Yesterday, Sept. 4, 2011, in The Studio created and managed by novelist Evan Fallenberg in Bitah Aharon, a  moshav north of Netanya, Abby Frucht lead a one-day writing class for sixteen talented Anglo-Israeli writers. Frucht has been teaching at Vermont College of Fine Arts in Montpelier since 1994.  She is in Israel for six weeks to teach the summer semester of the Shaindy Rudoff Graduate Program in Creative Writing at Bar-Ilan University.

I was smart enough to sign up for the private class as soon as Fallenberg sent out an email advertising the event in May or June. My relationship to writing fiction has been so parveh lately that I knew it was time to be inspired to get back into the fiction-writing mode. I found the inspiration in Frucht’s class, with her emphasis on characterization, point of view and dialogue. Her explanations of fictional techniques and her analysis of material generated in class made for an engaging and serious experience. The day whizzed by, so absorbed was I by Frucht’s teaching.  After the first hour, I dreamed of getting another MFA,  this time in Vermont. 

What I really need to do is carve out time and space to work on my own writing, exactly what I tell my  students to do. We all need input inspiration gentle nudges. A big thanks to  Fallenberg for suggesting that Bar-Ilan invite Frucht to Israel this summer and for initiating this event at The Studio. If Frucht ever speaks reads or teaches in your part of the world, go.