1 Session: Saturday, August 22
12:00-3:00pm ET
Ryan Chapman

Ryan Chapman is the author of the novels Riots I Have Known, which NPR called "one of the smartest--and best--novels of the year", and The Audacity, praised as "delicious satire" by Vanity Fair. He teaches at Vassar College and the Sewanee School of Letters.

What do we talk about when we talk about comic voice? Vladimir Nabokov’s linguistic wordplay. Paul Beatty’s situational ironies. Oscar Wilde’s bone-dry wit. (And whomever you’re thinking about right now.) Comic voice is endlessly capacious and incredibly elastic. It allows us to trojan-horse the most difficult subjects into our fiction. It provides catharsis when the world feels on the verge of collapse. And, as we’ll learn, it’s essential for defining our prose style and our ideal reader.

This craft seminar will enumerate strategies for employing the comic--broadly defined--in our own practice. Whether you’re interested in satire or the lightly humorous, you’ll come away with practical steps for advancing your craft. Expect nerdy discussions on rhetoric and earnest ones on empathy, with close readings of brief passages by Miranda July, Gunnhild Øyehaug, Gary Shteyngart, Donald Antrim, and Rebecca Makkai.

While this session will draw upon my MFA pedagogy, it’s for writers at every level of their practice.

Workshop Highlights:

• Learn concrete strategies for adapting comic voice to your prose style

• Perform close readings of how the comic works at the level of the sentence

• Develop your sense of your own individual voice and your ideal audience

This class has 2 scholarship available. To apply, please fill out this form by Friday, August 14.