1 Session: Sunday, July 26
2:30-4:00pm ET
Anna Clark

Anna Clark is an investigative journalist at ProPublica and a faculty member in Alma College’s MFA Program in Creative Writing. She is the author of The Poisoned City: Flint’s Water and the American Urban Tragedy, which won the Hillman Prize for Book Journalism and the Rachel Carson environmental book award, and was longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction. She edited A Detroit Anthology, a Michigan Notable Book, and wrote a book about the Great Lakes State's literary history. Anna was a Fulbright fellow in creative writing in Kenya and a Knight-Wallace journalism fellow at the University of Michigan.

Let's talk about how to talk to people. Interviewing people who have a meaningful vantage on the story you're writing brings potency, power, and revelation to your work. And no matter what your writing background is, you have a right to ask questions.

In this quick-moving seminar, we'll look at how nonfiction and fiction writers have integrated original interviews into their prose. We'll talk about the distinctions in interviewing people you're acquainted with and people who are strangers, as well as interviewing public figures versus private folk. We'll walk through the interviewing process step by step: deciding when it's worth it to pursue an interview; finding people; reaching out; prepping for the conversation; balancing prepared questions with real-time pivots; follow-ups; and lacing what you hear into story.

We’ll ask: What kind of questions do you need to ask to get clear, vivid facts? What kind of questions will evoke rich storytelling detail that you can use in your scenes? How do you navigate complex, emotional or otherwise challenging issues? What if someone lies to you? Or if you hear contradictory accounts of the same event? What are common mistakes that interviewers make? Ethically, what is your responsibility to the people you interview?

In collaborative fashion, we'll dig into all of this, and more. There will, of course, be time for questions.

Workshop Highlights:

• How interviewing can bring power to your prose

• How to find, and approach, people for an interview

• How to conduct a great (and ethical!) interview

This class has 3 scholarships for a reduced fee of $45 available on a first come, first serve basis. Please email kate@theshipmanagency.com to request one.