Writing is Like Running

INSTRUCTOR: Sean Morrissey Carroll

TIME: Saturday, February 8, 1-4 p.m. CST

PRICE: Early bird price: $65 for members, $80 for nonmembers. The deadline for early bird pricing is Sunday, February 2. After Sunday, February 2: $75 for members, $90 for nonmembers. Become a member here. Apply for a scholarship here

LOCATION: Online via Zoom

LEVEL: All levels

CAP: 15

This workshop will examine writing through the lens of running, and you don't have to be a runner to enjoy it. From ups and down to setbacks and personal triumphs, the life of an author can mirror the trevails of a runner in many ways.

With generative prompts and interactive elements based on readings from Murakami's book, we will look at how authors can set themselves up for the marathon of publishing a book rather than a series of sprints that will leave you exhausted.

Every attendee will receive a copy of What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, from Haruki Murakami, the author of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and Norwegian Wood, from Brazos Bookstore!

In 1982, having sold his jazz bar to devote himself to writing, Murakami began running to keep fit. A year later, he’d completed a solo course from Athens to Marathon, and now, after dozens of such races, not to mention triathlons and a dozen critically acclaimed books, he reflects upon the influence the sport has had on his life and—even more important—on his writing.
Equal parts training log, travelogue, and reminiscence, this revealing memoir covers his four-month preparation for the 2005 New York City Marathon and takes us to places ranging from Tokyo’s Jingu Gaien gardens, where he once shared the course with an Olympian, to the Charles River in Boston among young women who outpace him. Through this marvelous lens of sport emerges a panorama of memories and insights: the eureka moment when he decided to become a writer, his greatest triumphs and disappointments, his passion for vintage LPs, and the experience, after fifty, of seeing his race times improve and then fall back.

Sean Morrissey Carroll is an author in Houston, Texas, programming director for Writespace Writing Center, and co-host of Writers Lunch. He’s been a bookseller, photography teacher, butcher, cartoonist, waiter, art critic, crepemaker, vintage fashion grader and sign painter. Published in Art in America, Artforum.com, Bullshit Literary, Defunkt Magazine, Houston Press, Punt Volat, Nebo, Space City Underground, and Gulf Coast magazine, Sean’s story “Future Floods of Houston” was nominated for a PEN/Dau Award.

Photo by Jenny Hill on Unsplash

Host or Publisher Writespace