6-Week Fiction Master Class
Date & Time
Wednesdays, 7-9 p.m.
Oct. 3 - Nov. 28*
Class Size
8 Students
Wednesdays, 7-9 p.m.
Oct. 3 - Nov. 28*
8 Students
This advanced workshop led by acclaimed novelist Cherise Wolas (author of The Resurrection of Joan Ashby) is for writers of fiction who have previous workshop experience, and who are hoping to hone their literary fiction to a submission-ready level. Admission is competitive, and will be granted on a rolling basis.
This workshop will focus on heightening our awareness of the choices we make on the page and developing authorial insight, which will help you hone in on story and character; tease out themes and symbols; explore language, word choice, tone, and dialogue; and analyze narrator, narrator stance, and structure. Novel excerpts and short stories are welcome. Each writer will have the opportunity to submit their work for peer and instructor feedback twice throughout the six-week period. All students will meet once with the instructor for an individual conference following their in-class critiques.
Students in this class will be invited to a private fall reception with leading literary agents.
CLASS TAKEAWAYS:
- intensive peer and instructor critiques on two fiction submissions
- one private conference with the instructor to discuss your writing style, goals, and areas for improvement
- access to a nurturing community of writers and readers
- more confidence as a writer, on and off the page!
*no class on October 17th, or November 21st
Cherise Wolas's debut novel, The Resurrection of Joan Ashby, is currently longlisted for the 2019 International Dublin Literary Award, was a New York Times Book Review's Editors' Choice, an ABA Indie Next Great Read Pick, and longlisted for the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Fiction. The Family Tabor, her second novel, was an ABA Indie Next Great Read Pick and has been optioned by Legendary Entertainment Television. She lives in New York City with her husband.
“A stunning debut—because there is nothing debut about it. It arrives so fully realized that it stuns as it entertains, as it twirls the reader on the sharp point of a #2 pencil. Wolas is a writer in full command of some impressive powers—one might even call them special powers. There is a joyous embrace to her work—to her exploration of the life and mind of her main character, the author Joan Ashby. Ashby is so well rendered that I found myself jealous of her (and Wolas) and also wishing she were my best friend and that we had a standing drinks date. Wolas is singular in her voice—and yet the delicacy, the specificity reminds me of my most favorite authors: J.D. Salinger, Carson McCullers, Truman Capote, Joan Didion.”
“The rapturous advance praise for Cherise Wolas’ assured meta debut, THE RESURRECTION OF JOAN ASHBY, doesn’t do it justice. This ambitious first novel introduces us to an elusive artist with a stratospheric cult following—only to unravel her life, as the blessings of divine inspiration battle the curse of earthly love. Wolas has forged an audacious balancing act whose betrayals come from the least expected corners, submerging readers in a dazzling universe we hate to leave.”
“Debut author Wolas’s sure hand applies layer upon layer of precisely meshed poetic and cinematic scenes to realize a life of such quiet majesty and original consideration of family interplay that she does the impossible. Readers not only will mourn coming to the end, they will feel compelled to start over to watch the miracle of this novel unfold again. Breathtaking.”
“It’s almost impossible to believe that THE RESURRECTION OF JOAN ASHBY…is the first novel by Cherise Wolas. Gorgeously written and completely captivating, the book spans decades and continents, deftly capturing the tug so many women feel between motherhood and self-identity.”
“A stunning debut novel…a wealth of superb writing, mature insights, and breathtaking risks....A rare book such as this comes along only once in a long while.”
