Send in the Clowns: Using Humor for Emotional Impact

Many people believe that tragedy is a higher art than comedy, but those people are wrong. When skillfully applied, humor can illuminate the human condition just as much as—if not more than— solemnity. In this one-night workshop, we’ll look at how to apply humor in every genre with the aim of adding complexity to our voices, depth to our characterizations, and sophistication to our themes. In particular, we’ll explore how, paradoxically, the effective deployment of comedy can make the sad parts of our writing even sadder and how levity can actually lead to greater gravity. As Kuno Fischer said all the way back in 1889, a joke “must bring forward something that is concealed or hidden.” Thus, through readings of short examples of funny writing followed by generative prompts, participants will walk away with techniques that will allow them to reveal hidden potential already present in their work.

Kathleen Rooney is a founding editor of Rose Metal Press, a nonprofit publisher of literary work in hybrid genres, and a founding member of Poems While You Wait, a collective of typewriter poets who do commissioned poetry on demand. Her fifth novelcomes out in July of 2026 from Gallery Books / Simon & Schuster; Publishers Weekly calls it "a hoot" andBooklist says it's "endearingly suspenseful, touching, and hilarious."Her debut picture book, co-written with her sister Beth and illustrated by Betsy Bowen, was released by University of Minnesota Press last Fall. She lives in Chicago with her spouse, the writer Martin Seay, and teaches at DePaul University.