The University of Iowa

Sharon Oard Warner

Sharon Oard Warner is the author of two novels, a short story collection, and an edited anthology of stories on AIDS. Her craft book, Writing the Novella, is forthcoming from the University of New Mexico Press. Warner’s essays and articles have appeared in The AWP Chronicle, The Writer, Writer’s Digest, Studies in Short Fiction, Studies in the Novel, and others. Many of those articles went on to be republished in The Year’s Best Writing on Writing, The Writer’s Handbook, Writer’s Digest Yearbook, The Writer’s Guide to Fiction: How to Write, Polish, and Publish Short Stories and Novels, Short Story Criticism, and others. From 1999-2016, she founded and directed the Taos Summer Writers' Conference, one of the largest such gatherings in the country. Warner is Emerita Professor of English Language & Literature at the University of New Mexico and Co-Chair for the D. H. Lawrence Ranch Initiatives. She lives with her husband in Austin, Texas, where she is writing a screenplay.

Instructor Events

The Novella Workshop

Weeklong June 21 to June 26 2020
Instructor(s): 
Sharon Oard Warner

Why write a novella? And why write one before embarking on a novel? Because the novella is the intermediate step: more expansive than a short story but trimmer than a novel. Later, we’ll sort out the specifics. For now, let’s say the novella is an extended work of fiction: long enough for the reader to get lost in but short enough to be consumed in a single sitting. It doesn’t take up much space. Stow it in your purse or slip it in your back pocket. Read it as you wait in line for coffee.

 

Why Make a Scene?

Weekend June 27 to June 28 2020
Instructor(s): 
Sharon Oard Warner

Creating a public display of emotion is one way of describing what it means to “make a scene.” While public spectacles tend to be spontaneous, creating scenes on paper usually requires considerable planning and forethought.