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Dates: 4 Saturdays, August 2 - 23 Time: 10am - 12pm (Pacific Time) Format: ZOOM Ages: Adult This class focuses on writing stories that reflect the complexities of our shared reality - while also retaining a core of individuality, so as to speak to the reader meaningfully on a one-to-one level. In this class, we will learn how to balance the personal and the political more effectively in our writing, so as to create nuanced, compelling work befitting of the times. Week 1: Writing about the Other. How do writers handle the ethical complications involved in writing about people unlike themselves – who might come from vastly different backgrounds? Week 2: Alternate Political Realities. Looking at examples of speculative world-building across fiction and nonfiction, we will explore how writers bend the rules of reality to convey political ideas in a way that feels playful rather than didactic. Week 3: Exploring English(es). How can writers craft unique registers of language and dialogue to communicate the specificities of their own personal identities or to reflect the nuances of the communities they come from? Week 4: Returning to Joy. In our political writing, how can feelings of outrage and fury sit alongside the presence of joy, pleasure, and abundance? In each session, we will spend the first hour deep-diving into example texts for inspiration. Then we will apply what we’ve learned to our own writing – either by generating new work together based on guided exercises, or by editing a work-in-progress (students should be prepared to bring at least one short fiction or nonfiction piece to the class, to work on). LEFT MARGIN LIT'S CANCELLATION/REFUND POLICY: You may request a refund, less a $25 administrative fee, at least 48 hours prior to the start of the first class session. After that threshold, refunds are not possible. If a class doesn't reach its minimum enrollment, it will be cancelled, and all students will receive full refunds.