Craft Seminar: Turning Away from the Explosion, or, the Power of Association in the Essay with Matthew Gavin Frank
Craft Seminar: Turning Away from the Explosion, or, the Power of Association in the Essay with Matthew Gavin Frank
2 Sessions: Saturday, August 2 + 9
1:00-2:00pm ET
Matthew Gavin Frank
Matthew Gavin Frank is the author of the nonfiction books, Submersed, Flight of the Diamond Smugglers, The Mad Feast, Preparing the Ghost, Pot Farm, and Barolo, as well as the poetry books The Morrow Plots, Warranty in Zulu, and Sagittarius Agitprop. His work has appeared in The Kenyon Review, The Paris Review, Guernica, The New Republic, Iowa Review, Salon, Conjunctions, The Believer, and the Best Travel Writing and Best Food Writing anthologies. He’s a professor of creative writing in the Masters of Fine Arts Program at Northern Michigan University, where he is also the Nonfiction/Hybrids Editor of the literary magazine, Passages North.
In his piece, “Some Extensions on the Sovereignty of Science,” poet and essayist Alberto Rios writes, “When something explodes, / Turn exactly opposite from it and see what there is to see.” As essayists, how might we, too, “turn away from the explosion” in order to more fully focus on the associative subject matter lurking in the “opposite” direction? By “turning away” from the subject matter with which we most urgently want to engage, are we able to capture our subject’s emotive power even more poignantly? Join Matthew Gavin Frank for a conversation on the power of association as an entry point into the essay. As part of interrogating the parameters of our own stories, and storytelling tools, we will also discuss the often malleable and elusive parameters of “creative nonfiction” itself. The first session will include a lecture and delivery of a writing prompt. The second session will feature the participants' responses to the writing prompt in a celebratory "full-class reading."
Workshop Highlights:
Discuss and engage the malleable parameters of "creative nonfiction."
Practice embedding our personal narratives within a larger researched context.
Generate and share new work based on a writing prompt.
Matthew Gavin Frank is the author of five books of nonfiction, and three books of poetry. His most recent book of nonfiction is Flight of the Diamond Smugglers: A Tale of Pigeons, Obsession, and Greed Along Coastal South Africa (Liveright, 2022), an NPR Best Book of the Year and finalist for the Heartland Booksellers Award in Nonfiction. His next book is Submersed: Wonder, Obsession, and Murder in the World of Amateur Submarines, to be published by Pantheon in June 2025.
His other works of nonfiction include The Mad Feast: An Ecstatic Tour Through America’s Food ( Liveright, 2015), selected as a Staff Pick by The Paris Review, a Best Book of 2015 by Ploughshares, The Millions, and Paste Magazine, and featured in The Wall Street Journal, Saveur, and Entertainment Weekly, Preparing the Ghost: An Essay Concerning the Giant Squid and Its First Photographer (Liveright, 2014), a New York Times Editors' Choice, an NPR Notable Book, and a New Yorker Book to Watch Out For, Pot Farm (The University of Nebraska Press, 2012), and Barolo (The University of Nebraska Press, 2010). His poetry collections are The Morrow Plots (Black Lawrence Press, 2013), Warranty in Zulu (Barrow Street Press, 2010), and Sagittarius Agitprop (Black Lawrence Press, 2009).
His work appears widely in journals and magazines, including The Kenyon Review, The Paris Review, Guernica, The New Republic, Iowa Review, Salon, Conjunctions, The Believer, The Normal School, The Best Travel Writing anthologies, The Best Food Writing anthologies, The Poetry Foundation, and as Notable selections in The Best American Essays anthologies.
