2024 Summer Workshops
If I teach nothing in my writing classes, Iteach this: do not outline your novel or novella or short story or essay. Donot think out the plot, the narrative arc, the protagonist’s journey, whateveryou want to call it. Instead, try to find the story through an honestexcavation of the characters’ total experience of the situation in which theyfind themselves. Do that, and I promise the story will begin to write itself,with little need for the controlling hand of the godly, intelligent, well-read,and ambitious author. But how, precisely, does one go about this “excavation”?And how, technically speaking, can we ignite a story into “writing itself”?Come to this workshop, and I will seek to demystify those writerly tools andskills that time and time again, if they are sharp enough, and if the writercan summon enough daily faith and nerve, can penetrate the mystery of storyitself. This is both a workshop-based and generative class.
Please submit 10-25 pages of work(double-spaced, 12pt font) to dwalsh@fawc.org by July 17.
Biography
Andre Dubus III ‘s books include his most recent novel, Gone So Long, the New York Times’ bestsellers House of Sand and Fog, The Garden of Last Days, and his memoir, Townie. Mr. Dubus has been a finalist for the National Book Award. His honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship, two Pushcart Prizes, and an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award. His books are published in over twenty-five languages, and he teaches full-time at the University of Massachusetts Lowell.