I've taught fiction writing since I left The New Yorker magazine in 1982. My first teaching job was at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pa. Since the mid-’80s I've taught first at Parsons, then in the New School General Studies program.

In the mid-’90s I taught the first-ever online fiction writing class from an accredited college; indeed, I pioneered the online teaching of writing (and still teach an online class once a year at the New School).

My simple teaching philosophy? As I learned from Bernard Malamud, you can't actually teach writing, you can hope to get beginning writers to get over bad habits and learn more sophisticated technique earlier than they'd figure it out themselves. In my classes, we always try to be helpful and useful above all. Critiques are expected to be in the spirit of the work, and to make suggestions that the writer might not have thought of themselves. All critiques are to help the writer move to a better, more effective next draft.

I always teach my "face-to-face" class on Thursdays at 6 p.m. at the New School building on W. 12th Street in Manhattan. Students of all levels of experience are welcome.