Seth Fischer

Instructor Bio: MFA, is a developmental editor of novels, memoirs, and science writing and a writer of fiction and creative nonfiction. He has edited award-winning books for Rare Bird Lit and Stillhouse Press and worked with writers who went on to be published at houses including Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, Cornell University Press, and the MIT Press. He was a contributing editor at The Rumpus and is the current nonfiction editor at Angel’s Flight Literary West. His writing has appeared in Guernica, Best Sex Writing, and elsewhere and been selected as notable in The Best American Essays. He has also been awarded fellowships and residencies by Ucross, Jentel, and Lambda Literary.

Instructor Statement: I believe strongly that there should be something playful and fun about telling stories. Whether I’m editing someone else’s story or writing my own short pieces, I do everything I can not to lose sight of the fact that it’s a sense of play—and not a set of preset rules—that is at the heart of making a story speak to an audience. I won’t lie to you. Writing and editing can be a tough, thankless gig, and just because I’m a fan of bringing a joyful disposition to your process doesn’t mean that I think editing or writing is child’s play or that all stories should be filled with unicorns and adorable sloths. But if we approach writing and storytelling with this sense of spirited curiosity, we can learn how to use the core craft elements—like plot, character, detail, and pacing, to name a few—to take our stories apart and put them together again in a way that gives them life.