Craft Seminar: Sense of an Ending with Laura van den Berg
Craft Seminar: Sense of an Ending with Laura van den Berg
1 Session: Saturday, April 6
12:00-3:00pm ET
Laura van den Berg
This craft seminar will be led by Laura van den Berg, the author of six works of fiction, including three short story collections. Her stories have appeared in The Best American Short Stories and The O. Henry Prize Stories, and she has been a two-time finalist for the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award. My goal is for each writer to leave the seminar with a fuller toolkit for how to think about short story endings in general and in their own work specifically.
Have you ever written most of a short story draft only to get stuck on how it should end? Or landed on a “just okay” ending that you haven’t been able to improve in revision? This seminar will focus on the craft of writing short story endings that dazzle. Together we will explore what makes for a thrilling ending in a short story, aided by craft handouts and a reading list of published short stories that we can turn to for inspiration and instruction. The seminar will also offer revision exercises designed to help participants move closer to their own ideal story endings. My goal is for each writer to leave the seminar with a fuller toolkit for how to think about short story endings in general and in their own work specifically.
Workshop Highlights:
The seminar will include craft study and discussion of published short stories; generative revision exercises; and Q & A
Deepen your understanding of what makes for a compelling ending in the short story
Practical craft tips for writing & revising your own story endings
1 full and 1 partial scholarship available. For information, please contact Kate Mabus, kate@theshipmanagency.com
Laura van den Berg’s most recent book is the widely praised short story collection, I Hold a Wolf by the Ears (FSG, 2020) , which NPR called “exquisite.” Her next novel is State of Paradise, which will be published by FSG in Summer 2024. Other books include the novel The Third Hotel (FSG, 2018), a finalist for the New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award, and two other collections of stories, The Isle ofYouth (FSG, 2013), and What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us (Dzanc Books, 2009), as well as the novel Find Me (FSG, 2015).
