2 Sessions: Saturday + Sunday, October 18 + 19
1:00-3:00pm ET
Tricia Romano

Tricia Romano is the author of the acclaimed oral history, The Freaks Came Out to Write: The Definitive History of the Village Voice, the Radical Paper that Changed American Culture (Public Affairs, 2024) which Dwight Garner, writing for the New York Times Book Review, called “A well-made disco ball of a book.” It was a finalist for the National Book Critics Choice Awards, and a finalist for the Gotham Book Prize. A fellow at MacDowell, Ucross and Millay artist residencies, her work has been published in the New York Times, Rolling Stone, the Daily Beast, Men’s Journal, Elle, Alta Journal, and the Los Angeles Times, among others. She has been a staff writer at the Seattle Times and served as the editor in chief of The Stranger, Seattle’s alternative newsweekly.

Oral histories are the redheaded stepchild of literature—often derided as "copy and paste" and "easy" to write—when they are complex and confounding art forms that require a dastardly level of organization and research. The narrative oral history should be a breeze to read; the difficulty of its construction hides in plain sight. The best compliment I've received is that my book is a page-turner that they couldn't put down even though it took me five years to write.

There are many different types of oral histories, but for this class in preparation attendees will read a few excerpts of some of the best narrative oral histories in recent times, including Please Kill Me, Edie, Meet Me in the Bathroom, and Live From Saturday night and talk about what makes them so successful. We will also do a live reading excerpt from Freaks to give an example of how to move a narrative along with many different voices. We will also talk about the practical and technical aspects of creating a narrative oral history.

Workshop Highlights:

We will talk about both the art and practice in the narrative oral history form, including:

• What makes an oral history successful?

• What are the many common pitfalls of oral history storytelling and how to avoid them?

• Tools and tricks of an oral historian: What I wish I knew before starting my project. Interviewing techniques for longform oral history and how to bridge gaps in information.

This class has 1 scholarship available. To apply, please fill out this form by Friday, October 10.