The Saigon Writers Club is a private and in-person creative writing class for people who have always wanted to write and publish fiction. The founder and instructor is Sam Korsmoe, an American writer who has published two books, is nearing completion of a third book, and was a journalist for several years. He has taught creative writing to adults and youth and has accumulated 10,000 hours of writing practice.  The Club’s inaugural creative writing class has been completed and the Rainy Season 2021 Short Story Anthology has been published (see below).  The second creative writing class will begin in January 2022 with the goal of publishing the Dry Season 2022 Short Story Anthology of the Saigon Writers Club.

 

Class Schedule:  There are 10 class sessions starting with a three-hour workshop followed by eight 90-minute classes.  This new class will begin the weekend of January 8/9 and go until March 10, 2022.

When:  The opening class will be a three-hour workshop on the weekend of January 8th and 9th (the exact starting date and time will be set depending on the work schedules of the majority of the students who signup).  Then, the remaining eight classes will be held from 7:00 to 8:30 PM every Thursday evening until the final class on March 10.

Where:  The classes will be in person at a location on Dien Bien Phu Street in Binh Thanh (i.e. NOT online unless COVID rears its ugly head again). Full vaccination is required to attend in person classes.  

 

Course Deliverables:  There will be 15 hours of in-person instruction for the entire class plus 60 minutes of one-to-one private consultations with the instructor (two 30-minute sessions).  All course materials will be provided. The first private session will be before Tet when the student has hopefully written around 3,000 words of his/her short story. The second private session will be after Tet when the student has written at least 5,000 words of their short story. The goal of the private sessions is to get the student to the finish line of their short story so it can be ready for publishing by the deadline.

 

Course Objective:  Each student will complete and prepare for publication their own short story.

 

Class Capacity:  8 to 12 students on a first come first serve basis

 

Tuition:  VND 5,000,000 inclusive of all course materials, teaching, consulting, and final deliverables

 

Final Deliverable:  Saigon Writers Club – Short Story Anthology II – Dry Season 2022 

Each student will receive a free copy of this anthology with their short story published within.

Draft Course Syllabus

 

The classes will be separated into three sections.  These are a lecture session on a specific topic of fiction writing followed by an activities session that is completed individually and/or in pairs and groups and then a final session for discussions in pairs and/or as a full class.  The ‘I Love Words’ and ‘Short Story Discussion’ components will be held each week though they might be abbreviated. The draft outline is detailed below for each class. Please note that there is no class during the Tet holidays.

 

 

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Final edits; Finishing the story; Publishing; Using images in the story

 

 

Line edits; ‘Killing your babies’; Finishing a scene

I Love Words Exercise

 

Talk about the feelings your story should evoke;

Short Story Discussion

Assigned Short Story Reading

 

Each week the students will be assigned and be expected to read a short story written by one of the master fiction writers. Each short story will be relevant to that week’s lecture topic and class activity. The class will discuss this story the following week during the class discussion session. Some of the stories to be assigned will include the following though others might be added:

 

The Short Happy Life of Francis McCumber by Ernest Hemingway

The Ransom of Red Chief by O’Henry

To Build A Fire by Jack London

The Tell Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe

Broke Back Mountain by Annie Proulx

Good Scent from a Strange Mountain by Robert Olen Butler

The Killers by Ernest Hemingway

Fetching Raymond by John Grisham

 

 

How to sign up?

 

The signup process for this second creative class is very simple. Send an email to Sam Korsmoe at sam@yespi.net with the following information included:

 

Name:

Email Address: 

Telephone Number:

Native Language:

 

For the opening workshop on January 8/9, indicate with a check mark which time frame of the four options you will be able to attend based on your schedule (select all the options available).

 

Date

9 to 12 AM

2 to 5 PM

Saturday, January 8

 

 

Sunday, January 9

 

 

 

A VND 1,000,000 deposit is required to reserve a seat in the class with the remaining amount of VND 4,000,000 due prior to the first class.  

 

If you have any questions, please call Sam directly at 0904347591.  More information about the class and what should be expected can be found at www.yespi.net

 

Thank You!!