Fred is very funny, kind, and approachable, and he often brought us snacks during class (our last lecture was in the Sculpture Garden and he brought pizza and soda!). I got to know my fellow students and their writing very well; he was tolerant of fantasy and science fiction, so many people submitted stories in that vein. However, because this was his first time teaching a short story workshop, it was a bit of a mess. We didn't have a syllabus and each week we brainstormed what we'd like to do for the next in terms of prompt/peer review, etc. At first it was a bit overwhelming because we all had to read and provide feedback on everyone else's fairly long stories (so for example, reading eleven other people's ten-page stories before the next class). However, later it switched to us reading everyone's but only providing in-detail feedback to one other person he matched us with. I really liked Fred, but the structure of the class was frustrating. Most of our class time was spent reviewing the student stories, which I appreciated, and we only read about three published short stories and a book by one of his former graduate students ("Happy for You" by Claire Stanford). If you take this class, I recommend just obtaining clarity on what's expected of you in terms of the assignments and talking to Fred.