The author Anaïs Nin wrote, “The artist is the only one who knows that the world is a subjective creation, that there is a choice to be made, a selection of elements.” As a beginning writer of short fiction, how do you bring your “subjective creation” to the page? In this introductory fiction writing seminar, we’ll write short stories for critique in a class workshop. We’ll also read short fiction by contemporary authors such as Toni Morrison and Jhumpa Lahiri, and discuss the “choices” and “elements” professional writers bring to their crafting of voice, characters, plot, and place. Required writing for this course includes 1 short short / flash fiction piece (under 1,500 words); 2 short stories (8-20 pages); and 5 short craft reflections on the fiction techniques our readings model.