In this generative workshop we will be reading and modeling literary fiction that takes as its foundation some element of the crime narrative—murder and other violations of the social contract.

In literary crime fiction, crime is often the excuse, the vehicle we use to transport us to the place we want to be, from social or political criticism to psychological exploration.

Each week we will read gritty stories, novellas, and novel excerpts by authors like Jen Beagin, Carmen Maria Machado, Jonathan Lethem, Haruki Murakami, Mary Gaitskill, Oyinkan Braithwaite, and Cary Holladay, then consciously model their techniques or dynamics in one-to-three-page scenes (or flash fiction) which we will read aloud. If you are working on a novel, you are welcome to write into/from that novel, but all work should be new.

This class is designed to generate a lot of layered writing, not to teach critique; as such, it follows Michael Martone’s “hypoxic” workshop model: every student turns in work every week, and depending on class size, the piece is micro-workshopped or is the model for other types of creative response. The writer is not "gagged." or silenced.

Trigger warning: This is not "cozy" material; please be aware that some of these readings include murder, rape, and other upsetting subject matter.