Writing Workshops

Fiction, Nonfiction . . . and Autofiction with Eraldo Souza dos Santos

$150

3 Sessions

Out of stock

Friday–Sunday July 7 to July 9, 2023

Online via Zoom

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Meeting Details:
Friday 7/7, 6:30–8:30pm ET
Saturday 7/8 & Sunday 7/9, 12–2pm ET

What is fact and what is fiction in fiction and non-fiction? For many, all fiction is autobiographical; but to what extent can nonfiction, and especially autobiographical writing and memoir, be fictional? What literary and technical, but also moral and political challenges, does the blurring of the boundaries between fiction and reality raise?

This bootcamp is an introduction to the genre known as autofiction, which combines autobiography and fictional elements. We’ll read and discuss together the works of writers such as Marcel Proust, Harriet E. Wilson, Annie Ernaux, Charu Nivedita, Sheila Heti, Édouard Louis, and Teju Cole. Through writing prompts and exercises, we’ll also explore how autofiction can take literary shape. Participants will also have the opportunity to workshop their pieces and receive feedback in the second and third meetings.

Course Outline

Session I: Is this true? Genres of Fiction and Genres of Nonfiction
Session II: Autofiction: Four Techniques
Session III: Is this a lie? Moral and Political Challenges

Capacity: 20

Led by

Eraldo Souza dos Santos

Eraldo Souza dos Santos

A 2022 LARB Publishing Fellow, Eraldo Souza dos Santos is a Brazilian writer currently based between Paris and São Paulo. His first novel, to be published in 2024, is an autobiography of his illiterate mother and a meditation on the lived experience of Blackness and enslavement in modern Brazil. At the age of seven, his mother was sold into slavery by her white foster sister. It was 1968—eighty years after the abolition of slavery in Brazil and four years into the anti-communist coup d’état, during the month in which the military overruled the Constitution by decree. By weaving in extensive archival research and interviews, the novel narrates their journey to Minas Gerais—where she was born—and Bahia—the Blackest state in Brazil, where she was enslaved on a farm for three years—to investigate why the family that enslaved her has never been brought to justice. It also narrates his grandmother’s journey to search for her missing daughter. In March 2023, he offered a masterclass based on his novel at the prestigious UEA Creative Writing Course.

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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