Fiction | Workshop

6-Week Fiction Workshop: Concision

Most books contain too many words. This class aims to eliminate all redundancy, pleonasm, and throat-clearing. We’ll withhold words, tighten phrases, curtail sentences, condense scenes, abridge plots, and maybe kill some characters. Our insignia will be a greyhound holding a scalpel and chainsaw while standing on a Delete key. This class’s instructor recently edited his 900-page novel down to 380.

During this six-week intensive workshop, each student will workshop twice. Students will also meet with the instructor for individual conferences.

*no class July 4th

CLASS TAKEAWAYS

- intensive peer and instructor critiques on two fiction submissions

- one private conference with the instructor to discuss your writing style, goals, and areas for improvement

- access to a nurturing community of writers and readers

- practical advice about taking the next step as a professional writer - from applying to MFAs to preparing work for submission to agents and publishers

- the ability to cut your work down to its essentials 

- greater familiarity with contemporary masters of literary fiction

- more confidence as a writer, on and off the page! 

Tony Tulathimutte

Tony Tulathimutte’s novel Private Citizens was called “the first great millennial novel” by New York Magazine. A graduate of Stanford University and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, he has written for The New York Times, VICE, WIRED, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The New Republic, N+1, Playboy, The Paris Review, and many others. He has received a 2017 Whiting Award, an O. Henry Award, and a MacDowell Fellowship, and appeared as a guest on Late Night with Seth Meyers.

Testimonials

“In the work of Tony Tulathimutte, every sentence must be a story all its own… and it’s got to sing. He tackles the 21st century social novel armed with tremendous verve, an unsparing eye, and formidable skill.”

Whiting Award Selection Committee

“Tulathimutte has begun the essential work of identifying the century’s new forms of vanity and pain. That he’s relentlessly funny in doing so marks him as a genuine talent.”

NEW YORK MAGAZINE

"Tony’s course was one of my favorites from college. He consistently led engaging and mind-opening discussions, and I genuinely looked forward to completing his homework assignments, which consisted of intriguing readings and fun, challenging writing prompts. Not only did my reading and writing improve, but I also became better at critical thinking. Tony puts a lot of work into the classes he teaches."

former student

“I suspect in about 15 years, the young American novelist Tony Tulathimutte will start winning huge literary awards, but in the meantime, I recommend reading PRIVATE CITIZENS, his bracingly smart first novel about messed-up millennials.”

Curtis Sittenfield THE GUARDIAN

“In this lovingly portrayed hell, the body is excess baggage, and self-doubt poses dangers so grave only a writer would risk it. It’s not a satire, but an eloquent social novel bristling with logic.”

Nell Zink THE FINANCIAL TIMES

“Witty, unsparing, and unsettlingly precise, Tulathimutte empathizes with his subjects even as he (brilliantly) skewers them. A satirical portrait of privilege and disappointment with striking emotional depth.”

KIRKUS starred review

“The [novel] I really enjoyed and admired a couple months ago… It’s a book called PRIVATE CITIZENS… it’s a real book. He’s a big talent.”

Jonathan Franzen