Dear Everyone,
Here's the expanded information of and an invitation for the March classes! 🌬️🪶🖋️You may have seen my introduction to the new class series in January, but in this post, you may also find the course description and the reading list on the posters! Please note that we now have a Saturday section and that the Friday sections are canceled.You may remember that I started the Publishing Workshop because I wanted to learn who published what these days, and also what got published where. The only way to figure this out is by reading the magazines and the anthologies that collect contemporary writing, such as The Best American Short Stories series and The O’Henry Prize Winners. I confess, not that it will surprise anybody who knows me, I believe in the classics, so it was a great pleasure to discover stories that stuck to me, that made me think, that showed me new ways of writing.We will start the Discoveries series with stories from The New Yorker because a quarter of the stories that make it into The Best American Short Stories come from there. One of the reasons is that The New Yorker is obviously a very good magazine, but another reason is the fact that it publishes 12 to 16 times more issues per year than other literary journals of such prestige and high standards. Perhaps you are already reading The New Yorker, and aware of their preferences, but I still invite you to join us to think deeper about the variety the magazine offers.What makes a story good? This is a question I keep asking. And while my answer changes—evolves, I hope—there’s a constant: The writers who know what not to include, what to subtract, in other words, the writers who know how to use emptiness, write the better stories. In order to learn how not to crowd our stories, and to think about shape and space in literal and metaphorical ways, I thought we could get some help from Japanese philosophies and aesthetic principles, such as ikebana and Zen. As I said earlier, Yes, we could read a few essays on the craft of writing, but why rely on ready-made ideas? I’d much rather we combine philosophy and art ourselves, bringing together the east and the west in our unique interpretations.
As always, you may sign up by scanning the code. If you have any questions, I love to answer them all and get a chance to get to know you in the process. If you are not sure whether or not to join, you can come and check us out during the Open Class on February 22. Mark the date! If we're already friends, you must come and say hi! ...And if you want to be a part of the upcoming classes, don't wait too long, because the Thursday section is nearly full! Thank you everybody who signed up early! 🥳
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