong Quarterly, McSweeney's, New Territory Mag, In Short, Literary Namjooning, The Citron Review, Spartan Lit, JMWW Journal, No Contact Mag, Paragraph Planet, Complete Sentence, Gone Lawn, Trampset, The Bureau Dispatch, Stanchion, The Hooghly Review, X-R-A-Y Lit, -ette review, Reckon Review, Cease, Cows, AARP, Southern Living, and many other publications. Her writing has been nominated for Best of the Net and the Pushcart Prize, included in Best Microfiction 2025 and Best Small Fictions 2022, and longlisted for the Wigleaf Top50 from 2021 through 2025. She serves as a Fractured Lit associate editor, Gone Lawn co-editor, Ruby Lit assistant editor, Narratively Chief Submissions Reader, and instructor for the Narratively Academy, and also reads for The MacGuffin. Amy brings two decades of teaching experience to this online writing class, including courses in Southern lit, mystery writing, journaling, and self-editing for colleges, universities, and businesses.

Meet the Teaching Artist:

Amy Cipolla Barnes on Writing the Heat, the Humidity, and the Heart of Southern Fiction

Who Is This Class For?

This course is for fiction and CNF/narrative writers who want to get in touch with their Southern side through their writing. It is open to all levels — from writers encountering Southern literature for the first time to those looking to deepen an established practice rooted in place and voice.

What to Expect

The Literature of Heat is a 6-week asynchronous writing workshop that dives into the best — and most complex — of what makes Southern literature distinctly Southern. From charged atmosphere and vivid setting to character voice and sensory detail, this creative writing course will help writers develop a literary accent in their work that feels specific, earned, and alive. Drawing on the landscapes, voices, and tensions of Southern writing, you'll examine how acclaimed authors conjure heat, humidity, and the weight of place without leaning on stereotype.

Each week of this online writing class pairs close reading with generative writing prompts rooted in Southern literary tradition. You'll explore the work of both canonical and emerging Southern voices across gender and background — from Flannery O'Connor and Richard Wright to Sabrina Orah Mark, Shome Dasgupta, and William Woolfitt. The course also draws inspiration from the Designing Women episodes featuring Dash Goff, a writer — a surprisingly rich blueprint for thinking about Southern heat, wit, and emotional complexity on the page.

Students will write and receive instructor feedback on two completed pieces, and engage with peer work through Wet Ink's community features. You'll leave this poetry and fiction writing workshop with a reading list of contemporary Southern lit and a curated target list of publications suited to your new work.

What Are the Writing Goals?

In this course, students will write four to six new pieces of flash fiction or short prose in response to craft prompts rooted in Southern literary tradition, inspired by the landscapes, voices, and tensions of Southern literature. Students will explore the work of both canonical and emerging Southern voices across gender and background, and examine how acclaimed Southern writers create atmosphere and character through heat, humidity, and the weight of place — without relying on stereotype. Students will receive instructor feedback on two completed pieces and engage with peer work through Wet Ink's community features, and leave with a reading list of contemporary Southern lit and a target list of publications for their work.

Readings

Readings may include excerpts from Wild Milk by Sabrina Orah Mark; The Man Who Was Almost a Man by Richard Wright; selected works by William Woolfitt from The Night the Rain Had Nowhere to Go; A Louisiana Sestina by Shome Dasgupta; A Good Man Is Hard to Find by Flannery O'Connor. The course may also include viewing the "Dash Goff, Writer" episode of Designing Women.

COURSE OUTLINE

Week 1: Setting | Focus: Writing place as character; how Southern landscape shapes story

Week 2: Character Building | Focus: Creating Southern characters with depth and specificity

Week 3: Sensory Details | Focus: Using heat, humidity, and the senses to ground readers in place

Week 4: Female Southern Writers | Reading: Sabrina Orah Mark, Flannery O'Connor | Focus: Voice, wit, and emotional complexity

Week 5: Male Southern Writers | Reading: Richard Wright, Shome Dasgupta, William Woolfitt | Focus: Tension, dialect, and place 

Week 6: Creating the Southern Fiction Collection | Focus: Shaping finished pieces into a thematically linked collection; identifying target publications

COURSE TAKEAWAYS:

• Write four to six complete pieces of flash fiction or short prose rooted in Southern literary tradition
• Develop craft techniques for writing setting as character, building atmosphere through sensory detail, and using dialect without stereotype
• Explore the work of both canonical and emerging Southern writers across gender and background
• Receive instructor feedback on two completed pieces plus peer engagement through Wet Ink's community features
• Leave with a curated reading list of contemporary Southern literature
• Depart with a targeted list of literary publications suited to submitting your new work

TESTIMONIALS:

Daily inspiration and accountability! — Former Student

Thanks for the tremendous organization to create this class. It was obvious there was a lot of thought and work behind the scenes to build a month of meaning. — Former Student

I appreciated the well-chosen examples — daily boosts to fortify us. They were the perfect appetizers to frame the task of editing. And, the broad range of assignments pushed me further with solid strategies into places I hadn't considered. I now have tools to review and reconstruct my essays. — Former Student

I loved the dozens of essays Amy sourced for us to read each day. I was introduced to many literary magazines I didn't know of before. — Former Student

PAYMENT OPTIONS:

Tuition is $445 USD. You can pay for the course in full or use Shop Pay or Affirm to pay over time with equal Monthly Payments. Both options are available at checkout.

ONLINE COURSE STRUCTURE:

• Instructor: Amy Cipolla Barnes
• Begins Monday, June 1, 2026
• Class will meet weekly via Wet Ink (asynchronous)
• Tuition is $445 USD.