History Has Its Eyes on You:
A Craft Seminar in Historical Drama and Fiction
Dates: 4 Sundays, February 12-March 5
Time: 7-9 pm
Instructor: Porter Shreve
Ages: Adult
Genre: Fiction and Drama
Price: $225
In this craft-focused class we will take a close look (and a close listen) to two recent works that make history come alive: Hamilton: The Musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda and The Good Lord Bird by James McBride. We will see and hear how these incredible works of narrative art apply such techniques as characterization, voice, point of view, conflict and plot, rhythm and form, musical and narrative architecture, physical and environmental description, milieu and figurative language. We will develop writing prompts, and we’ll consider what it means to write within social and political frameworks while at the same time upholding the highest standards of emotive storytelling.
Porter Shreve is the author of four novels. The Obituary Writer was a New York Times Notable Book. Drives Like a Dream and When the White House Was Ours were Chicago Tribune Books of the Year. And his latest, The End of the Book, published in 2014, was a San Francisco Chronicle Book of the Year. Shreve has coedited six anthologies and published fiction, nonfiction, Op-Eds and book reviews in many magazines and newspapers, and he writes a column on e-books for the San Francisco Chronicle. He has been interviewed on NPR's Morning Edition and the Diane Rehm Show, among other programs, and has taught at a number of universities, including the University of Michigan, the University of Oregon, Purdue, St. Mary’s, and the University of San Francisco.
More about Porter: www.portershreve.com