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Northwestern Summer Writers’ Conference: The Origins of The Original

The Northwestern University Summer Writers’ Conference is back! This year, the conference is entirely online again so you can join us from anywhere in the world. Details are forthcoming. In the meantime, please save the dates!

The conference is hosted by the Northwestern University School of Professional Studies MA in Writing and  MFA in Prose and Poetry programs.

July 9th, 2022 11:00am – noon CST
The Origins of the Original
Featuring Rebecca Makkai

For writing to succeed, it must be both well-executed and original. But when we sit down to write, the first words, scenes, characters, conflicts, and settings we come up with are often the least original ones of which we’re capable. Digging past the obvious, the stock (and even the products of the collective unconscious), we might finally arrive at stories that are strikingly new and memorable. In this class we’ll cover some key elements of originality — specificity, idiosyncrasy, complexity, repetition, and change — and talk about accessing them in both drafting and revision. While originality might seem intuitive, or even a product of the writer’s personality, it’s in fact a skill that can be sharpened. That’s what we’ll be doing.

on May 20 2022· Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Chicago Writers Conference

Rachel DeWoskin and I will be doing the closing conversation for the Chicago Writers Conference at 3 pm on Sunday, September 27th. A fun, accessible conference for Chicago writers — highly recommended! More info and registration here.

on August 19 2015· Tagged:

Sewanee Writers’ Conference Fellowship

I will be a Walter E. Dakin Fellow at the Sewanee Writers’ Conference from July 26th to August 7th, and will give a reading on the Sewanee campus. More details on the reading to come!

Posted in Uncategorized on May 18 2011· Tagged: ,

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