goodstory fiction workshop
The Goodstory Fiction Workshop is a 6-week fiction-writing class that combines writing exercises, mini crash courses, and workshops. It’s perfect for folks who love to write and are looking to build writing into their lives with more regularity, who want to reconnect with their writing practice, or who are craving community with other writers.
We’ll meet twice a week for six weeks. The class will begin with a focus on generating writing and exploring craft. We’ll look at and talk about pieces of writing that inspire us. (Maybe we’ll read Lauren Groff for an example of gorgeous place-based writing! Maybe we’ll look at Danielle Evans’s mastery of plot in short stories! Maybe we’ll talk about Jhumpa Lahiri’s precise, lifelike dialogue!)
We’ll write a lot—and do our best, in community with others, to quiet that inner voice that gets in the way of finding joy in writing. (The voice sounds different for each of us, but everybody has one—and they are our enemies!)
As the class progresses, we’ll share our writing with one another and use discussion and workshopping as a means of getting closer to telling the stories we want to tell. In connection with Goodstory Run Club’s mission of exploring the relationship between movement and creativity, we’ll also meet up for (optional but very fun!) runs to get moving, get our ideas flowing, and get to know one another. We can’t wait to write with you.
Taught by Julia Pike
Julia Pike is a writer and educator from Brooklyn, New York. Her work has been supported by the Corporation of Yaddo, the St. Botolph Club Foundation, and the St. Albans School Writer-in-Residence program. She has taught English and Creative Writing at the high-school and college levels. She holds an MFA in Fiction from Boston University, and her writing has been published in Joyland, The Common, The Rumpus, Rookie Magazine, and The Molotov Cocktail.
Her debut novel, Don’t You Miss It, is forthcoming from Riverhead Books in 2027.
Hosted by Lydia Keating
Lydia Keating is a Brooklyn-based writer, runner, digital creator, and community organizer. She is the founder of goodstory. She is particularly interested in the intersection of movement and creativity—the ways physical movement can be generative for creativity and serve as a vital part of an artistic process. She is also interested in the ways art can be created in community; it does not have to be, and sometimes should not be, a solitary process.
She holds an MFA in fiction from Boston University. Her fiction has appeared in the Wilderness House Literary Review and Ghost Parachute. Her essay, I’m an Influencer, and I Think Social Media Is Toxic was published in Slate. Her other writing can be found on her Substack.
She is super excited you’re here, interested in goodstory, and considering applying to the goodstory Fiction Course. She will be present at every class meeting, participating in the class alongside other students, and will be leading an optional pre-class run most weeks.