Writing Workshops

Dead Aim at My Heart: On Writing and Publishing Noir Fiction with William Boyle

$395

6 Sessions

In stock

Once a week Wednesdays, 6:00 pm EDT - 8:00 pm EDT July 10 to August 14, 2024

Online via Zoom

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This course will focus on the writing and publishing of noir fiction. We’ll seek to illuminate the motives behind writing noir and work toward an understanding of how to effectively approach constructing noir narratives. We’ll explore the shattered moral codes that are often central to noir. We’ll work towards writing effective character- and place-driven noir. This course is primarily a fiction workshop, but it will also feature readings, discussion, and Q&A. Fiction by students will be workshopped by the class. This class is remote and will meet online. Written feedback will be provided by the instructor.

Course Outline

The first class will be a mix of lecture and discussion and then we’ll aim to workshop two pieces from each writer over the next five sessions. Students can turn in stories or novel excerpts.

Recommended reading: They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? by Horace McCoy; Wild at Heart by Barry Gifford; The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith; Blind Man with a Pistol by Chester Himes; and Miami Purity by Vicki Hendricks.

Led by

William Boyle

William Boyle

William Boyle is the author of eight works of fiction set in the southern Brooklyn neighborhood where he was born and raised: Gravesend, which was nominated for the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière in France and shortlisted for the John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger in the U.K.; Death Don’t Have No Mercy, a story collection; Everything Is Broken, published initially in France and subsequently serialized in Southwest Review; The Lonely Witness, which was nominated for the Hammett Prize and the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière; A Friend Is a Gift You Give Yourself, winner of the Prix Transfuge du meilleur polar étranger in France and an Amazon Best Book of 2019; City of Margins, a Washington Post Best Thriller and Mystery Book of 2020; Shoot the Moonlight Out, listed by CrimeReads as one of the ten best noir novels of 2021 and nominated for the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière in 2023; and, coming in 2025 from Soho Crime, Saint of the Narrows Street. He currently lives in Oxford, Mississippi.

Photo Credit: Katie Farrell Boyle

About this series

Writing Workshops

We strive to make our classes the most inviting and rewarding available, offering an intimate environment to study with award-winning, world-class writers. Each class is specially designed by the instructor, so whether you’re a fledgling writer or an MFA graduate polishing your novel, you’ll find a perfect fit here.

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