Variant Literature is excited to announce Write Weirder Fiction: On Leaning into Your Own Strangeness, a free fiction workshop led by Brandon Ahmad Haffner. Register here.
Publishers and editors often ask for new and “surprising work they’ve “never seen before.” But how do we actually do that? Given marketplace pressure to write sellable fiction with clear comps and the antiquated traditions of many MFA workshops, it can be difficult to find the courage and the right tools to create truly surprising work.
By taking a close look at the strategies of fiction writers whose style is uniquely their own, this workshop will help demonstrate where surprise in fiction comes from and guide us to a place where we feel ready to permit our own strangeness onto the page.
Thursday, June 18th, 2026
Time: 4:00 PM PT / 6:00 PM CT / 7:00 PM ET
Duration: 90 minutes
Live on Zoom
Free to attend. Click here to register.
Brandon Ahmad Haffner received his MFA from UNC Greensboro. His fiction appears or is forthcoming in the Cincinnati Review, Harvard Review, New Orleans Review, Sewanee Review, and elsewhere. He has been awarded artist-in-residency fellowships from the Hambidge Center, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, VCCA France, and the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center. He teaches creative writing at Longwood University and lives in Richmond, VA.
Variant Literature is a digital literary magazine and small press founded in 2019. Variant publishes poetry, short stories, and flash prose, and is committed to supporting diverse voices and writers at all stages of their careers.