Join us for the 6th Annual StoryStudio Writers Festival! November 4th & 5th, in-person at Center on Halsted.

Curated by Artistic Director Rebecca Makkai, the two day Festival will offer classes, panels, & social events to help writers develop their craft and create a supportive community.

For those ready for feedback, the Festival offers one-on-one Manuscript Reviews from award-winning authors and StoryStudio instructors.

Schedule

November 3, 2023

7:00pm - 9:00pm: Kick off Party

(Join us at StoryStudio Chicago 4043 N. Ravenswood Ave)

November 4, 2023

8:45am- 9:30am: Coffee & Writer Social

9:30am - 9:50am: (Virtual) Welcome from Artistic Director, Rebecca Makkai

10:00am - 11:00am: Breakout Session 1

Urgency and the Personal Essay with Megan Stielstra

This lightning-bolt session begins with the gut. What you need to tell; the memories, fascinations, and questions that live not in your head but your bones. Then: craft—how to tell our personal stories in ways that are equally urgent to an audience. Pulling from both literary and oral storytelling traditions, we’ll engage in activities to get our experiences out of the body and onto the page, encouraging risk and discovery and examining literary craft in new ways. Writers and storytellers at all levels are welcome. The work we’ll do is useful both in generating new material and digging deeper into stories you’ve been wrestling with for years.

How to Write Layered Fiction with Joseph Scapellato

In this single-session craft-focused class, we’ll take a crack at practical approaches to creating interconnected, layered, and weighty works of fiction. Through a sequence of interactive exercises, you’ll explore several helpful concepts, all of which you’ll have the chance to apply to your current projects and drafts—we’ll discuss “narrative density,” consider what your characters are “in the middle of,” and practice “lingering,” among other things. The goal is for you to leave this class with new tools and fresh ideas that you can immediately put to use in your projects.

Bone by Bone: The Building Blocks of Horror with Juan Martinez

If you love horror, thought about writing a horror novel, or want to inject some darkness into your craft, you’ll want to dive into this crash course on the fundamentals of the genre. We’ll talk about the differences between horror and terror and about the various modes available to you---everything from the Gothic to body horror to the supernatural, and from the inherent benefits of psychological tension to the ways in which horror plays well with every other narrative form out there. You’ll come up with a list of ideas to write a whole new scary thing, or to make the thing you’re working on even scarier.

11:10am - 12:10pm: Breakout Session 2
(choose one)

A. The Critique Conundrum: How to Take (And Ignore) Feedback to Bring Out the Best in Your Work with Jennifer Collins Moore

Every writer hears the same advice: get feedback on your work. But that’s easier said than done. How do you know what feedback to take and what to ignore? What do you do if you get conflicting advice? And how can you get the most helpful information out of your pre-publication readers? Jen Collins Moore spent more than ten years interpreting consumer feedback for global brands before she turned to writing fiction, and she is passionate about helping authors learn to use feedback to make their work better. She’ll explain how to find critique partners and beta readers, how to get feedback that’s truly helpful, and how to find the note behind the note in this can’t-miss session.

B.Panel: Why you should be reading (and writing!) Short Stories

Panelists include: Idra Novey, Megan Stielstra, and Michael Welch.
Moderated by Juan Martinez

“Stories are where many writers explore the outer edges of their craft.” Rebecca Makkai kicked off a conversation about short stories on her substack - and we want to keep it going! We've gathered authors and editors for an in-depth discussion on writing, reading, and publishing short stories.

C.Writing for Teens (Even if you aren’t one)  with Kat Falls

Middle Grade and Young Adult fiction are wildly popular and still-growing categories in book publishing that encompass many genres: fantasy, romance, science fiction, contemporary realism, literary fiction, and more. This craft-focused workshop is designed for those who want to learn how to write a Middle Grade or Young Adult novel. It is often difficult for writers to determine whether they are writing for tweens or teens. Having published in both markets, Kat will discuss the differences that define them and share strategies for writing engaging work for young readers. We will examine the category’s unique parameters, creating a premise with “must read!” potential; and developing protagonists with teen appeal. This seminar will also include writing exercises.

12:10pm - 1:20pm: Lunch

Enjoy lunch on your own or join us for an informal lunch session from 12:20pm-1:00pm!

“In a Year” Info Session with Sara Cutaia, Megan Stielstra, and Michael Zapata
Our advanced writing programs are designed especially for experienced writers seeking specialized, long-term support as they work on book-length projects and prepare pieces for publication. Drop by this short info session to ask questions & learn more!

1:30pm - 2:30pm : Breakout Session 3

A.Tame Your Truth Story…and Laugh a Little with Dionna Griffin-Irons

Life is too short to be serious all the time. What if you could call out your characters, imperfections, quirks and flaws, and have fun while doing it? Here’s a secret - you can and you have permission to do so much more. In this power session, you’ll learn five tricks to excavate your stories by using sense memory, give and take, intuitive response and character mapping. Learn why humor is a gift to our readers and how to raise the stakes in your writing. We’ll review and take home three comedic essays and study a formula to apply in your writing. Taught by one of Second City’s best mentors and Story Studio instructor, Dionna Griffin-Irons, this lively session gives you permission to follow the fear (Thank you David Sedaris!) and laugh while doing it. Open to writers of all levels of non fiction.

B.How A Mind Works: Inside Your Character with Michael Zapata

How does a mind work anyway? What are we to make of all those thoughts and realities that float through the consciousnesses of our characters like schools of foraging fish in the sea? Is  omniscience a thinking character? In this workshop, Michael Zapata (author of the acclaimed novel The Lost Book of Adana Moreau and founding editor of MAKE Literary Magazine) will guide writers through inquiries into interiority, inner speech, inner seeing, unsymbolized thinking, and emotional states of being to create works of fiction that both utilize and bend the limits of our characters’ minds. Additionally, we will consider and discuss what artists and scientists have to say about the endlessly sticky matter of consciousness. The workshop will also include a Q&A.

2:40pm - 4:10pm : Featured Author Presentation with Idra Novey

Bringing Visual Art into Fiction

This presentation will focus on dynamic ways to incorporate visual art into fiction. Writers will look at fictional scenes about visual art from Rachel Cusk, Brandon Taylor, and Argentine writer Cesar Aira, contrasting how each of them incorporate descriptions of visual art to reveal the sensibility of a fictional character and also convey larger driving questions in their novels. Participants will be encouraged to arrive with some fiction writing about visual art they'd like to share, or works of visual art in mind they'd like to place in a fictional scene. We'll do several writing exercises experimenting with fictional characters in dialogue, discussing a work of art, or in the act of making visual art themselves.

4:30pm - 5:30pm : Keynote Speech: PLEASURE with Rumaan Alam

Q&A with Joseph Scapellato

5:30pm - 7:30pm : Book signing & Cocktail Party  

November 5, 2023
 
8:40am - 9:40am : Coffee & Write-In

10:00am - 11:00am  : Dialogue in Fiction with Rumaan Alam

Join our Keynote Speaker, Rumaan Alam, for a 60 minute master class on dialogue. This class will be an exploration of the role of dialogue in fiction—how what people say, and do not, enriches and advances a story. The class will include a close reading of a handful of short texts, and a discussion of how to let characters speak for themselves.

11:10pm - 12:10pm: Breakout Session 4

Using Multiple POVs in Your Novel: Thinking through who, why, and how with Amelia Brunskill

Including multiple points of view in your novel can make it more dynamic and engaging, and can also provide you with an expansive range of storytelling options that can heighten the tension and depth within your story. However, having multiple points of view can also present difficult decision points and trade-offs. In this session, we’ll talk about issues including deciding which characters should be narrators, what person (first, second, close third…) each of them should be in, and how much space each of them should get. We will explore examples from authors in a variety of genres who made interesting choices in their use of multiple points of views. We’ll also explore potential downsides of moving away from a single narrator, and some common pitfalls people run into when including multiple viewpoints. This class includes short exercises intended to help think through these choices for either one’s own current work-in-progress or a shared example project.

Story Neighborhood with Lily Be

Let's spend an hour building a neighborhood of stories that inspire us to tell and write more stories! This 60 minute workshop will not only help us mine for story ideas but it will also connect an entire room with each other. Create stories and friends in this fast paced and highly interactive story mining and listening workshop.

Poetry Session with C. Russell Price

12:10pm - 1:10pm: Lunch

Enjoy lunch on your own or join us for an informal lunch session from 12:20pm-1:00pm!
Pub Crawl Info Session with Jennifer Coffeen and Angie Raney

Learn, Pitch, Publish at our month-long Publishing Intensive in February 2024. Pub Crawl features classes, panels, and events centered on the publishing world all month long. This will lead up to our Pitch Week for a chance to virtually meet with (and pitch to!) agents and editors. Drop by our info session to ask questions & learn more!

1:30pm - 2:50pm : Featured Author Presentation with Nami Mun

The Second Act: How to Revise (and Stay in Love with) Your Novel.

3:00pm - 4:00pm: Breakout Session 5 - Promptstravaganza with Kenyatta Rogers

This session will present various prompts and writing activities to give participants a body of work that they can take with them. Activities will be open but also push writers to break their traditional voice and see if there is a poem or narrative deep down that maybe just hasn’t come to fruition yet. The prompts will work with a writers’ craft, style, content and personal experiences. This class will include writing exercises, discussion, light reading and Q&A. Participants will be encouraged to bring an original poem and a personal computer, but neither are required.

Narrative Lists, Accumulations, and Explosions with Meghan Lamb

From inventories to data entry to daily planning, lists–and acts of listing–are not often connected with creative writing. When considered as a creative form, however, each list tells its own story, from the to-do list a character makes during a particularly stressful week (why is that week so stressful?) to a person’s grocery list (are they planning a party, or a week of cooking-for-one?). Lists can also be interesting structures for organizing time and information (often radically condensing time and information).
In this class, we will analyze and discuss different genres of the narrative list, examining the list-driven work of several writers, including Javier O. Huerta, Kate Durbin, Han Kang, Katie Jean Shinkle, and more.

4:10pm - 5:10pm : Closing Panel: Ask Us Anything!

Panelists include: Amelia Brunskill, Farooq Chaudhry, Megan Lamb, and Czaerra Ucol. Moderated by Kenyatta Rogers

Join us for an audience Q&A to round out your weekend! Festival attendees will have the opportunity to pick the brains of some of our favorite authors and editors from the Chicago literary world.

Date : November 4 - 5, 2023

Location : StoryStudio Chicago - 4043 N. Ravenswood, #222 , Chicago, IL 60613.

Click Here for Buy Tickets.

Click Here For More Information.