4-Week: The Wishing Pool of Inspiration—Learning from Fairy Tales

From Baba Yaga and her house on chicken feet to Bluebeard’s blood-soaked chamber, fairy tales have secrets to reveal that can make us better fiction writers. In this class, we’ll examine a range of fairy tales both original and re-told to break down how they work and discover their beating hearts, learning lessons both pragmatic and magical. Then, we'll explore ways to infuse their wonders into our own writing. This class is primarily aimed at writers of realist or genre fiction but is open to all writers of all genres, and will entail a mix of close reading, in-class discussion, and generative writing prompts.