The Workshop

I’ve always been obsessed with short stories, both as a writer and a reader. As a mother of a young child, it was a way for me to absorb a meaningful story within a shorter time frame that has a large impact. When writing, it became a critical skill to get the entirety of a story down within a shorter framework—a moment in a car ride, an interaction at a pharmacy, a comment at a cocktail party. As the writer Robert Sawyer says, “A short story is the shortest distance between two points; a novel is the scenic route.”

I believe that if you can write a short story, you can write anything. While they may appear intimidating from the outset, there are techniques and skills to be learned to make this form less intimidating, which we will dissect through reading short stories as well as sharing the progress of our own short story in workshop. 

Course Outline

• Week 1: Read and Discuss “White Night” by Ann Beattie; Workshop two pieces

• Week 2: Read and Discuss “A Love Story,” by Samantha Hunt; Workshop two pieces

• Week 3: Read and Discuss “The Midnight Zone,” by Lauren Groff; Workshop two pieces

• Week 4: Read and Discuss “Trip in a Summer Dress,” by Annette Sanford; Workshop two pieces

Your Instructor

Kate Boyette started in N.Y.C. with independent film production, which led her to L.A. to work at Creative Artist Agency. Underwhelmed teaching celebrities how to drive their Priuses, she left CAA and enrolled in Le Cordon Bleu. Since then, her culinary pursuits and events took her from Texas to Park City, Utah, to eventually, Charleston, S.C. as the first editor-in-chief of the culinary publication, The Local Palate. She recently launched her boutique cookbook publishing company, Mise En Place Publishing, which published the female literary journal, REVISIONIST as well as multiple cookbooks, and earned her MFA in creative writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts, combining her two loves—cooking and storytelling. 

Dates

• Thursday, June 5

• Thursday, June 12

• Thursday, June 19

• Thursday, June 26