Workshop: Stories of Survival: Writing About Resilience and Rebirth with Javier Sinay
Workshop: Stories of Survival: Writing About Resilience and Rebirth with Javier Sinay
3 Sessions: Thursdays, November 5, 12, 19
7:00-9:00pm ET
Javier Sinay
This writing workshop is taught by Javier Sinay, journalist and author of the forthcoming El secreto de los sobrevivientes: ¿Por qué algunos escapan a la muerte? (The Secret of the Survivors: Why Do Some Escape Death?). His books include The Murders of Moisés Ville, the true story of his journey reporting a long forgotten true story of violence and displacement, but also resilience and cooperation. In 2015, he won the award of Fundación Gabo (often considered the most important for journalism written in Spanish language) for his story “Fast. Furious. Dead” published in Rolling Stone. He has led writing workshops, in person and virtually, at The Work Room, the Yale Journalism Initiative, UMass (College of Social & Behavioral Sciences--Journalism), Brandeis University, The Center For Fiction (NY), Lighthouse (Denver), the National Library of Argentina, Casa América (Madrid, Spain) and more. He lives in Buenos Aires.
Survival stories are more than tales of endurance—they are narratives of transformation, of the self that emerges from crisis, loss, or challenge. In this three-session nonfiction writing workshop led by award-winning journalist and author Javier Sinay, writers will learn to craft honest, compelling narratives about life's darkest trials—illness, loss, catastrophe, exile— and survival in its many forms: recovering, rebuilding, finding strength. The workshop provides tools to identify where these stories begin and end, how they progress, and what truth they reveal about who we were and who we have become.
Drawing on exemplary works by Emmanuel Carrère, Joan Didion, Martín Caparrós, Anne Boyer, and others, we'll master techniques for reconstruction: framing the protagonist's arc, pinpointing beginnings amid chaos and endings in renewal, and portraying transformation with unflinching empathy. Sinay will share methods from his narrative books on survival amid violence and displacement. The sole mandate: radical honesty. Conclude with practical tools to structure your tale and a polished draft celebrating rebirth's quiet victories.
Highlights:
Instructor and peer feedback
Generative writing exercises
To apply for a scholarship, please fill out this form by Sunday, October 28.
This writing workshop is taught by Javier Sinay, an author and a journalist. His books include The Murders of Moisés Ville, the true story of his journey reporting a long forgotten true story of violence and displacement, but also resilience and cooperation. In 2015, he won the award of Fundación Gabo (often considered the most important for journalism written in Spanish language) for his story “Fast. Furious. Dead” published in Rolling Stone. He has lead writing workshops, in person and virtually, at The Work Room, the Yale Journalism Initiative, UMass (College of Social & Behavioral Sciences--Journalism), Brandeis University, The Center For Fiction (NY), Lighthouse (Denver), the National Library of Argentina, Casa América (Madrid, Spain) and more. He lives in Buenos Aires.
