2008 Fantastic Fiction Workshops and Readings in Seattle

2008 Fantastic Fiction Workshops and Salons

Whether you are a writer or a reader, you will find that the monthly Fantastic Fiction Workshop and Reading Series has plenty to offer.  People attend our one-day workshops from as far south as Los Angeles and as far north as Canada.  Once a month, a critically acclaimed writer presents a one-day writing workshop at Seattle's Richard Hugo House.  Last fall, workshops were taught by John Crowley, Charles deLint and John Kessel.  Winter and spring 2008 listings are below, along with registration information for the workshops as well as the readings salons featuring our guest authors the Monday following each Sunday workshop.

Hope to see you there!  

Writing Fantastic Fiction Workshop Series - Winter/Spring 2008 - co-sponsored by NWMediaArts and Richard Hugo House

The literature of speculative fiction provides the perfect oeuvre to hold a mirror up to humanity and look at who we are and what we might become. By telling tales of "the other" we discover ourselves. By projecting current trends forward, we ask "what if?" and compare the world that is with worlds that might be. Fantastic fiction has long been the home of astute social commentary and in-depth exploration of what it means to be human. Important work is being written in the realm of fantasy, science fiction, mythic and fabulist fiction, and these workshops provide an opportunity to work with masters of the field.This workshop series will take you on a voyage of discovery as critically acclaimed authors from around the country arrive in Seattle to teach a day-long workshop focusing on writing tools that will further your craft and provide you with tools to sharpen your skills, whether writing fabulist fiction or mainstream. Each author will teach a one-day Sunday workshop and give a reading and book signing for the general public the following day, Monday, at 7:00 p.m. Workshops include discussion, in-class writing exercises and critiquing.

January 27, 2008

Instructor: Robert Ferrigno

Breathing Life Into Characters; the Heart of Good Story

Character is the core of good storytelling, a way to not only illuminate the tale, but a way to make us care about the tale being told. A bus going off a cliff in India is a one-inch story at the back of a newspaper. A writer who gives us a glimpse of one person on that bus, a young mother clutching her child with worry as the bus careens along the Mana-Lei highway down the slope of the Himalayas, a young mother praying as the driver grinds the gears, tires spinning, a young mother whose eyes shimmer while watching the child snore peacefully... until one of her tears falls on the child, waking it. That's more than a one-inch story. I'm interesting in teaching writers techniques that make their characters come alive, make them more than marionettes dancing in the service of plot, but characters that breathe and exist after the last page is turned.

Robert Ferrigno, a former creative writing professor and newspaper reporter, is the author of nine novels, the most recent of which is Prayers for the Assassin (Scribner, 2006). Both a NY Times and LA Times best seller, Prayers has been published in numerous foreign editions. Ferrigno’s first novel, The Horse Latitudes, was called "the fiction debut of the season" by Time magazine. Winner of the 2007 Gumshoe Award for Prayers for the Assassin, Robert is praised for his sharp dialogue, excellent, sometimes quirky characterizations, and his perceptive cultural insights. Almost all of his novels have been optioned for film. Robert has college degrees in Philosophy, Film Making and Creative Writing. Robert will also read from his new novel at the Fantastic Fiction Salon on January 28th.

Sunday, January 27, 2008; 10:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.

Registration information at http://www.nwmediaarts.com

February 24, 2008

Instructor: Ellen Klages

Child's Play: Writing YA Fiction

By the time we are adults, many of us have lost the sense of wonder we had as children. We no longer believe in magic. Fantastic fiction writers are an exception. They are adults who believe in their hearts that if you just go around the right corner, or open the right door, you will find something out of the ordinary. A lot of the "classics" of 20th-century literature began as books for children — Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, even The Hobbit. And today, in the post-Harry Potter world of publishing, fantastic literature for young adults has never been a more vibrant market. We'll talk about what difference — if any — there is in writing for adults or younger folk, play around with words and ideas and imagination (and how to get that onto the page), and we'll become reacquainted with the wonder that lies lurking just under the surface of everyday life. It will be an extraordinary day. 

Ellen Klages is an award-winning writer whose short fiction has appeared in anthologies and magazines, both online and in print. Her first novel, The Green Glass Sea, is the winner of the 2007 Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction, 2007, Judy Lopez Award for Children's Literature, a finalist for the 2007 Locus Awards and the Quill Awards, and was #1 on the BookSense Winter 2006/2007 Children's Picks List. Her newly released short story collection, Portable Childhoods, received a starred review in Publisher's Weekly, and includes her Nebula Award-winning story, "Basement Magic." Ellen will also speak at the Fantastic Fiction Salon on February 25th.

Sunday, February 24, 2008 10:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.

Registration information at http://www.nwmediaarts.com

March 30, 2008

Instructor: James Patrick Kelly

Story Doctoring 101

Have you ever gotten stuck in mid-plot, or finished a draft of a story knowing there were still flaws? Maybe an editor has asked for a rewrite that leaves you scratching your head? Stories can go wrong in all kinds of ways: from wooden characters to bland settings, from slow beginnings to predictable endings. This workshop offers techniques for analyzing a variety of story problems with a series of exercises that will help you re-complicate plots and teach your characters to speak in their true voice. You will learn how to identify and — with perseverance — cure a variety of literary maladies that might be weakening your fiction. Bring a sick story or an idea that has yet to gel. 

James Patrick Kelly's short novel "Burn" won the Nebula Award in 2007. He has won the Hugo Award twice: in 1996, for his novelette "Think Like A Dinosaur" and in 2000, for his novelette, "Ten to the Sixteenth to One." His fiction has been translated into eighteen languages. With John Kessel he is co-editor of Feeling Very Strange: The Slipstream Anthology and Rewired: The Post Cyberpunk Anthology. He writes a column on the internet for Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine and is on the faculty of the Stonecoast Creative Writing MFA Program at the University of Southern Maine.Jim will also speak at the Fantastic Fiction Salon on March 31st.

Sunday, March 30, 2008 10:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. 

Registration information at http://www.nwmediaarts.com

April 27, 2008

Instructor: Elizabeth Hand

This is the Way the World Ends he popularity of a new genre of fiction that reflects what's really happening in the world today has surged dramatically since 9/11. Writers have realized that it's a good time to be addressing in fictional terms some of the issues we're facing. People are feeling helpless in the face of global warming, the erosion of human rights, political extremists and terrorism. Eco-tourism has taken off as people rush to see rainforests and glaciers before they disappear. What we write can be empowering and timely; whether we write a cautionary tale or describe a world where solutions have been found to some of our problems.What would it take to dissolve one of the world's problems? What would the fulcrum be that could stop what's going on and change everything? How would you do world building based on the patterns of extinction we're dealing with now? Plague, flooding, extinction of species; what is the domino chain impact?You'll come away from this workshop with ideas for both cautionary/post-apocalyptic tales and stories that portray possible solutions to issues as we build scenarios off of what we're dealing with now.

Elizabeth Hand is the author of nine novels, including Generation Loss, a 2007 Washington Post Notable Book, and three collections of short fiction, including Saffron & Brimstone: Strange Stories and the World Fantasy Award-winning Bibliomancy. Her fiction has received two Nebulas (including the 2007 short fiction award for "Echo"), two World Fantasy Awards, two International Horror Guild Awards, the James Tiptree Jr. Award and the Mythopoeic Society Award, as well as an Individual Artist's Fellowship from the Maine Arts Commission/NEA. She is a longtime contributor of book reviews and criticism to the Washington Post, Village Voice, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, DownEast, and Salon, among others. She lives on the coast of Maine with her two teenage children and her partner, UK critic John Clute.

Liz will also speak at the Fantastic Fiction Salon on April 28

Sunday, April 27th, 2008; 10:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.

Registration information at http://www.nwmediaarts.com

Co-sponsored by Richard Hugo House and NW MediaArts

LeslieHowle
Leslie@nwmediaarts.com
events@nwmediaarts.com