Advanced Fiction: Writing Fairy Tales

Fairy tales have inspired authors for centuries, and we are still very much under their spell.

In the first part of this course, we study classic as well as contemporary fairy tales, including works by Helen Oyeyemi, Neil Gaiman, Margaret Atwood, and Kelly Link.

In the second part, students workshop their own original prose fiction fairy tale, which may be a piece of short-form fiction or an excerpt from a longer work in progress.

Throughout, we explore how fairy tales have encouraged authors to develop their own style and voice, even as they seem to speak in a language all their own.