George Saunders's 2021 book based on his Syracuse MFA course — using seven classic Russian short stories (Chekhov, Turgenev, Tolstoy, Gogol) to teach fiction writing — covering narrative velocity, escalation, and the moment-to-moment decisions that make stories work.
Creates the most useful integration of close reading and craft instruction — Saunders's method of pausing at key story moments and asking 'what are you feeling and why?' gives writers a practical way to learn from the masters without abstracting lessons into lifeless rules.
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