The Art of The Story

With Tom Jenks

Four-Day Intensive Workshop
for Short Story Writers, Novelists,
and Authors of Creative Nonfiction


—ALL 2025 CLASSES WILL BE HELD VIRTUALLY—
The class will meet every day for four days, and each participant will have one manuscript workshopped by the entire class and a second manuscript reviewed for an individual conference with Tom. A reading list of works by noted authors will be assigned ahead of time, and we will go into these works to study storytelling and the formal elements of fiction, including voice, point of view, characterization, imagery, plot, and theme. Attention will also be given to scene building, sentence making, and the dramatic movement of descriptive writing. The class will be conducted each day from 8 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Pacific Time, via Zoom, and the individual conferences will be conducted by phone in the afternoons each day.


Enrollment is limited. Acceptance into the class will be based on evaluation of a submitted manuscript. Classes tend to fill prior to the application deadline, so early application is advised.


CLASS DATES
Jan. 9—12, 2025
Feb. 13—16, 2025

APPLICATION DEADLINE
for the Jan. class                    Oct. 15, 2024
for the Feb. class                    Nov. 15, 2024


To apply or to receive more information:

  • Please send an email to Workshops.

  • WRITERS EDITED AND PUBLISHED BY TOM JENKS INCLUDE:
    Rick Bass
    Richard Bausch
    Ann Beattie
    T. Coraghessan Boyle
    Janet Burroway
    Robert Olen Butler
    Michael Chabon
    Yoon Choi
    Frank Conroy
    Hal Crowther
    Don DeLillo
    E. L. Doctorow
    Andre Dubus
    Stuart Dybek
    Jennifer Egan
    Gail Godwin
    Donald Hall
    Saidiya Hartman
    Jim Harrison
    Charles Johnson
    R. O. Kwon
    Krys Lee
    Min Jin Lee
    Bernard Malamud
    Anthony Marra
    Peter Matthiessen
    Jill McCorkle
    Arthur Miller
    Susan Minot
    Lorrie Moore
    Alice Munro
    Maud Newton
    Viet Thanh Nguyen
    Joyce Carol Oates
    Jayne Anne Phillips
    Annie Proulx
    Kirstin Valdez Quade
    Philip Roth
    Benjamin Alire Sáenz
    James Salter
    Robert Stone
    Morgan Talty
    John Updike
    Katherine Vaz
    Madhuri Vijay
    Kurt Vonnegut
    John Edgar Wideman
    Tom Wolfe
    Tobias Wolff
    Richard Yates
    Tryphena Yeboah

  • Comments from writers who have worked with Tom
  • A Brief Handbook of Revision for Writers
  • A Poetics of Fiction: Six Chapters on the Art of Imaginative Prose
  • Some Video of The Art of the Story Workshop