“The catalogue of forms is endless: until every shape has found its city, new cities will continue to be born. When the forms exhaust their variety and come part, the end of cities begin.” Italo Calvino
The structure of a work of fiction is the reality through which everything else moves. Without it, stories can flounder, lose shape, or dissipate into the ether! In this two-hour seminar, Michael Zapata (The Lost Book of Adana Moreau) will guide writers through what it means to navigate the reality inventing power of structure. We’ll discuss experimental and non-traditional narrative structures found throughout the world and how to structure and map out our own work. The seminar will also include an opportunity for a Q&A!
Michael Zapata is a founding editor of MAKE Literary Magazine and the author of the novel The Lost Book of Adana Moreau, winner of the 2020 Chicago Review of Books Award for Fiction, finalist for the 2020 Heartland Booksellers Award in Fiction, and a Best Book of the Year for NPR, the A.V. Club, Los Angeles Public Library, and BookPage, among others. He is the recipient of an Illinois Arts Council Award for Fiction and the City of Chicago DCASE Individual Artist Program Award. He is on the core faculty of StoryStudio Chicago and the MFA faculty of Northwestern University. As a public-school educator, he taught literature and writing in high schools servicing drop out students. He currently lives in Chicago with his family.
Michael will accept the first 2 manuscripts to be submitted and paid for to critique.
We offer free student memberships at a discounted rate of $5.00 per session. You must send verification of your student status. Please contact Claudia Katz at ckatz17755@aol.com for details.
9-9:30 Socializing
9:30-12 Program