Writing Workshops

Two Characters Walk into a Bar: A Point of View Workshop with Kelli Jo Ford

$125

2 Sessions

Out of stock

Saturday & Sunday 12:00 pm EDT - 2:15 pm EDT May 1 to May 2, 2021

Online via Zoom

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When we begin writing a new story, we are making choices from our very first sentence: What characters will we focus on? Whose voice will tell the story and how far removed from the action will the story be told? Often, those early choices come to us as gifts and don’t feel like conscious choices at all. Our best work can arise out of those moments. But for most of us, even the gifts are going to need reworking once we understand what we are trying to do.

In this workshop, we will use readings, exercises, and discussion to demystify the process, paying close attention to point of view as well as skills such as scene building. We’ll start with an introduction to point of view and how it functions in fiction. The second day, we will discuss some more advanced concepts. You’ll have an opportunity to write three scaffolded exercises, share your work with the class, and receive feedback from your peers. You should leave the course with a better understanding of point of view and how to use it.

Levels: Introductory, Intermediate
Capacity: 20

This workshop will take place online via Zoom. Participants will receive instructions for access prior to the first session.

Led by

Kelli Jo Ford

Kelli Jo Ford

Kelli Jo Ford’s debut novel-in-stories Crooked Hallelujah was longlisted for the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel, the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, and The Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize. She is the recipient of the Paris Review’s 2019 Plimpton Prize, the Everett Southwest Literary Award, and a Native Arts & Cultures Foundation National Artist Fellowship. She teaches writing at the Institute of American Indian Arts. She is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation.

By Kelli Jo Ford

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Crooked Hallelujah

By Kelli Jo Ford

Published by Grove Press

PURCHASE

It’s 1974 in the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma and fifteen-year-old Justine grows up in a family of tough, complicated, and loyal women presided over by her mother, Lula, and Granny. After Justine’s father abandoned the family, Lula became a devout member of the Holiness Church—a community that Justine at times finds stifling and terrifying. But Justine does her best as a devoted daughter until an act of violence sends her on a different path forever.

Crooked Hallelujah tells the stories of Justine—a mixed-blood Cherokee woman—and her daughter, Reney, as they move from Eastern Oklahoma’s Indian Country in the hopes of starting a new, more stable life in Texas amid the oil bust of the 1980s. However, life in Texas isn’t easy, and Reney feels unmoored from her family in Indian Country. Against the vivid backdrop of the Red River, we see their struggle to survive in a world—of unreliable men and near-Biblical natural forces, like wildfires and tornados—intent on stripping away their connections to one another and their very ideas of home.

In lush and empathic prose, Kelli Jo Ford depicts what this family of proud, stubborn, Cherokee women sacrifices for those they love, amid larger forces of history, religion, class, and culture. This is a big-hearted and ambitious novel of the powerful bonds between mothers and daughters by an exquisite and rare new talent.

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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