Tag Archives: short story

Novels vs. Stories in MFA Programs Survey Results

Posted on March 22, 2012 by Cathy Day
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My plan was to release the survey results one question at a time via ruminative blog posts like this one on whether MFA programs are “anti-novel” or not and this one on the “professionalization” question. But I’ve changed my mind. Many people … Continue reading →

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Take My Survey about Novels in MFA Programs

Posted on February 14, 2012 by Cathy Day
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“Of all the ambient commonplaces about MFA programs, perhaps the only accurate one is that the programs are organized around the story form.” Chad Harbach said this in his n+1/Slate essay, “MFA or NYC?” Do you think he’s right? I … Continue reading →

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Novels to Stories, Stories to Novel

Posted on February 3, 2012 by Cathy Day
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If you’re looking for a way to turn a novel into short stories or (more likely) turn stories into a novel, try these activities. First, novel into stories.  1.) Find a copy of The Paris Review 10, Fall 1955. On … Continue reading →

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Aesthetic Diversity + Imitation = My Short Story Class

Posted on May 15, 2011 by Cathy Day
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In honor of National Short Story Month, I thought I’d share this course with you, a short story survey that focuses on imitations. I always include this picture on my syllabus, a visual representation of my pedagogical approach. In the … Continue reading →

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You’re Not Ready to Write a Novel: by Rebecca Rasmussen

Posted on March 13, 2011 by Cathy Day
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If you would like to write a guest post for “The Big Thing,” by all means, let me know. Maybe we could trade? That’s what debut novelist Rebecca Rasmussen and I did. My essay on “Literary Citizenship” appeared on her … Continue reading →

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How I Taught Myself to Write a Novel

Posted on January 24, 2011 by Cathy Day
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My first book, The Circus in Winter, a novel-in-stories, was written over the course of twelve years-one story at a time-and thus provides a wide-ranging experience as the reader observes me trying on different aesthetic approaches. There was one narrative … Continue reading →

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MFA vs. NYC = Team Short Story vs. Team Novel

Posted on November 26, 2010 by Cathy Day
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In his book, The Program Era: Postwar Fiction and the Rise of Creative Writing, Mark McGurl says that it’s time we paid attention to the “increasingly intimate relation between literary production and the practices of higher education.” So. This is … Continue reading →

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The Virtual Teacher’s Lounge

Posted on November 9, 2010 by Cathy Day
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Over the weekend, I responded to a Facebook status update. “KYLE MINOR notices that MFA programs are producing more good short story writers than good novelists. Many of my friends from many different programs have had difficulty, post-graduation moving from … Continue reading →

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It’s not a story. It’s a manuscript.

Posted on October 21, 2010 by Cathy Day
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I know someone who took a Novel Workshop in college. This is how it went down. First, they studied the first sentences of a bunch of novels and wrote one of their own, then workshopped it. Then they studied first … Continue reading →

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Origin Story

Posted on October 19, 2010 by Cathy Day
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These questions have been on my mind for quite a while: Why did I spend twenty years working on short stories as opposed to novels? Is it nature or nurture? Am I really predisposed to write short stories, or do … Continue reading →

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