2024 Summer Workshops
Hunter S. Thompson said, “Never turn your back on Fear. It should always be in front of you, like a thing that might have to be killed.” Do we kill fear or keep it alive? How do we counter fear? Do we go around it, or do we go through it? In this workshop, we will focus on the many ways writers are tethered by fear and the many tools we have inside us to untether ourselves. It is too simple to say, ‘Be courageous.’ What does that mean? What are the particles of which courage is made? Using each other’s work, writing prompts, deep discussion and generative exercises, we will dismantle our fear and mobilize its ever-patient and waiting twin, courage.
Biography
Shobha Rao is the author of the short story collection, An Unrestored Woman, and the novel, Girls Burn Brighter. She is the winner of the Katherine Anne Porter Prize in Fiction, and her story “Kavitha and Mustafa” was chosen for inclusion in Best American Short Stories 2015. Girls Burn Brighter has been longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and was a finalist for the California Book Award. She lives in San Francisco.