Class on stories of George Saunders to be visited by author himself
If a literature class that focuses solely on the short stories of celebrated author George Saunders piques your interest, then knowing the award-winning writer is planning to visit the class to conduct an in-person Q&A should be doubly alluring.
That’s exactly what’s in store for students who enroll in ENGL—2341 Selected Studies in Literature, a unique class being taught next spring at Amarillo College by Dr. Chris Hudson, assistant professor of English, who in addition to creating the course has dubbed it “Precarious Realism: George Saunders and the Contemporary Short Story.”
Hudson designed “Precarious Realism” to coincide with AC’s annual Creative Mind Lecture, which in 2024 will be presented in collaboration with West Texas A&M University (WT) and be headlined by Saunders, whose poignant short stories have over many years earned him myriad topflight literary accolades.
The Amarillo-born author briefly attended WT in the 1980s. He has had more than two dozen short stories published in The New Yorker since 1992. He has published nine books and is a four-time winner of the National Magazine Award for Fiction. His novel “Lincoln in the Bardo” claimed the 2017 Booker Prize, and he has won fellowships from the MacArthur Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Saunders will present his Creative Mind Lecture on the evening of April 4, 2024 at WT’s Legacy Hall, so his guest appearance at Hudson’s class will be scheduled on or adjacent to that same day.
Normally, “Precarious Realism” will meet from 5:30 to 8:15 on Tuesday evenings on AC’s Washington Street Campus. The first class is slated for Jan. 16, 2024. The 16-week sophomore-level course may be taken for academic credit by both AC and WT students, or by anyone in the community as continuing education.
“George Saunders is considered one of the best short story writers in the English language,” said Hudson, who points out that Saunders is currently an outstanding teacher of creative writing at Syracuse University, too. “His characters are familiar - they are most of us, just on the edge of disaster, unable to pay our rent and taking jobs we’d never have believed we’d do to survive.
“That’s why I’m calling my class ‘Precarious Realism,’” Hudson said. “Saunders writes equal opportunity satire that suggests and sometimes demands that we care a bit for our neighbor, and to consider how we would feel if the character is us in a different life, barely hanging on. We will generally take a short story each week and look at how it works.”
Not only will Saunders visit Hudson’s class, so too will a trio of guest speakers: WTAMU’s Dr. Ryan Brooks; Dr. Eric Meljac, director of the creative writing program at WT; and Dr. Sean Kinch, a contemporary fiction specialist from Nashville, Tenn. More guest speakers may be added over time, Hudson said.
Hudson joined the AC faculty in 2018. He previously taught at the University of Texas, where he completed his doctoral degree, and at both St. Mary-of-the-Woods and WT. An Amarillo native, he has lived in Austin, New York City, Buenos Aires, Argentina, São Paulo, Brazil, and Indiana. While in Austin, Hudson worked as chief of staff for a state senator.
Registration for spring classes opens Nov. 6, and students can then sign up for “Precarious Realism” by visiting the Continuing Education webpage, and using the “Community Enrichment” drop-down to access the Life & Leisure section.
In the meantime, Hudson invites anyone with questions about his class to call him at 806-371-5424 or email him at echudson@actx.edu.