Class Description

In this class, we’ll take a time machine back to high school. We’ll examine the components of YA fiction—accessible prose, pacing, and above all, a memorable protagonist and voice. We’ll mine two novel openings and ask: How do the authors create a believable and compelling narrator, and how can we use their tools for our own work? We’ll explore how to create an authentic voice, establish tension, and balance interiority with action and dialogue. Not least, we’ll explore how to weave humor with sadness—many YA authors embrace visceral and even disturbing subjects, while still managing to make readers laugh. This class is designed for beginners. It will combine discussion of craft and pre-assigned reading with generative writing prompts. You will be encouraged to share work and receive verbal instructor feedback. LEONORA DESAR'S writing has appeared in places such as River Styx, Passages North, The Cincinnati Review, Black Warrior Review, and Columbia Journal, where she was chosen as a finalist by Ottessa Moshfegh. Her work has been selected for The Best Small Fictions 2019 and 2021, Best Microfiction 2019, 2020, 2021, and the Wigleaf Top 50 (2019, 2020, 2021). She was a runner-up/finalist in Quarter After Eight’s Robert J. DeMott Short Prose Contest, judged by Stuart Dybek, and Crazyhorse’s Crazyshorts! contest. She holds an MFA in fiction from NYU and an MS from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.