Trent Con Ed Writing Class starts March 19th!

Remember, award winning critic and blogger Derek Newman-Stille and I are teaching a creative writing class that begins this week. We are teaching it through Trent’s Continuing Education department, which means it is open to all community members (not just current university students). So if you are interested in creative writing or even if you just want to try something new, make sure to sign up today.

While this class is called Writing Speculative Fiction, it leans heavily towards “mainstream.” For example, in Thursday’s inaugural class on character, it’s wonderful if you want to write about a robot or an alien, but it isn’t necessary. We expect most people will focus on humans!

As well, it’s fine to sign up for one or two classes if that’s what you can afford right now or if it’s all all you’re interested in. Signing up for all eight classes is optional.

Looking forward to seeing you on Thursday night!

More info here.

Or call 705-748-1736 to register.

I’ll also be selling signed copies of Harvesting the Moon, my limited edition hard cover from PS Publishing in the UK!

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Writing Speculative Fiction

Course Instructors: Ursula Pflug and Derek Newman-Stille, M.A.

Ursula Pflug is the award winning author of the novels Green Music, The Alphabet Stones, and Motion Sickness, as well as the story collections After the Fires and Harvesting the Moon. Her first edited book, the fundraiser anthology They Have To Take You In, was recently released. Her short stories and reviews, mainly about books and art, appear regularly in Canada, the US and the UK.  Her short fiction has been taught at universities in Canada and India. Pflug has also written for film and theatre, and has received numerous Canada Council, Ontario Arts Council and Laidlaw Foundation grants in support of her novels, short fiction and plays. Ursula Pflug has taught creative writing workshops with a focus on script-writing or short fiction at Trinity Square Video, the Young Author’s Conference, The Word is Wild Literary Festival and elsewhere since 1985. She has taught Continuing Education Courses in short fiction writing at Loyalist College (Campbellford Campus) and at the Campbellford Resource Centre since 2009.

Derek Newman-Stille is the Aurora Award Winning creator of the Speculating Canada website and runs the reading series ChiSeries Peterborough as well as a radio programme on Canadian speculative fiction. Derek has taught courses on werewolves in literature and witchcraft in the Greek and Roman world. Derek has published academic articles on speculative fiction in venues like Mosaic and The Canadian Fantastic in Focus. He has given academic papers at conferences such as the Academic Conference on Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy, the International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, the Mid-Atlantic Popular and American Culture Association, and the Canadian Popular Culture Association.

Course Description: Writing Speculative Fiction is a way of imagining the world in new and creative ways, using your full imagination to see the world through a creative and speculative (questioning) lens. In this course, award winning author Ursula Pflug and award winning academic and blogger Derek Newman-Stille will creatively work with you to bring out your creative potential and give you the skills to find your own voice and turn it into written work.

Using the techniques of speculative fiction (science fiction, fantasy, horror), we will work on imagining possibilities and new magical, futuristic, or horrifying ways of seeing and envisioning the world around you. We will explore a variety of forms of writing, with a general focus on writing short fiction. Our techniques will vary from class to class, bringing out different ways of imagining new possibilities.

Students will have the opportunity to engage in workshops related to areas such as character development, dialogue, descriptions and the senses, constructing metaphors and similes, and techniques for seeking inspiration, as well as techniques specifically related to speculative fiction such as speculative futurisms, engaging with the mythic, and creating speculative twists to ordinary experience.

This course is open to creative writing beginners, those wanting a refresher, and established writers wanting some new techniques for writing.

Course Fee: All eight classes – $160.00 + 20.80 H.S.T. = $180.80 OR the cost of each class is $20.00 + 2.60 H.S.T. = $22.60

All classes are held at Scott House 102.1 (Traill College), 7:00 – 9:00 p.m.

 

 


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