$150
2 Sessions via Zoom
Out of stock
Saturday & Sunday 2:00 pm EDT - 4:15 pm EDT February 20 to February 21, 2021
In this workshop, we’ll explore ways of re-entering our stories, as well as strategies to expand characters and scenes.
Session 1
- Introduction
-
- Icebreaker
- Community-building
-
- Exploring the Origin Stories of Our Characters:
-
- “Foundational Wound”
- Timeline of major events
-
- Infusing Joy
-
- Incorporating moments/patterns of happiness
-
Session 2
- Optimizing Space and Objects
-
- Taking stock of physical space and objects
-
- Quick-fire Starts
-
- Tools to instantly create or re-enter scenes when writer’s block hits
-
Level: Introductory
Capacity: 20
This workshop will take place online via Zoom. Participants will receive instructions for access prior to the first session.
Led by
-
Sahar Mustafah
Sahar Mustafah
Sahar Mustafah is the daughter of Palestinian immigrants, an inheritance she explores in her fiction. Her first novel The Beauty of Your Face (W.W. Norton, 2020) was named a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice, a Los Angeles Times United We Read selection, and one of Marie Claire magazine’s 2020 Best Fiction by Women, and a Great Group Reads for National Reading Group Month. It was longlisted for The Center for Fiction 2020 First Novel Prize, and is currently a finalist for Chicago Writers Association Best Book of the Year award and the Chicago Review of Books award. Her short story collection Code of the West was the winner of the 2016 Willow Books Fiction Award. Her stories have earned a Distinguished Story citation from Best American Short Stories 2016, First Place in Fiction from the Guild Literary Complex of Chicago, and three Pushcart Prize nominations, among other honors. Mustafah earned her MFA from Columbia College Chicago where she was the recipient of the David Friedman Award for Best Fiction. She writes and teaches outside of Chicago.
By Sahar Mustafah
-
.
The Beauty of Your Face
By Sahar Mustafah
Published by WW Norton
A uniquely American story told in powerful, evocative prose, The Beauty of Your Face navigates a country growing ever more divided. Afaf Rahman, the daughter of Palestinian immigrants, is the principal of Nurrideen School for Girls, a Muslim school in the Chicago suburbs. One morning, a shooter—radicalized by the online alt-right—attacks the school.
As Afaf listens to his terrifying progress, we are swept back through her memories: the bigotry she faced as a child, her mother’s dreams of returning to Palestine, and the devastating disappearance of her older sister that tore her family apart. Still, there is the sweetness of the music from her father’s oud, and the hope and community Afaf finally finds in Islam.
The Beauty of Your Face is a profound and poignant exploration of one woman’s life in a nation at odds with its ideals, an emotionally rich novel that encourages us to reflect on our shared humanity. If others take the time to really see us, to look into our face, they will find something indelibly familiar, something achingly beautiful gazing back.
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.