Short Story Summit

How do we create an unforgettable short story? Writing short fiction requires a unique blend of precision, voice, and narrative tension.

Join the Creative Writing Program and The Loft Literary Center for an engaging evening dedicated to the mechanics and magic of the short story. Professors Aamina Ahmad, Megan Giddings, and Julie Schumacher will read and discuss the inspiration, challenges, and artistry behind crafting short stories. The conversation will include Q&A, so bring your questions for these three award-winning writers.

This event is free with registration and open to the public. For questions about accessibility and/or the venue, email [email protected].

This summer, Assistant Professor Aamina Ahmad published the debut story collection July Sun (Riverhead). She is also the author of the 2022 novel The Return of Faraz Ali, which won the Gordon Bowker Volcano Prize from the UK Society of Authors, LA Times Book Prize's Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction, and Best First Novel award from the Writers Guild of Great Britain and was named a New York Times Editors' Choice and listed on NPR's Books We Love 2022. A graduate of the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, she has received a Stegner Fellowship from Stanford University, a Pushcart Prize, and a Rona Jaffe Writer’s Award. Her short fiction has appeared in One Story, The Southern Review, Ecotone, and elsewhere; she is also the author of a play, The Dishonored.

Associate Professor Megan Giddings publishes her first short story collection, Black Arts (Amistad), in September 2026. She is also the author of three novels: Lakewood was one of New York Magazine’s 10 best books of 2020 and NPR’s best books of 2020 and was a finalist for two NAACP Image Awards and a 2020 LA Times Book Prize in The Ray Bradbury Prize for Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Speculative Fiction category. Her second novel, The Women Could Fly, was named one of The Washington Post’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy novels of 2022, one of Vulture’s Best Fantasy books of 2022, and was a New York Times Editors’ Choice. Her third novel, Meet Me at the Crossroads (Amistad), was one of NPR’s Books We Love in 2025, one of Town and Country’s 20 Best Books of 2025, and one of The Washington Post’s Best Science Fiction/Speculative Novels of 2025.

Regents Professor Julie Schumacher this summer published her second story collection, Patient, Female (Milkweed Editions). She is the author of a dozen books, including the national bestseller Dear Committee Members, winner of the Thurber Prize for American Humor, and its sequels, The Shakespeare Requirement and The English Experience. She is the first woman to have won the Thurber Prize. Her debut novel, The Body Is Water, was an ALA Notable Book of the Year and a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award. She has also published the story collection An Explanation for Chaos, five novels for young adults, and a satirical coloring book, Doodling for Academics. Her first published story, “Reunion,“ written to fulfill an undergraduate writing assignment at Oberlin College, was reprinted in The Best American Short Stories 1983. Subsequent stories and essays appeared in The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The American Scholar, The Wall Street Journal, and in Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards.