Story Craft Across Genres
A Creative Writing Workshop Series with Luke McFarland
The Steffen Thomas Museum of Art will host Story Craft Across Genres, a creative writing workshop series led by writer and educator Luke McFarland. The series will take place monthly, with each 2.5-hour session building on the previous workshop. Special guest instructors may also be featured throughout the series, including author William Garland on January 16, 2027.
The workshop series costs $150, payable at registration, and includes all four sessions. Space is limited, and advance registration is encouraged.
Workshop Dates and Times:
Saturday, January 16, 2027 | 2:00–4:30 PM
Saturdays in February, March, and April 2027 | Dates to be announced
About the Instructor
Luke McFarland graduated from the University of Georgia, where he studied under the late poet Coleman Barks, and later attended the prestigious University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop. His short story has been published in Variant Literature magazine. From the pandemic through 2025, he worked on a collection of short stories that reimagined the works of Flannery O’Connor during the Spanish Conquest of the Americas. He now writes nonfiction exploring his family’s history. McFarland lives in Monticello, where he teaches theater and English at the high school level.
About the Guest Instructor
William Garland teaches American and British literature at Hammond School in Columbia, South Carolina. He earned an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of South Carolina, where he also taught creative writing seminars for undergraduate students and served as an editor for Yemassee literary magazine.
His writing has appeared in storySouth, Tulane Review, Story Houston, Steel Toe Review, and Real South Magazine, among other literary journals and anthologies. His award-winning poem, “Swimming Out by the Dam,” was selected by Ron Rash to represent Columbia’s One Book, One Columbia city reading initiative. His work was also featured in Found Anew, an anthology of South Carolina writers published by USC Press.
Garland is currently working on a novel set in a forgotten tourist town in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, where news of a missing child shakes the community.
