Speculative Worlds: Science Fiction + Fantasy Short Story Writing
Adult Multi-Week | Available
Got ideas for a science fiction or fantasy story but aren’t sure how to approach it? Have you wanted to try exploring these imaginative genres but need a push to get started? Looking for like-minded folks with whom to share work and explore ideas? If you answered yes to any of those questions, this is the class for you. We’ll spend the first several weeks creating stories using prompts, exercises, and mentor texts, and then each participant will enjoy a supportive workshop critique of their original work in the final sessions. Participants will leave with a complete draft, feedback, and lots of sample stories and resources.
- Participants will need something to write with! Can be analog or digital for in class. Workshop stories will need to be printed.
Accessibility notes: Many artmaking processes require the ability to sit or stand for extended periods of time, fine motor skills/finger dexterity, repetitive motions, vision, and some amount of physical strength. VisArts values making classes accessible to everyone, and is always happy to work with students to make accommodations when possible. Please reach out to info@visarts.org with specific questions related to accessibility or accommodations.
Classes are confirmed one week prior to the start date. In order to help us confirm classes, please register as early as possible.
Ty Phelps
Ty Phelps’ work has appeared in Blackbird, Poets.org, Barstow and Grand, Streetlight, Zizzle, and elsewhere. He won the 2021 Nancy Ludmerer Fellowship for Flash Fiction, Virginia Commonwealth University’s 2019 Catherine and Joan Byrne Poetry Prize, and The Gravity of the Thing’s 2016 Six Word Story Contest. He holds an MA in Teaching from Lewis and Clark College and an MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University where he served as VCU’s 2021-2022 Cabell First Novelist Award Fellow. He is the 2023-24 Writer in Residence at the Visual Arts Center of Richmond.
Website: typhelps.com