ENGL 39 - Fiction Writing Workshop

Stories are everywhere in human culture and thought. To read and produce stories is to experience their pleasure and their value in our lives. It is no accident that people have been telling stories as long as there have been people and that every culture, nation, family, and individual has one or more founding tales to explain and justify itself. Stories are used often for explanation, persuasion, provocation, definition, and entertainment; functions that are by no means separate. We are, in some sense, the stories we tell, and to tell and understand stories better is to enrich and empower our lives. The training can be strenuous, illuminating, wonderful. It is certainly worthwhile both in itself and for the skills it yields. Therefore, this course is for anyone who has ever written a story or for anyone who ever wanted to.