English CAKN. Fiction Workshop: The Short Novel

Instructor: Andrew Krivák
Tuesday, 9:00-11:45 am | Location: TBD
Enrollment: Limited to 12 students

This course is a workshop intended for students who are interested in exploring the form of the short novel, or the “novella.” The short novel is not simply a novel with fewer pages. The short novel understands and develops character and conflict, time and plot, and often setting and stage in ways unique to its particular scope, characters, and intent.  We will read seven short novels in this course: Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness (to be read before the first meeting); Norman Maclean’s A River Runs Through It; Annie Ernaux’s Happening; Denis Johnson’s Train Dreams; Claire Keegan’s Small Things Like These; Jon Fosse’s Aliss at the Fire; and Juan Rulfo’s Pedro Páramo. Separately and collectively, we will ask of these works: What is the form, and how is the form realized in the arc of the narrative?  Primarily, however, students will write.  Our goal will be to have a student’s work read and discussed twice in class during the semester. I am hoping to see 40 to 50 pages of a short novel —at any level of completion—by the end of term. 

Supplemental Application Information: Please write a substantive letter telling me why you’re interested in taking this class.  I am interested in hearing about any writers of short fiction who may have influenced you. I am also interested in students looking forward to writing a creative thesis in the form of the short novel, and who may already be asking the question of how this form differs from what is expected of a longer novel.  

Apply via Submittable (deadline: 11:59pm EDT on Sunday, April 6)