I’m excited to be working with some of the writers from the Hampden Writer’s Group over the next few weeks. The title of the workshop is “Tell It Slant: Real Life as Raw Material for Good Fiction.” (You can still register via Eventbrite here.) We’ll be generating a lot of new material together, but we’ll also be reading exemplary texts. Here’s what we’ll be discuss in the next couple of sessions:
For this evening (10/27):
- “The Half-Known World” by Robert Boswell (from The Half-Known World: On Writing Fiction)
- Four related tenets:
- Writing is not a subject matter.
- Writing is an act of connection.
- Good writing is good thinking — but intention is overrated.
- Make it interesting.
- Four related tenets:
- “Round Trip” by John D’Agata (from Halls of Fame)
For next week (11/3):
- “Parents’ Morning Epiphany” and “Blocked” by Zadie Smith (from Grand Union [stories])
- “Fascinated to Presume: In Defense of Fiction” by Zadie Smith (from New York Review of Books)