Two-Day Intensive: Bridges to Elsewhere—Defamiliarizing the Everyday Moment

Exceptional narrative turns are an intimate experience. We encounter emotions alongside a character, feel as she feels, move as she moves, and in the best scenes, experience moments of radical empathy. Reading scenes by Gabriela Cabazón Cámara, Lucia Berlin, Grace Paley, Denis Johnson, Deborah Levy, Catherine Lacey, and Percival Everett, we’ll analyze the distinctive turns that create, channel, and change energy in a work. We’ll then turn to the components of our own scenes, and revise using (among other techniques) power shifts, subtext, revelations, image, misdirection, and surrealism.