WELCOME TO THE HVWC CALENDAR: home of all our upcoming readings, events and workshops. You can view by list or calendar (see right menu to choose). Click the colored tabs below to show only specific options. Our workshops run as multi-session series or one-day “intensives.” Note, we list the multi-session courses on the first day they meet only. The full dates of the session are described in the course descriptions. You would need to scroll back to the start date if you needed to enroll for something already underway. But do let us know if you want to join something in midstream since we need the blessing of the instructor. Questions? Email us.
Tension and Stakes in Fiction with Zeyn Joukhadar (via Zoom)
November 5 @ 12:30 pm - 4:30 pm
$150.00
If a story is perpetual movement, and structure is a means of organizing that movement, then tension is the fuel that gets us where we want to go. In this class, suitable both for beginning writers as well as advanced writers looking to hone specific aspects of their craft, we will discuss how to control the flow of information in a narrative and how this creates pace and contributes to keeping the tension high. We will discuss how tension is influenced by an understanding of (and is made possible by) character development, the flow of time, point of view, and the juxtaposition of multiple story threads. We’ll explore the pros and cons of various techniques to enhance and sustain tension, including nonlinear structures and fragmentation, and explore how to employ these techniques effectively in our own fiction.
NB: This class will be taught on Zoom and will be capped at 15 students. Registrants will receive the Zoom link to the email address they use to register. It will arrive immediately after registration so please check your spam folder if you do not receive it. It will also be sent the day before class as a reminder. Please review the course policies page before registering for any classes. Please email [email protected] with any questions
Zeyn Joukhadar is the author of the Lambda Literary- and Stonewall Book Award-winning novel The Thirty Names of Night as well as The Map of Salt and Stars, which won the Middle East Book Award and was a Goodreads Choice Awards and Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize finalist. His work has appeared in Electric Literature, Salon, The Paris Review, [PANK], and elsewhere and has been included in anthologies such as Letters to a Writer of Color, This Arab Is Queer, Kink, and others. He has been twice nominated for the Pushcart Prize. Joukhadar serves on the board of the Radius of Arab American Writers (RAWI) and mentors emerging writers of color with the Periplus Collective.