NVL 53 W — The Speculative and the Fantastic: Novel Workshop
Quarter: Spring
Instructor(s): Nova Ren Suma
Date(s): Mar 31—Jun 2
Class Recording Available: Yes
Class Meeting Day: Tuesdays
Class Meeting Time: 12:00—1:00 pm (PT)
Tuition: $1000
Refund Deadline: Apr 2
Unit(s): 2
Enrollment Limit: 18
Status: Registration opens Feb 23, 8:30 am (PT)
These days, readers are craving fantasy, horror, and dystopian novels not just to escape but to confront and illuminate the deepest questions of our time. This course invites you to indulge your imagination and write a speculative novel of your own. Assignments will include exercises and experiments in world-building, mood and atmosphere, nighttime logic, and the suspension of disbelief as well as writing a novel opening (up to 5,000 words) to be workshopped in small peer cohorts. Excerpts for models of inspiration may include work from authors such as Charlie Jane Anders, Marie-Helene Bertino, Tananarive Due, Mariana Enríquez, Kazuo Ishiguro, Laila Lalami, Victor LaValle, and Madeline Miller. Writers in all speculative genres are welcome, as are those writing for adult, YA, or crossover audiences. Come with a project in mind—new or in progress—and a readiness to take bold, creative leaps.
NOVA REN SUMA
Author
Nova Ren Suma is the author of the New York Times best-selling ghost story The Walls Around Us and A Room Away from the Wolves—both Edgar Award finalists—among other acclaimed surreal YA novels. Her newest novel, Wake the Wild Creatures, is a coming-of-age survival story with a touch of the fantastical. She received an MFA in fiction from Columbia and has taught creative writing at the University of Pennsylvania and Vermont College of Fine Arts. Textbooks for this course:
There are no required textbooks; however, some fee-based online readings may be assigned.