In this class we will read short stories by contemporary masters of short fiction and analyze them to write our own stories. We will read stories by Alice Munro, Ted Chiang, Octavia Butler, Toni Morrison and Carmen Maria Machado. We study master short stories to learn their secrets and borrow them. Each week we will discuss a different story and look at how authors deal with use of time, point of view, narrative voice, the element of surprise and growth of a character. You will have a weekly mini-assignment towards completing your story and we will spend part of each class looking at drafts of our your stories in smaller groups. In the final two weeks you will turn in a complete short story and discuss it in workshop with the class.