Figurative language can help illuminate the meaning of a story, its characters, or its theme. In this course, we’ll review pieces like “A White Heron” by Sarah Orne Jewett and “Good Country People” by Flannery O’Connor as examples of using metaphors, similes, allegories, and symbols in a story. Writing exercises include one that’ll challenge participants to breathe new life into a cliché and form new connections within a story they’re working on.

This class is taught by a graduate student in the University of Missouri-Kansas City’s MFA Program in Creative Writing.