The Utopian Imagination: Creative Worldbuilding with Nat Mesnard

Before creating plot and character, many writers of science fiction, fantasy, and innovative literary fiction spend hours exploring setting. And as we imagine languages, biospheres, cities, and citizens, we embed ourselves in them: our identities, politics, environment, fears, dreams, and current events. This workshop invites you to explore making this process truly creative. What are the imaginative possibilities we can give rise to with the fictional settings that we shape? Through generative prompts and expansive conversations, we’ll investigate critical utopian worldbuilding—writing settings that move past our own thorniest issues and unearth new problems to solve.

Course Outline

This short, intensive online course will cover two three-hour sessions. Each session will involve the following activities to keep your creative mind active while building a collaborative conversation:

• Timed Writing Prompts. Write for a set length of time in community with your classmates.
• Breakout Rooms. Meet your fellow participants, share your process, and optionally read from work you’ve written during the class.
• Class-Wide Discussions. Type out your thoughts in the Zoom chat on short example readings or big questions. We’ll compare and contrast ideas, and nominate a few people to talk.

Capacity: 20