The Craft of Story: Elements of Disorder starts January 7th at University of Chicago Graham School Writer's Studio

Tuesdays, 1:30 – 4:00 p.m. CST, online

January 7th – February 25th, 2025

Course Overview?

We live in a shaken-up, disordered world in which previously accepted rules, traditions, and social guidelines no longer apply.? Separate and siloed,? cut off from community, ?adrift amid a chaos of alternate truths and competing sources of information, with traditional institutions and expertise undermined, we question the trustworthiness of others and even our very own identities. ??Where do we fit? Can we belong? How can we proceed??

Contemporary, award-winning forms of entertainment reflect this new reality both in content and in form.

In this class we’ll briefly discuss techniques used by authors such as Herman Diaz, Ling Ma, and Sarai Walker to express their experience of disorder in our time. And we’ll strive to integrate our own sense of disorder into our writing to appeal to, and reflect the reality of, today’s audiences, no matter the period in which our stories take place.

Participants will complete at-home exercises, workshop their work in class, and read, support, and critique each other’s work.? Participants will workshop their work twice in class during weeks two through seven.? They may also submit shorter submissions during their non-workshop weeks and receive peer and instructor feedback on all work submitted.? All submissions are due by 3:00 p.m. CT on the Sunday preceding each Tuesday class.?

Want more information? Join us on December 3, 2024 at 11 a.m. CT for a Zoom discussion of this course with Graham School Dean Seth Green and Marina Malazoniya. The event is free; registration is required.

Class registration deadline is December 27, 2024, 5 p.m. CT.??

?Required texts

Severance, by Ling Ma, Picador; Reprint edition (May 7, 2019) ISBN-13 : ?978-1250214997

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