R244. Designed Instability: Open Endings in Short Fiction

Room 101, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 1
Thursday, February 27, 2014
3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

 

Since Chekhov, writers of literary fiction have praised the "open" ending, since life itself seldom provides us with definite resolutions to our conflicts. But if an ending doesn't provide closure, what does it provide instead? How do writers leave readers satisfactorily unsatisfied? This panel of short story writers, teachers, and editors will examine the structure of open-ended stories and offer practical strategies to achieve their pleasures and avoid their pitfalls.


Participants

Moderator:

Edward Porter's fiction credits include Colorado Review, Barrelhouse, Booth, Best New American Voices, and Best Indie Lit New England. A former Madison Fellow and MacDowell Fellow, he teaches at Millsaps College.

Robin Black is the author of the story collection If I loved you, I would tell you this, and the novel Life Drawing. A contributing editor at the Colorado Review and a former Distinguished Visiting Writer at Bryn Mawr College, she has taught most recently in the Brooklyn College MFA program.

Shannon Cain's first book, The Necessity of Certain Behaviors, won the 2011 Drue Heinz Literature Prize. Her stories have been awarded the O. Henry Prize, two Pushcart Prizes, and a grant from the NEA. She is a writing coach and fiction teacher, most recently of MFA students at Bennington College.

Erin Stalcup’s short stories have appeared in the Kenyon Review, Kenyon Review Online, and the Sun. She recently joined the creative writing faculty at Northern Arizona University.

#AWP24

February 7–10, 2024
Kansas City, Missouri

Kansas City Convention Center