KWELI INTERNATIONAL LITERARY FESTIVAL
MASTER CLASSES AND WORKSHOPS
PROGRAM SCHEDULE
Click any image to learn more about the authors.
The master classes and workshops are exclusively for BIPOC writers.
SCHEDULE AT A GLANCE
July 17, 2021: The Geometry of Storytelling, Yiyun Li
July 24, 2021: Ekphrasis and the Fragment, Larissa Pham
July 31, 2021: Building Meaning from the Ground Up, Xochitl Gonzalez
July 31, 2021: What Lies Beneath, Celeste Mohammed
August 7, 2021: The Ethics of Seeing, Dinaw Mengestu
August 7, 2021: In a Flash: Short Prose, Kirstin Valdez Quade
August 8, 2021: Fables and the Fantastic, K-Ming Chang
August 14, 2021: On Voice, Gabriela Garcia
August 21, 2021: Strategies for Writing Compelling Dialogue, David Weiden
August 28, 2021: The Craft Talk at the End of the World, Asali Solomon
September 4, 2021: Speculative Nonfiction, Jaquira Díaz
September 18, 2021: Crafting a Scene, NoViolet Bulawayo
September 11, 2021: Black Fiction Forms, Tiphanie Yanique
Crafting a Scene
Led by NoViolet Bulawayo
Saturday, September 18, 2021; 12:00pm - 1:30pm
$100
Scenes are the building blocks that both propel and hold a story together. In this workshop, we will study the elements that go into the making of a scene, learn how they work as self-contained units and in conjunction, and consider what makes the kind of scene that elevates a piece of writing.
This workshop is exclusively for BIPOC writers.
Please click here first to complete a required form, then submit your payment.
This course will take place online via Zoom. Participants will receive instructions for access prior to the start of class.
Fables and the Fantastic: Reimagining Realism Led by K-Ming Chang
Sunday, August 8, 2021; 2:00pm - 5:00pm EST
$100
Fables and the Fantastic: Reimagining Realism is a generative seminar that takes inspiration from mythological and speculative elements in storytelling to reimagine what's possible in prose narratives. "Reality" is often rigidly defined by people in power, but this generative class will prompt students to imagine outside of typical categories of "realism" in order to access memory, mythology, history, transformation, and non-Western storytelling structures to write imaginatively and redefine reality in our stories.
This workshop is exclusively for BIPOC writers.
Please click here first to complete a required form, then submit your payment.
This course will take place online via Zoom. Participants will receive instructions for access prior to the start of class.
Speculative Nonfiction Led by Jaquira Díaz
Saturday, September 4, 2021; 2:00pm - 5:00pm EST
$100
Most often, Creative Nonfiction deals with truth and reality. But there is room in memoir and personal essay for speculation, meditation, imagination, and experimentation. In this master class, we will read and discuss pieces that move beyond narration, reportage, and interrogation toward speculation: essays that build upon and expand the nascent genre of speculative nonfiction in innovative ways. We’ll begin with a short lecture, then move on to a discussion, looking at essays that seek to reimagine what is possible, speculating about alternate histories and realities, working with metaphor rather than the literal, deliberately moving backward and/or forward in time, and suggesting new ways of seeing and thinking about time and space within the essay. Finally, we’ll have short writing exercises.
This master class is exclusively for BIPOC writers.
This workshop is exclusively for BIPOC writers.
Please click here first to complete a required form, then submit your payment.
This course will take place online via Zoom. Participants will receive instructions for access prior to the start of class.
On Voice (Craft Talk) Led by Gabriela Garcia
Saturday, August 14, 2021; 3:00pm - 4:30pm EST
$100
Everyone talks about voice in fiction, but what exactly do we mean by voice? And how do you find the right one? In this class, we will explore the elements of voice and how stylistic choices can shape character and scene through fiction, poetry, and music, and we will experiment with different voices through generative exercises.
This workshop is exclusively for BIPOC writers.
Please click here first to complete a required form, then submit your payment.
This course will take place online via Zoom. Participants will receive instructions for access prior to the start of class.
Building Meaning from the Ground Up: A Craft Class in Fiction
Led by Xochitl Gonzalez
Saturday, July 31, 2021; 11:00am - 2:00pm
$100
As BIPOC writers, we understand that the personal is always deeply political. Yet, the task of creating literary art with larger social implications can so easily stray into the realm of “Polemic Fiction”. How can we, as artists, explore the pressing issues of the day that weigh on our hearts without flattening our experiences into “a message”. In this craft class, we will focus on critically examining gaze, as well as the roles that detailed world-building and 360-degree character development play in creating believable universes on the page where plots, and their larger implications, feel organic, urgent and inevitable.
This workshop is exclusively for BIPOC writers.
Please click here first to complete a required form, then submit your payment.
This course will take place online via Zoom. Participants will receive instructions for access prior to the start of class.
The Geometry of Storytelling (Craft Talk) Led by Yiyun Li
Saturday, July 17, 2021; 3:30pm - 5:00pm EST
$100
In this workshop, Yiyun will talk about how stories about human relations are made of patterns rather than events and discuss how to apply ‘geometry’ in both a temporal and spatial sense – concepts such as triangulation, mirroring, invisible lines, beautiful symmetry – to create stories that transgress the ordinary.
This workshop is exclusively for BIPOC writers.
Please click here first to complete a required form, then submit your payment.
This course will take place online via Zoom. Participants will receive instructions for access prior to the start of class.
The Ethics of Seeing
Led by Dinaw Mengestu
Saturday, August 7, 2021; 10am - 1pm EST
$100
In this masterclass, we'll dissect and interrogate not only the use, but also the choice and function of detail across a broad range of visual and literary art, from photography, narrative fiction, essay, and journalism. We will examine the particular emphasis certain artists have placed on “seeing” in order to understand both the aesthetic and political consequences of each artists’ argument for how to see or in some cases, how we fail to properly see the world around us.
This workshop is exclusively for BIPOC writers.
Please click here first to complete a required form, then submit your payment.
This course will take place online via Zoom. Participants will receive instructions for access prior to the start of class.
What Lies Beneath, a Master Class on Subtext Led by Celeste Mohammed
Saturday, July 31, 2021; 2:00pm - 5:00pm EST
$100
“Show don't tell” is the classic rule for writing fiction. However, what the writer chooses to show and to omit is crucial because it has been suggested that the dignity of a short story is due to only one-eighth of it being above the surface. By a close reading of the texts, we will examine this statement and its limits, if any, for the diverse writer whose work is outside of mainstream Western culture.
This workshop is exclusively for BIPOC writers.
Please click here first to complete a required form, then submit your payment.
This course will take place online via Zoom. Participants will receive instructions for access prior to the start of class.
Ekphrasis and the Fragment (Craft Talk) Led by Larissa Pham
Saturday, July 24, 2021; 12:00pm - 1:30pm EST
$100
In this workshop, Larissa will share a variety of approaches to writing from images and visual art, and through fragment, weave essayistic creative nonfiction from stellateing points of observation and relationality. Participants are encouraged to arrive at the workshop with an image (like a personal snapshot, family or archival photograph) or piece of art (like a drawing, painting, sculpture, or piece of architecture) to work from.
This workshop is exclusively for BIPOC writers.
Please click here first to complete a required form, then submit your payment.
This course will take place online via Zoom. Participants will receive instructions for access prior to the start of class.
The Craft Talk at the End of the World Led by Asali Solomon
Saturday, August 28, 2021; 3:00pm - 4:30pm EST
$100
What is urgent enough to write during a mass extinction event? In this workshop, Asali will grapple with the pressing question of what to write when each day brings the loss of more habitable land and the world we've known all of our lives appears to be ending. At this moment when literature both seems to be superfluous and more crucial than ever, we will discuss philosophical and practical approaches to the blank page, drawing on examples from contemporary and classic literature of writers of color addressing the whirlwind. Participants will leave with ideas for chronicling this dying world and using words to create new ones.
This workshop is exclusively for BIPOC writers.
Please click here first to complete a required form, then submit your payment.
This course will take place online via Zoom. Participants will receive instructions for access prior to the start of class.
In a Flash: Short Prose
Led by Kirstin Valdez Quade
Saturday, August 7, 2021, 2:00pm - 5:00pm EST
$100
Called variously flash fiction, micro fiction, and the short-short, the short prose form has its beginnings in fables, parables, and jokes. We’ll examine several examples of the form, by writers from Charles Baudelaire to Lydia Davis, and discuss how the authors use imagery, compression, and narrative twists. Then we’ll write some very short stories that deliver a powerful punch.
This workshop is exclusively for BIPOC writers.
Please click here first to complete a required form, then submit your payment.
This course will take place online via Zoom. Participants will receive instructions for access prior to the start of class.
Strategies for Writing Compelling Dialogue Led by David Heska Wanbli Weiden
Saturday, August 21, 2021; 2:00pm - 5:00pm EST $100
Improving your dialogue is the quickest and easiest way to take your writing to the next level. In this fiction seminar, we’ll examine techniques for crafting effective and compelling dialogue. We’ll examine the purpose of dialogue; using conflict and tension in speech; the use of subtext and action beats; and strategies for using internal monologue in dialogue scenes. We’ll analyze scenes from Tommy Orange, Walter Mosley, and Stephen Adly Guirgis, among others, and conclude with a writing exercise, followed by a discussion.
This workshop is exclusively for BIPOC writers.
Please click here first to complete a required form, then submit your payment.
This course will take place online via Zoom. Participants will receive instructions for access prior to the start of class.
Black Fiction Forms
Led by Tiphanie Yanique
Saturday, September 11, 2021; 2:00pm - 5:00pm EST $100
Using Afro-Caribbean and African American ideas of space to make story structures that matter.
This workshop is exclusively for BIPOC writers.
Please click here first to complete a required form, then submit your payment.
This course will take place online via Zoom. Participants will receive instructions for access prior to the start of class.
