I’m delighted to be moderating a conversation with Chris Stuck (GIVE MY LOVE TO THE SAVAGES) and Theodore C. Van Alst, Jr. (SACRED CITY) for the Book Festival this year. Their brand new story collections are sharp, devastating, and, incredibly, miraculously, also often funny.
Join us, why don’t you. Our discussion is titled INTERSECTIONS and will be at 1PM.
It’s on Saturday November 13th at the Portland Book Festival in the Miller Gallery of the Portland Art Museum.
Get your tickets to the Portland Book Festival here.
If you’re looking to get serious about getting your collection out of your brain and into the world, this six-month online intensive class at Literary Arts might be what you need.
Wednesdays
12-2 pm Pacific
October 27, 2021 – April 27, 2022
Class limited to 10 students
From the Literary Arts site:
This class is for experienced writers who are dedicated to starting the first draft of a story collection over the course of 6 months. We will have 22 class meetings between October and April, with a four-week break in December to focus on generating and revising our work.
Participants should have experience writing stories and familiarity with the elements of literary short fiction including scene, character, conflict, place and revision. We will study individual stories by authors, read craft essays, and discuss several published collections and how the stories unite to form a book.
This class is specifically designed for writers who are comfortable in a workshop setting. We will be giving and receiving feedback on works in progress at each of our meetings. Students will be expected to workshop their stories four times throughout the intensive.
In addition to the specific goal of starting a collection, the intention of this class is to bring together a group of writers who are actively seeking accountability, community, and a deepening of dedication to their own work.
For more information, click below for the full listing and a sample syllabus.
Maybe I’ll see you there.
Six-Month Short Story Intensive: Starting the Collection
“I love how things have to fit together. There has to be a purpose to each and every part of a short story. That’s fun, at least most of the time. Some of the time I just want to stab myself, but most of the time I love the way you have to fit everything together for it to be its own little world.”
Big thanks to Fiona McCann at Portland Monthly for connecting with me to talk about writing and books and the long road that led to People Like You.
Go here to read the full interview.