Friday, September 11, 2015

New Online Class for September: Get Writing

This course is underway. Please let me know if you'd be interested in taking it in the future.

Is there a story or novel you want to work on? Do you need a daily dose of encouragement, structure, and guidance? Try this course!

How it works: You'll get short daily assignments by email, which you'll share with the class. Twice during the course, you'll share a few pages of your story. You'll read everyone else's pages, but this is not a workshop, so there's no need to write critiques. You will get comments on your pages from me.

The exercises are designed to move you forward on your current writing project, by helping you explore character, stakes, plot and other elements of your narrative.

Each daily assignment will require only about 15 minutes of writing time. Do you have to do them? Yes. I will be reading and replying (briefly) to each one. Do they have to be brilliant? Absolutely not. Messiness and experimentation are encouraged.

This course is conducted entirely by email, so you can do the assignments whenever you have time, without leaving the house, yet still have a sense of community, accountability and structure.

Class runs from Monday, September 21 to Sunday, October 18. Cost: $100.

Best of all, you can try it for the first week for just $20, then pay the balance if you'd like to continue.

About me: I am an award-winning author, educated at the Iowa Writers' Workshop, and I have over twenty years of teaching experience. I'm currently a resident faculty member at the Yale Summer Writers' Conference and an editor at Origins Journal. I have a story in this month's issue of Tin House Magazine. More about me here.

Use the CONTACT ME form on the right to sign up!



Rene Magritte, Sixteenth of September, 1956





Thursday, July 30, 2015

Another Student Publication

Another student publication: John Bateman's story, "The Lonely One in Town," in the new Glitterwolf Magazine. This grew from a piece we worked on last summer at the Yale Writers' Conference. Congratulations, John! So excited about this!



Glitterwolf Magazine, Issue 9: Gender




Thursday, July 23, 2015

Two Stories from the Tarot Card Exercise

I created the Tarot Card Exercise last summer for my Yale Writers' Conference elective class Cross-Genre Fiction.

The idea was to mix elements from different genres into one short piece of writing, inviting the writer's intuition to figure out how to interpret and combine them. So, for example, a card that says "the wrong body" could turn into part of a mystery story, or horror, or science fiction, or a love story. "A woman's arm" could appear in a bed, or among leaves in the woods; it could be seen through a car window, or lying on a shelf along with other robot parts. "Sparks" might herald love, spaceship engine trouble, a house fire.

Really when I talk about crossing genres in writing, what I'm always talking about is granting yourself the freedom to follow your own voice, to allow your story to treat literary boundaries the way a wild animal treats the boundaries of state and country.

Since last summer, that exercise has been a favorite with many students. At the Yale Conference this year, two of them turned their 15-minute exercises into published pieces!

Interestingly, both concern altered bodies, trauma, and healing. And both are beautiful. Check them out.

The Glass Eye by Suzanne Samuels

Cross-Genre Body by Tara Armstrong



Mikalojus Ciurlionis, Eternity, 1906




Friday, June 12, 2015

Yale

Teaching fiction at the Yale Writers' Conference. It's always wonderful to be here.

Lux et Veritas

View from my classroom window
Lighting in Linsly-Chittenden Hall

Monday, June 8, 2015

Rob Spillman Interview at Origins Online

I'm one of the editors at Origins Journal, which has just posted this interview with Tin House editor and 2015 PEN/Nora Magid Award for Editing winner Rob Spillman:
winnneolkjwlekjflskdjf laskdjf lkasdjf 2015 PEN/Nora Magid Award for Editinwinner, Rob Spillman:  

On Keeping Diverse Voices in the Light

So excited to have him in the magazine!