Workshop: Openings That Hook & Endings That Crush in Literary Fiction In-Person
A writing workshop as part of the 2026 To Taste Life Twice Seminar - three days of author talks and writing workshop. Registration is limited to 15 participants.
Instructor: Christian Winn
Fiction writers, let’s dive in and explore how to better open our stories, novels, flash and micro fiction with punch and artful verve, and then how to round out these narratives with banger endings that deliver heart, inevitability, and resonant truth.
This generative workshop will involve studying and dissecting the lasting intrigue of truly great opening and closing passages from writers such as Sylvia Plath, George Saunders, Miranda July, Raymond Carver, Junot Diaz, Jennifer Egan, and ZZ Packer.
From there - employing techniques inspired by these masterful writers - we’ll put our own art into practice to manifest bold story-filled openings and mic-drop ending salvos that resonate with grace and emergent, lasting meaning.
Along with creating new work, writers are invited to bring original story starts and drafted endings they’d like to rework and enhance. Arrive ready to create meaningful, compelling openings and endings and gather up lessons and practices you’ll be able to integrate into your writing for years to come.
- Date:
- Saturday, May 9, 2026
- Time:
- 1:00pm - 4:00pm
- Time Zone:
- Mountain Time - US & Canada (change)
- Location:
- Betty Olsen Carr Reading Room
- Campus:
- The Community Library
- Audience:
- Adults
- Categories:
- Classes & Discussions Seminars & Conferences
Christian Winn is a fiction writer, poet, teacher of creative writing, and producer of literary events living and working in Boise, Idaho. He served as the Idaho Writer in Residence, the State's highest literary honor, from 2016-19, is the co-founder and Director emeritus of Storyfort, co-founder of To Taste Life Twice, the producer of Campfire Stories, Couch Surfer Artist Series, and Story Forward. His work has appeared in McSweeney's, Ploughshares, Joyland, Glimmer Train, The Chicago Tribune's Printer's Row Journal, and many fine journals. His story collections, NAKED ME, and What's Wrong With You is What's Wrong With Me are out in the world, and his novels, AMENDS and CROCODILE, are currently under consideration and will, if the writerly spirits align, be out in the world soon.