The Vivid Voice: Finding Your Voice as a Writer
Dates: Saturday, October 19
Time: 10 am - 3 pm (with one-hour lunch break)
Instructor: Keenan Norris
Ages: Adult
Genre: Fiction
Price: $150
Oftentimes it's not simply the stories we tell, but how we choose to tell our stories that cuts the deepest groove into a reader's consciousness. Great dialogue and memorable description of the scenic and psychological world will always be more compelling than rehashed writing that reads like Stephen King's leftovers.
In order to avoid the ordinary and achieve the indelible, we must find and hone the literary voice we deploy while writing a story. Whatever voice we choose can shape the contours of a story and drive its plot as well.
This workshop will present multiple exercises, strategies, and ways of thinking about your story that will help you fill that blank page with a compelling storytelling voice.
Keenan Norris’s first novel, Brother and the Dancer, was published by Heyday Books and won the 2012 James D. Houston Award. His short story collection, by the lemon tree, was published by Oakland's Nomadic Press last year. Sundress Publications nominated his essay “To the Chi” for a 2017 Best of the Net" award for non-fiction narrative.
Keenan is completing his next novel, set in star-crossed Oakland, and a non-fiction book about Richard Wright, Chicago, and the problem with “Chi-Raq.” He is the editor of Street Lit: Representing the Urban Landscape, and his short work has appeared in numerous forums, including the Los Angeles Review of Books, Oakland Noir, and BOOM: A Journal of California. Keenan served as tenured faculty at Evergreen Valley College from 2013-2018 and recently joined San Jose State's MFA in Creative Writing faculty.
More about Keenan: www.keenannorris.com