BEGINNINGS, MIDDLES, AND ENDINGS:  In this workshop we will work through your stories from top to bottom, discussing how to grab a readers attention in the very first sentence and keep it all the way to the last page. We will complete exercises and prompts in class and at home in order to write vivid settings, popping dialogue, and a plots that burn.  Each students is invited to submit a 10-15 page story for discussion and critique in class.  If you like to work on a laptop, bring it, but also come prepared with paper and pen. 

Novelist Tayari Jones is the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award in Fine Arts from the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation and a winner of the Hurston-Wright Legacy Award for Debut Fiction. She has written for McSweeney’s, The New York Times, and the Believer. Her previous novels include Leaving Atlanta and The Untelling, winner of the Lillian C. Smith award. Her third novel, Silver Sparrow, has been included in O Magazine‘s Favorite Things for 2011, Library Journal‘s and Atlanta Magazine‘s Top Ten Best Books of 2011, and the best books of the year at slate.com and salon.com. Tayari holds degrees from Spelman College, Arizona State University, and the University of Iowa. She serves on the MFA faculty at Rutgers-Newark and blogs on writing at www.tayarijones.com.