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The Art of Telling: a Prose Workshop with Allison Wyss (via Zoom)


“Show, Don’t Tell” is such standard writing advice that it’s become cliché. But is it good writing advice? Well, it depends. Sometimes it’s best to show.

This class is about the other times. We’ll look at ways telling can help you pace a story and better manage the movement of time. We’ll study techniques to make summary as alive and evocative as scene. And we’ll look at one of my favorite strategies–to show through telling, when the style and tone of the language puts on its own show. We’ll also spend a little bit of time examining why the cliché of “show don’t tell” has been so pervasive, how all craft is culturally based, and how to be subversive about those often oppressive rules.

Expect close reading of excerpts from writers such as Megan Abbott, Nnedi Okorafor, Yiyun Li, and Jamaica Kincaid. Also expect time writing, as we put the ideas to practical use.

NB: This class will be taught on zoom and capped at 17 people. Please refer to the course policies page and the scholarship page before registering for any class at HVWC. Scholarship information will be available on April 15th and applications are due on May 15th.
Registration is $124 at:
www.writerscenter.org/calendar/wyssprose/

Allison Wyss’s short story collection, Splendid Anatomies, is forthcoming from Veliz Books in 2022. Allison has a thing about body modification, dismemberment and fairy tales. Her stories have recently appeared in Water~Stone Review,Cincinnati ReviewAlaska Quarterly ReviewMoon City ReviewYemasseeLunch TicketJellyfish Review, and (less recently) elsewhere. Some of her ideas about the craft of fiction can be found in Reading Like a Writer, a monthly column she writes for the Loft Literary Center. With Erin Kate Ryan, she is co-founder of the Minneapolis Storytelling Workshop.

Event Location and Ticket Information

Date: Sunday, August 28, 2022
Times: 12:30 pm - 4:30 pm

Ticket pricing:

Get tickets now
- 124

Presenter: Hudson Valley Writers Center
Presenter Phone: 9143325953