The Craft of Fiction will introduce students to the craft elements that are fundamental to the genre, including (but not limited to) character development, voice, plot, setting, rising action, dialogue, and exposition. We will explore strategies for writing our own stories, and we'll also study key examples of short fiction that will help us understand the complexity and multiplicity of the genre. Students can expect regular writing prompts for creative work, opportunities to give and receive meaningful feedback, weekly responses to the course readings, and other tools for expanding their understanding of what is possible in fiction.
You have the option to enroll in the individual course without committing to the entire Certificate in Creative Writing, enjoying the flexibility and expertise offered by Penn LPS Online to suit your schedule and interests.
*Academic credit is defined by the University of Pennsylvania as a course unit (c.u.). A course unit (c.u.) is a general measure of academic work over a period of time, typically a term (semester or summer). A c.u. (or a fraction of a c.u.) represents different types of academic work across different types of academic programs and is the basic unit of progress toward a degree. One c.u. is usually converted to a four-semester-hour course.
Instructor
- Lecturer in creative writing
Sebastian Castillo is a writer and teacher who lives in Philadelphia. He was born in Caracas, Venezuela, and grew up in the New York City area. He is the author of Fresh, Green Life, The Zoo of Thinking, SALMON, Not I, and 49 Venezuelan Novels. His writing and teaching is concerned with genre hybridity, experimental models of prose, and Latin American literature in translation. His short fiction has been published in BOMB… Read more
