The Street is a Book—Context as Crisis
Date & Time
Saturday, 1-5 p.m.
July 16
Class Size
15 Students
Saturday, 1-5 p.m.
July 16
15 Students
Place matters. How do we create meaningful worlds around the action of our stories? This interactive seminar uses the organizing concept of institutional power mapping to help build nuanced literary landscapes. We will explore different kinds of power and how they can play out in a narrative structure. Writers will leave a clearer sense of how to build a world, and full of ideas to apply to their own writing. This generative, immersive class will end with a reception (wine and snacks will be served) and casual Q&A.
Daniel José Older is the author of the Bone Street Rumba urban fantasy series and the young adult novel Shadowshaper, a New York Times bestseller which was nominated for the Kirkus Prize in Young Readers’ Literature. Publishers Weekly hailed him as a “rising star of the genre” after the publication of his debut ghost noir collection, Salsa Nocturna. His short stories and essays have appeared in The Guardian, NPR, Tor.com, Salon, BuzzFeed, Fireside Fiction, The New Haven Review, PANK, Apex, and Strange Horizons. You can find him at ghoststar.net, on YouTube, and @djolder on Twitter.
“This class was a must-take for any writer, especially someone writing speculative fiction. Daniel has a unique way of approaching world building that was both insightful and applicable immediately to my writing. It is also worth noting that Daniel's outspoken advocacy in the publishing community attracts a certain type of student, so I found myself in an environment with sharp writers amongst whom diversity in stories was an expectation, not an option. I couldn't recommend the class highly enough, it is worth every penny.”
“It fundamentally changed the way I think about world building and actually helped me get un-stuck in my WIP, the urban fantasy piece I turned in for class. I also think it will carry over and help with my contemporary stuff, because power structures are at play in every story.”
“This seminar has literally changed my life as a writer. The first class alone made it abundantly clear just how much I had been brainwashed into whitewashing my work for acceptance – and I include my Harry Potter Fan Fiction in that. From “Storycraft Overview: Beginnings, Middles, Endings” to “Context: Power, Politics and World-building”to “Conflict, Character, Crisis, Desire” through “Craft and beyond… “ I was encouraged to stop selling myself short. It’s continued to be that way since the #StorycraftDJO series ended. Daniel José Older was (and still is) the Mentor I had been crying out for. He not only changed my life for the better as a Writer, and especially as a Writer of Color, he literally changed my life in the best possible way full stop. Should the opportunity arise, I would more than welcome continued study under his tutelage.”
“Daniel Jose-Older is here to save your soul. But he might just terrorize it first. Half-Resurrection Blues is the first novel of a fabulous talent, one who mixes the spectral and the intellectual with skill. This book is smart and gripping, funny and insightful. It kicks in the door waving the literary .44. Be warned, this man is not playing.”
