Writer-in-Residence Spring 2010

Richard Bausch

The Creative Writing Program is pleased to announce that Richard Bausch will join us in the spring of 2010 as our Visiting Writer.

Richard Bausch is the author of ten novels and seven volumes of short stories. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, Esquire, Playboy, GQ, Harper's Magazine, and other publications, and has been featured in numerous best-of collections, including the O. Henry Awards' Best American Short Stories and New Stories from the South. In 2004, he won the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story. He currently holds the Moss Chair of Excellence at the University of Memphis.

“In the small firmament of American writers who’re both superb novelists and eloquent short-story practitioners Richard Bausch’s star shines more brightly now more than ever.”
-- Richard Ford

“Richard Bausch’s novels are among the best being written in America today.”
-- Robert Stone

"Richard Bausch is a master of the short story."
-- New York Times Book Review

Course Description

ENG 686: Special Topics in Fiction - Forms of Fiction

This course will will explore the strategies and techniques of fiction and the tools employed by writers to tell stories effectively. Using models from the world’s store of prose fiction, students will produce their own work, and these efforts will be discussed. Emphasis will be on student work, but with strong reference to the different shapes of narrative strategy: characterization, description, dramatic irony, point of view, the treatment of time and place, dramatic instance, and the use of dialogue.