MasterClass – Joyce Carol Oates Teaches the Art of the Short Story

Joyce Carol Oates has been recognized as a literary treasure for more than 50 years. Her work has been honored with many distinguished awards, including the National Book Award for her novel “them.” She’s also won two O. Henry Awards, the National Humanities Medal, and the Jerusalem Prize.

Prolific and adept at moving across genres, Joyce has written 58 novels so far and thousands of short stories, articles, and essays. Several of her novels, including “Black Water,” “What I Lived For,” and “Blonde,” as well as two of her short story collections, have been Pulitzer Prize finalists. She has taught at Princeton University since 1978, and now the esteemed creative writing professor teaches you the art of the short story.

In Joyce’s MasterClass, learn how to write a short story that connects with readers. Joyce teaches you the principles of engaging short fiction—from sentences to structure—and tools for self-exploration and improved self-expression. Discover your instincts as a storyteller, develop your voice and your own personal narrative, and learn how to find ideas all around you and inside you. Approach writing as an adventure, experiment with form and structure and find your best idea yet.

In this online writing class, you’ll learn about:

• The principles of writing short stories
• Where to find short story ideas
• Connecting with readers through the taboo
• Journaling and self-expression
• Mining your experiences for story ideas
• Analyzing and constructing monologues
• Gaining inspiration and ideas by reading with intention
• Experimenting with different forms of writing
• Learning from examples of American short fiction
• Creative writing through self-exploration