Read Like A Writer

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The 2nd and 4th Monday of each month at 6:30 – 8:00 EST on Zoom.

Writers read to become better writers by teasing out the brilliance in the stories we love. And then trying things out for themselves. Fiction writer Riki Moss brings us short stories from The New Yorker, Granta, The Paris Review, etc.; stories picked for their unique voices, or a stunning first paragraph, exquisite sentences, unexpected endings, the way tension builds in a conventional narrative or circles in fragments: like that. How does the writer pull it off?  Prompts are provided for generative writing, so we hear each other’s voices without judgement. A two month schedule will be posted in advance, the files provided with enough time to read before each workshop. That’s what we ask of you; Read the story, pull it apart, delight in the conversation and write.

To join a session, email [email protected]. We’ll respond with the file and a zoom link. It’s that simple.

Here are the currently scheduled workshops for 2024:

We’ll respond with the file and a zoom link. It’s that simple.

Do you find writing from prompts useful?
Would you like to share your prompts?

Would you like feedback/comments from your peers for other writing?

Workshop participants are invited to post in our google docs.

Email [email protected]

Currently Scheduled Workshops

November 11: Han Kang: an excerpt from this young South Korean’s very strange novel that just won her the Nobel prize. We talk a lot about “being one with nature” or “part of a web” – Kang takes this literally: what if a human and plant really did merge? It’s a story meant for wonder while definitely not for the squeamish. Think of this story as a predecessor of her amazing novel, The Vegetarian.

November 25: Lavie Tidhar: British/Israel prolific SF writer. His story is Elsbeth Rose from Fantasy Magazine (Thank you Peter!) In it, two elderly people meet in what seems to be an infinite apartment building. Elsbeth Rose is a painter, who on the one hand has traveled no more than thirty floors from her apartment, while Traveler Yud as his name suggests, has gone a lot farther than 30 floors. Very sweet, a bit arch…a highly enjoyable story.

December 9: Carrie Brown: American, her recent story in Narrative Magazine called Coyotes. She writes; I love an underdog, I’m interested in what seems to me the harrowing ordinariness of an ordinary life, and maybe the underdog is the archetypal ordinary man…I’m interested in goodness the way some writers are interested in evil, perhaps, although maybe they’re just two sides of the same coin. I’m interested in how we grapple with the ethical, moral questions in our lives.

December 23: Rounding out the year with Dostoevsky: here’s the AI overview: “A story that takes place at a New Year’s party and a wedding, and is told by a narrator who finds the wedding uninteresting. The story is an example of Dostoevsky’s ironic writing style, as it subverts expectations of a wholesome Christmas story.” How’s that for telling us nothing? It’s a complicated, moral story – Very Dostoevskian. You can read a batch of his stories on line here :http://www.online-literature.com/dostoevsky/2883/.

Workshop leader Riki Moss