333: Unpacking the Short Story Workshop — Interview with Sara Schaff

DIY MFA Radio

Hey there word nerds!

Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing Sara Schaff.

Sara is the author of two short story collections The Invention of Love and Say Something Nice About Me. She is a CLMP Firecracker Award Finalist in fiction and a finalist for the 2017 Next Generation Indie Book Award for short fiction. Her writing has appeared in Catapult, Kenyon Review Online, Yale Review Online, The Belladonna, Michigan Quarterly Review, LitHub, and others.

A graduate of Brown University and the MFA program at the University of Michigan, Sara has taught at Oberlin College, the University of Michigan, and St. Lawrence University, as well as in China, Colombia, and Northern Ireland, where she also studied storytelling. She lives in the North Country and is an assistant professor of English at the SUNY Plattsburgh.

In this episode Sara and I discuss:

• How approaching her characters emotions more authentically created a significant change in her writing style.
• What a writer can do to best bring a reader into the story, and help a reader fully get to know their characters.
• Why feedback from other writers isn’t always helpful if it relies too much on suggestions for fixes and harsh criticisms, and not enough on building community.

Plus, their #1 tip for writers.

For more info and show notes: diymfa.com/333