Writing Workshops

The Utopian Imagination: Creative Worldbuilding with Nat Mesnard

$150

2 Sessions

Out of stock

Saturday & Sunday 12:00 pm EDT - 3:00 pm EDT May 6 to May 7, 2023

Online via Zoom

Registration for this workshop has closed.

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

Led by

Nat Mesnard

Nat Mesnard

Nat Mesnard teaches creative writing, interactive fiction and game making at Pratt Institute and School of Visual Arts, and helped found the indie publishing collective Scryptid Games. Nat has published poetry, fiction, and nonfiction in Vol. 1 Brooklyn, Catapult, Cartridge Lit, Autostraddle, Bodega, Blackbird, Kenyon Review Online, The Gettysburg Review, Ninth Letter, and elsewhere. Two perfect-bound print tabletop roleplaying games “Business Wizards” and “Horseshoe Academy” are out now with 9th Level Games.

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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