Porter Shreve

About:

The aim of this workshop in fiction writing is to write what moves you, whether autobiographical or fully imagined, traditional or experimental, funny, sad, or some combination. We will generate original work, through writing exercises and workshops and we will read craft pieces and a couple of short stories by contemporary masters of the form. The atmosphere here will be generous, supportive, and honest. As with any workshop we will focus on narrative technique, including voice, language, dramatic action, point of view, setting, and theme. Among the topics we might discuss are how to create opposing characters; the difference between an ordinary and a significant detail; and the ways in which writers from classic to contemporary combine comedy, pathos, and drama all within the same narrative.

Requirements:

This workshop is open to writers of all levels of ability and there is no submission requirement.

Biography:

Porter Shreve grew up in Washington, DC and graduated from the MFA program at the University of Michigan, where he studied the novel and short story with Nicholas Delbanco, Charles Baxter, and Lorrie Moore. He has taught at the University of Michigan, the University of Oregon, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and is now Associate Professor of English and Director of Creative Writing at Purdue University.

Shreve is the author of three novels, all with Houghton Mifflin: The Obituary Writer was a 2000 New York Times Notable Book, Drives Like a Dream was a 2005 Chicago Tribune Best Book of the Year, and When the White House Was Ours, to be published in September 2008. He is coeditor of six anthologies, including the Contemporary American Short Story: A Longman Anthology.

Shreve's book reviews, nonfiction, and short stories have appeared in Witness, Northwest Review, Salon, the New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Boston Globe and the Chicago Tribune. He is currently working on a new novel.