Writer’s Corner: Writing in Theory and Practice, Chapter 4

In these Interintellect workshop salons, Sylvia R helps us to master the art of short fiction – by reading some of the greatest short story writers and applying their techniques.

In this session, we’ll start reading “A Swim in a Pond in the Rain”, George Saunders’s literary masterclass on what makes great stories work (based on the nineteenth-century Russian short story in translation class he teaches as part of the graduate MFA program at Syracuse University).

The salon will be structured as follows:

Section 1: Discuss

We’ll look into Chapter 1 of “A Swim in the Pond in the Rain”, which focuses on Anton Chekhov’s “In the Cart”.

Section 2: Write

We’ll spend one hour silently writing together. You’re welcome to spend this time on short stories or on anything else: long fiction, non-fiction, journaling, academic papers, Twitter threads, …

Section 3: Exchange Feedback

We’ll hear how others read and understand our words. The aim is for everyone to receive individual feedback on their writing — either on a piece you worked on during Section 2 or on something you created outside of the salon.

Salon reading materials:

• “A Swim in a Pond in the Rain” by George Saunders, Chapter 1
• Review for “A Swim in a Pond in the Rain”
• If you have questions on reading materials or salon structure, please get in touch with your host Sylvia R.

Time zones:

Saturday 5th June

• 9am in Los Angeles / San Francisco
• 12pm in New York
• 5pm in London
• 6pm in Berlin / Paris
• 9:30pm in Mumbai

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