This course will investigate ways in which literature and visual art affect and inspire each other. We will read short-ish fiction by modern era (dead) writers such as Vladimir Nabokov, Ernest Hemingway, Kurt Vonnegut, J.D Salinger, Flannery O'Connor and Franz Kafka, as well as more contemporary (living) writers like Woody Allen, Mary Gaitskill, Rick Moody, Etgar Keret and Miranda July. Students will read one short story every week and produce a response to it, in visual or written form. In the first meeting of the week, we will discuss that week's story and figure out interesting ways to go about responding to it. The second meeting of the week will be devoted to peer review and discussion of student responses to the stories. Student responses might include short fiction, poetry, non-fiction prose, drawing, photography (digital and film) and video. Ideal students for this class are visual artists interested in writing and writers interested in creating visual work.