As a writer, are you a maximalist or minimalist? Are your sentences lush or sleek? This session adapts two exercises from Ursula K. Leguin's Steering the Craft designed to identify your comfort zone as a writer and experiment outside of it. We'll look at literary excerpts that luxuriate in sound and rhythm as well as powerfully spare prose; we'll also complete Leguin's short exercises for writing economically and writing extra, and discuss how we're affected as readers and writers at both ends of the spectrum. Participants are welcome but not required to share their writing.

Sara Davis (@LiterarySara) is a recovering academic and marketing writer who lives in Philadelphia. Her PhD in American literature is from Temple University. She has recently published flash in Cleaver, Okay Donkey, and CRAFT. She currently blogs about books and climate anxiety at literarysara.net.