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Experimental Fiction Writing
Joining the Dialogue
with Tantra Bensko

REGISTRATION:

COST, LENGTH, PREREQUISITES:

No prerequisites.

Standard course: $180 / 6 weeks. Click here to register

Extended schedule: $224 / 12 weeks. Click here to register
Extended course gives you two weeks to do each lesson but contains NO additional material.

For questions about this COURSE, e-mail flameflower@runbox.com

You will write a few pieces of Innovative short fiction, a writer’s statement, creative bios, a brief piece of literary criticism. If you enjoy the idea of pushing beyond the boundaries of ordinary fiction, this course will allow you to play, and to forge new directions in literature which remain compelling for the reader. You will also consider how you fit into the history and ongoing presentation of experimental fiction, delve into new parts of your psyche, and start making connections with magazines.

COURSE OBJECTIVES: You will write four stories that question the traditions of mainstream story-telling in ways that suit what you want to get across and explore, which help delve into your unique personality and voice, develop your philosophies of life and then maybe undercut them, redefine what a character and plot can be, and make you proud to submit your writing to innovative literary journals, which we will prepare you for. You will look into the process of writing bios appropriate to individual magazines, writing from the subconscious, breaking the conventions of plot and character, while keeping your stories exciting and accessible.

Week 1:
Establish Contact. Write an introduction to your writing, however creatively you wish. Then give me an example.

Week 2:
Entering the Dialog of Literature. Read some links for stories by Italo Calvino and write a short piece of literary criticism about his writing. Then write a short story inspired by his experimentation.

Week 3:
Expanding the Definition of Character. Finish or revise the story submitted the previous week if you like. Then write a story which pushes beyond the mainstream concepts of character. Write a short bio to accompany the story.

Week 4:
Deepening Your Sense of Self. Write something brief to communicate with a magazine, blog, wiki, or someone connected with the magazine world. Watch a video online about the living author Rudolfo Anaya. Write an experimental story based on your own heritage, writing from your subconscious. Write a bio to accompany it.

Week 5:
Playing with the Plot Arc. Write a story experimenting with non-traditional use of plot. Write a bio. Read a linked piece on short story writing if desired.

Week 6:
Submission of Polished Work. Finish and revise any previous submissions, and write a more developed writer’s statement. Other types of communication are optional, such as letting me know of magazines you might submit to, or ideas for a short story collection.

PLANNED HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENTS BY WEEK:

1. Introduction to your style, goals, etc.. Send me an example of what is meaningful to you, however creative it is, and however old or new it is.
2. Read some stories by the Cuban born writer of Italian language fiction, Calvino, considered by many to be the best experimental writer of all time. Write something brief about what he does with writing. Write a short story inspired by that and my text about experimenting with fiction.
3. Finish or revise your previous story if you want. Write a new one after you consider my text about what constitutes a character, and some ideas for innovation. Write a bio.
4. Make brief contact with a magazine, guest book, blog writer, forum, etc.. Watch an entertaining video online about the Hispanic writer, Anaya, and my text, and delve into your own voice and vision, writing a new story, dipping into your subconscious as Anaya does. Write a bio.
5. Read my text about ways to push past the use of plot in mainstream fiction, and write a short story, and a bio. Read the suggested online work on writing if desired.
6. After reading my text, finish or revise your stories. Write a brief, polished writer’s statement. Any other communication about writing is welcome.

Tantra Bensko has over 100 creative writing publications in literary magazines, and an even more substantial number of non fiction article publications, as well as 6 small press books. Her fiction and poetry have won awards, and been featured, and she has often been invited to be interviewed in magazines about her work.

Her writing has appeared in places such as The Journal of Experimental Fiction, The Iowa Journal of Literary Studies, Fiction International Unlikely Stories, Bewildering Stories, Retort, North of Wakulla: An Anhinga Anthology, and the United Nation's Unesco Other Voices magazine. She has fiction upcoming in the anthologies Surreal South and Quantum Genre.

She writes essays about the new experimental literary genre she is promoting, called "Lucid Fiction," which expands not only fiction's usage of character and plot and subject matter, but in the looser sense includes all forms of the arts, and comments on society and consciousness itself.

She has an MA in English from Florida State University, and an MFA in creative writing from Iowa. She taught writing for 6 years in universities and now teaches conversational English, in San Francisco.

She is a highly published award winning artist, and the combination of writing and art and helping others bring out their talents in the magazine world has lead to her being on the staff of various journals over the years, including being art director of Mad Hatters Review.

She lives with her fiance, next door to her son, by the ocean in San Francisco. She produces movies and conducts innovative personal transformation sessions, working through her company, LucidPlay. She also makes experimental music and surreal comedy for fun. She loves to play heartily, and adores the ridiculous.