Insights on Writing with George Saunders

In his semester-long class, George Saunders teaches a number of the great classic Russian short story writers. Tolstoy, Gogol, Chekhov, amongst others. His discussions about the stories always begin generically. What was interesting? What was odd? Then, something happens – something magical, usually early on. George begins to extract small and brilliant beads of wisdom from the text – wisdom about the writing process, about what makes a short...