Tag Archive for: workshop

The Mystery of Writing Crime Novels (Ubud Writers and Readers Festival event)

Tracey Lien is the author of the debut novel All That’s Left Unsaid, which investigates the Vietnamese Australian enclave of Cabramatta in the 1990s and explores the emotional complexity of Vietnamese refugee and Asian Australian experiences. I Have Some Questions for You is a literary murder mystery by Rebecca Makkai, set in an élite boarding school, which deconstructs the tropes of the genre. Megan Nolan’s new novel, Ordinary Human Failings, is a heart-breaking, unflinching, compulsive tale that blends an unsolved murder with family history, police procedure, and romantic frustration. Jill Dawson writes crime novels and skillfully exposes class and misogyny and the part they play in determining women’s lives—and often preventable deaths. These authors will speak about the process of creating a rich storyline and how they weave social commentary into their narratives.

Tracey Lien, penulis dengan novel perdananya All That’s Left Unsaid, menyelami kantong komunitas Vietnam-Australia di Cabramatta pada tahun 1990an, menjelajahi kerumitan suasana batin para pengungsi Vietnam, dan pengalaman hidup orang Asia-Australia. I Have Some Questions for You oleh Rebecca Makkai adalah kisah misteri pembunuhan berlatar sebuah sekolah asrama elit, membongkar batasan dan rumusan terkait genre. Novel terbaru Megan Nolan, Ordinary Human Failings, adalah sebuah kisah mengharukan, tanpa basa-basi dan menggugah yang menggabungkan misteri pembunuhan dengan sejarah keluarga, cara polisi bekerja, dan tekanan romantik. Para penulis ini akan membahas proses meramu alur cerita yang kaya sembari merajut kritik sosial ke dalam penuturan kisah mereka tentang bagaimana tiap pribadi manusia membentuk identitas dan sejarah pribadi mereka. Jill Dawson menulis novel-novel kriminal dan dengan terampil mengekspos bias kelas dan misogini, juga peranan mereka dalam menentukan nasib perempuan – juga, seringkali, kematian yang seharusnya dapat terhindarkan. Penulis-penulis ini akan bercerita tentang proses menciptakan alur cerita yang kaya dan bagaimana mereka menyelipkan komentar sosial ke dalam penuturan mereka.

Valley Stage @Taman Baca. Jl Raya Sanggingan Ubud

on October 2 2023· Tagged: author talk, Crime novels, Festival, Jill Dawson, Megan Nolan, Tracey Lien, ubud, Ubud Writers & Readers Festival, ubud writers and readers festival, workshop

Johns Hopkins Krieger School of Arts & Sciences: Chaffee Visiting Writer

on September 11 2023· Tagged: author talk, Chaffee, Johns Hopkins, Krieger School, University, workshop

WORDPLAY CLASS: First Page, Last Polish (part of The Loft’s Wordplay festival)

Your opening is the first thing an agent or editor will read—and you don’t want it to be the last. But you’ve seen your own first page so often that its strengths, flaws, gaps, and even typos are invisible to you now. So often, all we can think to do to polish it up is add more descriptors—perhaps the last thing it needs. In this class we’ll hone the crucial elements of reader orientation, clarity, intrigue, promise, diction, and perspective—the things that make a reader keep reading, or move on. We’ll also talk about how to get a story really going, even in its first paragraphs, without sounding desperate—something harder than it seems.

on June 29 2023· Tagged: class, Online Class, The Loft, virtual, Wordplay, Wordplay Festival, workshop

Electric Lit Presents: The Craft of Covid in Fiction

The dynamic, unpredictable nature of the pandemic has forced novelists to become pundits, predicting what the world will look like when their novels are published.

They also face unique craft challenges: how do masks affect dialogue, character descriptions, and scene? How do social distancing and quarantine warp relationship dynamics?

Rebecca Makkai chose to move the events of I Have Some Questions for You to 2018, but still had to negotiate Covid protocol for courtroom scenes set in 2022. The protagonist of Weike Wang’s Joan Is Okay is an emergency room doctor in New York City; when Covid hit, Wang revised the novel to feature overwhelmed hospitals. A deadly flu ravages the globe in Phase Six by Jim Shepard, and the lessons of the Covid pandemic are in the distant past.

These three novelists will discuss the drafting and revision process of their novels and explain how they tackled the ever-changing question of how Covid should factor into their work.  Moderated by Halimah Marcus.

This year’s Masquerade of the Red Death is celebrating excellence in pandemic fiction with special guests and book giveaways at our party in Brooklyn on Friday, October 21, as well as related virtual salons. This salon is free for Masquerade ticket-holders*, $10 for the general public, and $5 for EL members.

*Masquerade ticket holders will receive an email with a discount code to register for free.

on September 23 2022· Tagged: crowdcast, digital event, Electric Lit, Electric Literature, online, online event, online workshop, Rebecca Makkai, salon, virtual workshop, Webinar, workshop, zoom

StoryStudio Chicago: StoryBoard Presents: Rebecca Makkai in Conversation with Terese Marie Mailhot, Ingrid Rojas-Contreras, Megan Stielstra, Pablo Cartaya, and Dan Chaon

StoryBoard Kick Off! 

Mark you calendars for August 12 at 7 pm CT. StoryStudio Chicago Artistic Director Rebecca Makkai will be in conversation with five of the StoryBoard faculty members in webinar fashion on Zoom, a conversation that will be free and open to the public!

on August 8 2022· Tagged: author talk, Dan Chaon, education, in conversation, Ingrid Rojas-Contreras, Megan Stielstra, Pablo Cartaya, story workshop, StoryBoard, StoryStudio, StoryStudio Chicago, Terese Marie Mailhot, workshop

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.

on May 20 2022· Tagged: class, conference, conferences, course, education, Northwester Summer Writers' Conference, northwestern, online, Rebecca Makkai, virtual event, workshop, writing, Writing Workshop

The Porch: The Origins of the Original with Visiting Writer Rebecca Makkai

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 both in drafting and revision.

on April 15 2022· Tagged: author talk, character building, class, digital event, discussion, education, lesson, online, Online Class, online event, Online Learning, online workshop, Rebecca Makkai, The Porch, virtual class, virtual event, virtual workshop, workshop, writing class, Writing Workshop, zoom

Speakeasy Workshop: Reading Like A Writer

Wednesdays September 8th, 15th, 22nd, and 29th join me to learn to read like a writer. In this discussion- and lecture-based class, we’ll use short assigned texts to become stronger and more engaging writers. This workshop has four sessions.

on May 19 2021· Tagged: class, discussion, Online Class, online workshop, Read Like A Writer, speakeasy, Speakeasy workshop, workshop, Writing Workshop

Speakeasy Workshop: Reading Like A Writer

on May 19 2021· Tagged: class, discussion, Online Class, online workshop, Read Like A Writer, speakeasy, Speakeasy workshop, workshop, Writing Workshop

Speakeasy Workshop: Reading Like A Writer

on May 19 2021· Tagged: class, discussion, Online Class, online workshop, Read Like A Writer, speakeasy, Speakeasy workshop, workshop