Craft in the Real World: Rethinking Fiction Writing and Workshopping is topic on March 15

Novelist Matthew Salesses says: “When we write fiction, we write the world.” He upends Western notions of how a story must progress. His new book explores how we can rethink craft, and the teaching of it, to better reach writers with diverse backgrounds.”

The traditional writing workshop was established with white male writers in mind; what we call craft is informed by their cultural values. This bold and original examination of elements of writing—including plot, character, conflict, structure, and believability—also pays close attention to elements of workshop, including the silenced writer and the imagined reader.

In this Menlo Park Library program on Monday, March 15, from 7:00 to 8:00 pm, Matthew Salesses asks questions to invigorate these familiar concepts. He upends Western notions of how a story must progress. Register online.

Drawing from examples including One Thousand and One Nights, Curious George, Ursula K. Le Guin’s A Wizard of Earthsea, and the Asian American classic No-No Boy, Salesses asks us to reimagine craft and the workshop.

Matthew Salesses is the author of three novels, Disappear Doppelgänger Disappear; The Hundred-Year Flood; and I’m Not Saying, I’m Just Saying; and a forthcoming essay collection. He was adopted from Korea and currently lives in Iowa.