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Meet THe Team
We yearn. We are the yearning creatures of this planet. There are superficial yearnings, and there are truly deep ones always pulsing beneath, but every second we yearn for something. And fiction, inescapably, is the art form of human yearning.
—Robert Olen Butler, From Where You Dream From: The Process of Writing Fiction
In this workshop we’ll focus on the art of yearning in the short story. We’ll explore short stories shaped by urgent perspectives and voices. Stories that are unsettling with their conflicts of yearning, vulnerability, suffering, and consequences. Convincing stories of immediacy and immersion. Through inventive prompts, sharing our writing in groups, and discussing compelling short stories, we’ll begin to imagine more attentively how yearning is at the center of impactful stories. How the art of yearning can help us, moreover, to imagine and write characters and fictions that matter. A few key craft elements that we’ll consider are perspective, tone, word choice/texture, inner and outer conflict, subtext, and voice. My hope is that by the end of our workshop, we’ll each have creative possibilities for crafting the art form of human yearning.
Fred Arroyo is the author of Alba and Other Songs, winner of the 3rd Gunpowder Press Alta California Chapbook Prize, and published in a bilingual edition (2024). His Sown in Earth: Essays of Memory and Belonging was shortlisted for 2021-2022 William Saroyan International Prize for Writing. He is also the author of Western Avenue and Other Fictions, and The Region of Lost Names. His writing has appeared in the anthologies Camino del Sol: Fifteen Years of Latina and Latino Writing and The Colors of Nature: Essays on Culture, Identity and the Natural World. Fred is currently working on a collection of short fictions, The Book of Manuels, and a collection of poems.
"I cannot say enough good things about Fred. He is not only knowledgeable, offering multiple reading recommendations in every class, but he is inspiring by sharing his own work and kind in his encouragement of students at all levels. Perhaps the best thing about Fred's class leadership is his willingness to forgo his plan/syllabus to allow participants' questions and experiences to take the class in unpredictable directions. I would definitely be interested in taking another class from him because he made me feel like I could really be a writer."
"Fred Arroyo absolutely taught us the value of bravely writing with vulnerability, and he taught us how to do it. Fred inspired us with an array of excellent examples. Then, with his writing prompts and assignments he quickly got us writing with vulnerability, and therefore, better. Because of the quick pace of this class we didn't have time to feel afraid to write. We just started writing. My writing improved 1000%. Not only that but I experienced more joy in the writing process than I ever had before. I feel optimistic that I can now finish my unfinished writing projects. Not that only that but I feel excited and confident to get cracking on them. Hoorah, Fred!"
"Fred is an incredibly engaging instructor - encouraging, constructive, and thoughtful in his feedback. I learned substantially from his commentary, readings, and ability to engage with vulnerability."
