Location
1000 Rosa L Parks Blvd
Nashville, Tennessee 37208
United States
Date & Time
9:00am CDT - 4:30pm CDT
About Porch Workshops at Southern Festival of Books
Kick off your Southern Festival of Books weekend with The Porch on Friday, where you’ll have a unique opportunity to learn from celebrated authors as they pass through Nashville before the festival officially begins! Stick around for the rest of the day to take more writing classes with Susannah Felts, Asa Drake, Emily Nemens, Sun Yung Shin and Kayla Rae Whitaker.
Friday, October 16 Schedule
9:00am to 10:30am
Sense of Place with Susannah Felts: Place can be both a launching point and a powerful force for stasis. Place is a shared language, a familiar system of signs, and a vibe you can’t shake, no matter how far you fling yourself. When we ground our work in a strong sense of place we perform a kind of magic, transporting readers in ways beyond imagined geography. In this class we’ll look at how sense of place functions in examples of contemporary fiction, creative nonfiction, and poems, including works grounded in Nashville and the South. Through guided exercises informed by these excerpts, we’ll explore place in terms of both theme and concrete imagery.
10:45am to 12:15pm
Getting Unstuck with Ramona Ausubel: Does it sometimes seem like your novel is trying to kill you? Have you considered divorcing a story? Me too. Being a writer means coming up against self-doubt, but pushing through that feeling doesn’t have to be scary. What if the blank page felt more like an invitation than a cliff?
In this single-session gathering, we will work through a series of exercises adapted from my book Unstuck that are designed to bring joy, invention, and a sense of possibility to your writing—whether you have yet to write a single word or are on your third draft.
You’ll come away with new words on the page with the promise of more to come. Everyone who wants to will be able to share their work aloud, and we’ll talk as a group about both the tricky parts of writing a novel and the things that help the road feel more open and free. Expect warmth, practical advice, and time to write.
10:45am to 12:15pm
Writing Three Types of Memory with Sun Yung Shin: Memoir, and much of creative nonfiction, centers on the art of recalling, interpreting, and representing memories for the reader. How do authors evoke the past, present, future, and speculation seamlessly and meaningfully? In this class, we will explore three main types of memory that you may need to mine for your writing project. Together, we will look at examples from a wide range of contemporary writers and use writing prompts to help you discover memories and speculation that may be central to the themes and purposes of your work. A related issue is how to write memoir and CNF when you don’t have memories or information about important events or histories—writing into these absences and gaps may require research and speculation, and the three types of memory can be mobilized there, too. This class is ideal for writers eager for discussion and interested in generating fresh work.
12:15 to 1:00pm
Lunch (Plenty of options at Farmer's Market across the street)
1:00pm to 2:30pm
Revising Yourself and Others with Emily Nemens: In this lecture/discussion, we'll look at strategies for revising prose (fiction and nonfiction) whether you're editing yourself, helping others, or participating in a creative writing workshop. We'll discuss how and why to isolate different craft elements in our revision practice, and look at how to tackle even the biggest revisions. There will be plenty of in-class examples, and please bring the first page or two of a work-in-progress in order to practice some of these editing strategies in real time.
3:00 to 4:30pm
Not a Love Poem But Something Close with Asa Drake: Sometimes the “love poem” we find easiest to write begins with an adjacent subject. Consider how Mary Oliver’s famous line, “He is exactly the poem I wanted to write,” is about a heron. This class is for writers of all experience levels. Through step-by-step generative exercises will explore forms like the cento and poetic devices like point of view, repetition, and the line break. Together we’ll consider how we might broaden the scope of the love poem to become a record, an ode, and a form of care.
We’ll borrow inspiration from Eduardo C. Corral, Aracelis Girmay, and Sam Herschel Wein to examine the speech acts we associate with love and how they might manifest for (and from) different sources. We’ll write with intention to consider the people, creatures and places we want to house in our poems. After all, the word “stanza” comes from the Italian word for “room.” If a stanza is a room, we can choose who enters.
3:00 to 4:30pm
Blistex or Dior: Using Story Shape to Write Character with Kayla Rae Whitaker: Every story – even literary fiction that seems to defy traditional plot structure – adheres to a classical story shape, be it rags to riches, hero's quest, or romantic comedy. Considering which structure best fits your story is a key to unlocking character nuance. Human beings on AND off the page reveal themselves most through what they desire, how they pursue their desires, and how they react when challenged. Taking a closer look at the mechanics of your story shape and considering the implications can mean the difference between a character using Blistex or Dior, seizing a conversation by the throat or observing in calculation, letting their life claim them or wrestling free and fighting for change.
In this class, we’ll learn more about how the specific heat of a story shape can melt nonspecific characters down to detailed, compelling actors. We’ll read, watch, and discuss how characters reveal themselves when engaging in the footwork of their story shape, and find new ways of discovering how dramatic circumstances can unearth a character’s guiding ethos, physicality, dialogue, and perspective. We'll review a few of the most commonly seen story structures, then jump into writing exercises and prompts that will inspire you to sketch fresh, nuanced versions of those already peopling your story. Bring your journal, notebook, or whatever tools you need to play, experiment, explore. The only preparation needed: come with your own work in mind, and specifically a character or two who needs greater definition.
Learn more about our friends at IngramSpark and about what's coming up at the Porch at our tables. Stop by anytime from 9am-4:30pm.
About Porch Workshops at Southern Festival of Books
Kick off your Southern Festival of Books weekend with The Porch on Friday, where you’ll have a unique opportunity to learn from celebrated authors as they pass through Nashville before the festival officially begins! Stick around for the rest of the day to take more writing classes with Susannah Felts, Asa Drake, Emily Nemens, Sun Yung Shin and Kayla Rae Whitaker.
Friday, October 16 Schedule
9:00am to 10:30am
Sense of Place with Susannah Felts: Place can be both a launching point and a powerful force for stasis. Place is a shared language, a familiar system of signs, and a vibe you can’t shake, no matter how far you fling yourself. When we ground our work in a strong sense of place we perform a kind of magic, transporting readers in ways beyond imagined geography. In this class we’ll look at how sense of place functions in examples of contemporary fiction, creative nonfiction, and poems, including works grounded in Nashville and the South. Through guided exercises informed by these excerpts, we’ll explore place in terms of both theme and concrete imagery.
10:45am to 12:15pm
Getting Unstuck with Ramona Ausubel: Does it sometimes seem like your novel is trying to kill you? Have you considered divorcing a story? Me too. Being a writer means coming up against self-doubt, but pushing through that feeling doesn’t have to be scary. What if the blank page felt more like an invitation than a cliff?
In this single-session gathering, we will work through a series of exercises adapted from my book Unstuck that are designed to bring joy, invention, and a sense of possibility to your writing—whether you have yet to write a single word or are on your third draft.
You’ll come away with new words on the page with the promise of more to come. Everyone who wants to will be able to share their work aloud, and we’ll talk as a group about both the tricky parts of writing a novel and the things that help the road feel more open and free. Expect warmth, practical advice, and time to write.
10:45am to 12:15pm
Writing Three Types of Memory with Sun Yung Shin: Memoir, and much of creative nonfiction, centers on the art of recalling, interpreting, and representing memories for the reader. How do authors evoke the past, present, future, and speculation seamlessly and meaningfully? In this class, we will explore three main types of memory that you may need to mine for your writing project. Together, we will look at examples from a wide range of contemporary writers and use writing prompts to help you discover memories and speculation that may be central to the themes and purposes of your work. A related issue is how to write memoir and CNF when you don’t have memories or information about important events or histories—writing into these absences and gaps may require research and speculation, and the three types of memory can be mobilized there, too. This class is ideal for writers eager for discussion and interested in generating fresh work.
12:15 to 1:00pm
Lunch (Plenty of options at Farmer's Market across the street)
1:00pm to 2:30pm
Revising Yourself and Others with Emily Nemens: In this lecture/discussion, we'll look at strategies for revising prose (fiction and nonfiction) whether you're editing yourself, helping others, or participating in a creative writing workshop. We'll discuss how and why to isolate different craft elements in our revision practice, and look at how to tackle even the biggest revisions. There will be plenty of in-class examples, and please bring the first page or two of a work-in-progress in order to practice some of these editing strategies in real time.
3:00 to 4:30pm
Not a Love Poem But Something Close with Asa Drake: Sometimes the “love poem” we find easiest to write begins with an adjacent subject. Consider how Mary Oliver’s famous line, “He is exactly the poem I wanted to write,” is about a heron. This class is for writers of all experience levels. Through step-by-step generative exercises will explore forms like the cento and poetic devices like point of view, repetition, and the line break. Together we’ll consider how we might broaden the scope of the love poem to become a record, an ode, and a form of care.
We’ll borrow inspiration from Eduardo C. Corral, Aracelis Girmay, and Sam Herschel Wein to examine the speech acts we associate with love and how they might manifest for (and from) different sources. We’ll write with intention to consider the people, creatures and places we want to house in our poems. After all, the word “stanza” comes from the Italian word for “room.” If a stanza is a room, we can choose who enters.
3:00 to 4:30pm
Blistex or Dior: Using Story Shape to Write Character with Kayla Rae Whitaker: Every story – even literary fiction that seems to defy traditional plot structure – adheres to a classical story shape, be it rags to riches, hero's quest, or romantic comedy. Considering which structure best fits your story is a key to unlocking character nuance. Human beings on AND off the page reveal themselves most through what they desire, how they pursue their desires, and how they react when challenged. Taking a closer look at the mechanics of your story shape and considering the implications can mean the difference between a character using Blistex or Dior, seizing a conversation by the throat or observing in calculation, letting their life claim them or wrestling free and fighting for change.
In this class, we’ll learn more about how the specific heat of a story shape can melt nonspecific characters down to detailed, compelling actors. We’ll read, watch, and discuss how characters reveal themselves when engaging in the footwork of their story shape, and find new ways of discovering how dramatic circumstances can unearth a character’s guiding ethos, physicality, dialogue, and perspective. We'll review a few of the most commonly seen story structures, then jump into writing exercises and prompts that will inspire you to sketch fresh, nuanced versions of those already peopling your story. Bring your journal, notebook, or whatever tools you need to play, experiment, explore. The only preparation needed: come with your own work in mind, and specifically a character or two who needs greater definition.
Learn more about our friends at IngramSpark and about what's coming up at the Porch at our tables. Stop by anytime from 9am-4:30pm.
Getting There
TN State Museum
1000 Rosa L Parks Blvd
Nashville, Tennessee 37208
United States
Location
1000 Rosa L Parks Blvd
Nashville, Tennessee 37208
United States
Date & Time
9:00am CDT - 4:30pm CDT