Crash Course in Non-Fiction

Are you working on a creative nonfiction project but struggling to make it come to life on the page? Have you got a true story that you want to turn into a compelling personal essay, a memoir, autofiction, or hybrid piece of experimental prose?
Creative Nonfiction (CNF) is one of the most innovative and rule-breaking genres in contemporary literature, but in order to break the rules, you have to learn them first. Come to a two-hour crash course in CNF where we will review the literary styles and techniques that make up a good true story including character, conflict, dialogue, place, POV, research v. real life experiences, and writing "in scene." In this workshop we will do a close reading of authors such as James Baldwin and Carmen Maria Machado, work our way through a few craft exercises, and save generative time at the end to work on our own projects and/or share for first blush feedback. Any and all experience levels are welcome.

About the instructor: Dusty Brandt Howard is a trans masculine writer and a fighter. He holds a master's in Creative Writing from the University of Westminster London, and his work has been published in international journals and magazines such as The Lifted Brow, Cleaver, Foglifter, and DECENT. He has a gravitational pull to articulate things that are notoriously difficult to talk about. He is currently working on his debut memoir about masculinity, queerness, power, trauma, and the darker sides of unhealed feminism.

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