$395
6 Sessions via Zoom
Out of stock
Once a week Tuesdays, 6:30 pm EDT - 8:30 pm EDT February 9 to March 16, 2021
This workshop has reached its capacity. To join the waitlist, please email Thierry Kehou at [email protected].
In this class, we will explore approaches to writing fiction based on our own family histories and stories. Whether we are working on a short story or a novel, how can we responsibly create characters based on real people? How do we create a narrative arc out of oral histories or family lore? We’ll discuss how to research your family tree, how to fictionalize events from your own life, how to incorporate research into works not traditionally considered historical fiction, and how to create realistic depictions of the past. We’ll read non-fiction and fiction selections from writers such as Zadie Smith, Maxine Hong Kingston, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Aleksander Hemon, Edwidge Danticat, and Michelle Cliff. Each participant will have the opportunity to workshop their own fiction.
Levels: Introductory, Intermediate
Capacity: 12
This workshop will take place online via Zoom. Participants will receive instructions for access prior to the first session.
Led by
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Maisy Card
Maisy Card
Maisy Card is a writer and a librarian. Her debut novel, These Ghosts are Family, was a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice and was shortlisted for The Center For Fiction First Novel Prize. Her writing has appeared in the Paris Review Daily, Glamour, AGNI, Lit Hub, and Guernica among other publications. She currently lives in Newark, NJ.
By Maisy Card
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These Ghosts Are Family
By Maisy Card
Published by Simon & Schuster
Stanford Solomon’s shocking, thirty-year-old secret is about to change the lives of everyone around him. Stanford has done something no one could ever imagine. He is a man who faked his own death and stole the identity of his best friend. Stanford Solomon is actually Abel Paisley.
And now, nearing the end of his life, Stanford is about to meet his firstborn daughter, Irene Paisley, a home health aide who has unwittingly shown up for her first day of work to tend to the father she thought was dead.
These Ghosts Are Family revolves around the consequences of Abel’s decision and tells the story of the Paisley family from colonial Jamaica to present-day Harlem. There is Vera, whose widowhood forced her into the role of a single mother. There are two daughters and a granddaughter who have never known they are related. And there are others, like the houseboy who loved Vera, whose lives might have taken different courses if not for Abel Paisley’s actions.
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.