The Speculative and the Fantastic: Novel Workshop

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.