Join us for a generative writing workshop led by author Erika Wurth. FREE and open to all: Students, Faculty, Staff and the Public
Workshop size limited, Registration required: Click here to register on Eventbrite
Whether you’re writing straight realism, science-fiction/speculative/fantasy or a Post-Modern thriller, you can utilize the strengths of each genre, in your manuscript. In this course, we’ll talk about how different writers do that in different genres, what you can take away from each, and how this applies to language, form, structure, point of view and characterization. In genres such as the thriller, structure is king, and there’s much to be said for looking at a tried-and-true form, even if your plan is to deviate. In science-fiction/fantasy/speculative fiction, the imagination that goes into building imaginary worlds is something to take away, no matter what you’re writing. In realism and post-modern fiction, because these have been the literary fiction norms, writers in these genres are often masters at dialogue, inner-monologue, complex characterization, deviation from the formula in terms of form, and attention to language. In this workshop, we’ll look at examples from each—and we’ll do short exercises, so that you’ll be able to take the strengths of every genre to what you’re working on.
Erika T. Wurth’s publications include two novels, Crazy Horse’s Girlfriend and You Who Enter Here, two collections of poetry and a collection of short stories, Buckskin Cocaine. A writer of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, she teaches creative writing at Western Illinois University and has been a guest writer at the Institute of American Indian Arts. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in numerous journals including Buzzfeed, Boulevard, Lithub, The Writer’s Chronicle, Bitch, Waxwing and The Kenyon Review. She will be faculty at Breadloaf in 2021, is a Kenyon Review Writers Workshop Scholar, attended the Tin House Summer Workshop, and has been chosen as a narrative artist for the Meow Wolf Denver installation. She is Apache/Chickasaw/Cherokee and was raised outside of Denver, where she lives with her partner, her two stepchildren, and her extremely fluffy dogs.
The Fall 2020 ISLA Writers Series is curated by Professor Desiree Zamorano for the Institute for the Study of Los Angeles
The ISLA writers series is supported by the Howard and Roberta Ahmanson and the Arts & Urban Experience Initiative, generously funded Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
