Instructor: T Kira Māhealani Madden
This is a workshop for writers wishing to establish and enhance basic skills in the writing of short fiction, point-of-view, characterization, dialogue, setting, and more. Equal attention will be given to stories turned in for critique and to the development of the student’s critical skills. In this class, we will experiment with form and voice. We will read vigorously, and we will play. We’ll focus on isolation and compression, on finding narrative “heat” and the emotional potency and meaning in our words. The scaffolding behind published works will serve as blueprints for workshop stories and exercises.
In workshop, you will each get the chance to hear back from your readers, and you will each provide feedback for each other’s work. The workshop also dramatizes one of the key concepts of this class: the relationship between the story and the reader. How does your story attempt to engage the reader? What are your responsibilities as an art maker, as a cultural commentator? What is the story beneath your story, and how might you allow your reader access? Too, we will discuss the balance between story and style. What signature fingerprint will you bring to the page through the architectures of your sentences? Unlike most workshops, this one will be led by the person whose work is being discussed. The writer will bring their guiding questions to the table, and discussion will evolve from there.