From Octavia Butler to N.K. Jemisin: Exploring Black Women's Hope Narratives in Fantasy & Sci-Fi | 4-Week Online Writing Workshop

This is the class to take if you believe in #BlackGirlMagic, space-traveling futures, and alien utopias and want to put all of those things in your own writing like the pros do. Exploring Black Women's Hope Narratives in Fantasy & Sci-Fi is a four-week course providing an overview of Black women writers and characters in speculative fiction, specifically focusing on narratives of hope, love, and power that empower our individual writing practice. Taught by Melissa A. Watkins, a Kimbilio Fellow whose short fiction has been published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, khōréō, Fantasy Magazine, Lightspeed, Nightmare, and other publications. Students will ideally be experienced readers and beginning writers of fantasy, science and speculative fiction looking to broaden their knowledge of Black women in those genres, focusing on understanding work in ways that are trauma-informed, not trauma-focused. We’ll generate short pieces in each class to work with the concepts we learn and kickstart our creativity. No open critique! Only open encouragement! We'll be looking at work by Octavia Butler, N.K. Jemisin, Nalo Hopkinson, and Nisi Shawl, as well as newer writers like Jordan Ifueko, Kimberly Lemming, and Tracey Deonn, taking the time to give a few under-appreciated writers their overdue flowers as well. 4 class sessions Saturdays, September 5-26 10a-12p ET 7a-9a PT 9a-11a CT Seats are capped to keep this workshop intimate. Registration closes on Thursday, September 3rd, 48 hours before our first session, so Melissa can prepare for exactly who is in the room. All class meetings will be held via Zoom. For more information on how to download or use Zoom, please click here.