Writing Workshops

The Sentence Is the Story: A Sentence Workshop with Miciah Bay Gault

$150

2 Sessions

Out of stock

Saturday & Sunday 11:00 am EDT - 2:00 pm EDT August 12 to August 13, 2023

Online via Zoom

This sentence-writing bootcamp highlights the pleasure and power of line-level reading, writing, and revision. Blending one-sentence-at-a-time workshop with generative writing exercises, we’ll approach sentences in terms of image, musicality, the “felt quality” of sound, and syntax and grammar as a necessity for beauty and clarity. Underlying all discussion is the notion that poetic devices are also at work in prose. Activities will include practice writing from our senses, rhythm and meter exercises, the meticulous and ruthless dismantling and resurrection of sentences, and the constant celebration of the beauty and order of the (often underappreciated) sentence.

Course Outline

Saturday

Sun Corseless Head: Apollinaire’s “Zone.” Let’s examine various translations of the poem to see how diction, connotation, rhythm, and meter affect meaning. Possible writing exercises involve connotation, word choice, the weighing of words.
Among the Flowers: image and sensory detail. Observation and writing exercises, with plenty of time to share.
Collaborative sentence workshop.

Sunday

Making noise, Hearing Voices, Listening for Secrets (or: Clusters, Mutes and Liquids) Writing exercises will involve rhythm, meter, and syntactic symbolism.
Sentence workshop.

Capacity: 20

Led by

Miciah Bay Gault

Miciah Bay Gault

Miciah Bay Gault is the author of the novel Goodnight Stranger, which was on the longlist for the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize and a finalist for the Shirley Jackson Award. Miciah’s fiction and essays have appeared in Tin House, the Sun, the Southern Review, Agni, LitHub, the Harvard Review, Poets & Writers, Modern Love, and other places. Miciah is coordinator of the Vermont Book Award and faculty in the MFA in Writing program at Vermont College of Fine Arts.

By Miciah Bay Gault

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Goodnight Stranger

By Miciah Bay Gault

Published by Park Row Books

PURCHASE

Lydia and Lucas Moore are in their late twenties when a stranger enters their small world on Wolf Island. Lydia, the responsible sister, has cared for her pathologically shy brother, Lucas, ever since their mom’s death a decade before. They live together, comfortable yet confined, in their family house by the sea, shadowed by events from their childhood.

When Lydia sees the stranger step off the ferry, she feels an immediate connection to him. Lucas is convinced the man, Cole Anthony, is the reincarnation of their baby brother, who died when they were young. Cole knows their mannerisms, their home, the topography of the island—what else could that mean? Though Lydia is doubtful, she can’t deny she is drawn to his magnetism, his energy, and his warmth.

To discover the truth about Cole, Lydia must finally face her anxiety about leaving the island and summon the strength to challenge Cole’s grip on her family’s past and her brother. A deliciously alluring read, Goodnight Stranger is a story of choices and regrets, courage and loneliness, and the ways we hold on to those we love.

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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