HENRIETTE LAZARIDIS
Henriette Lazaridis' novel Terra Nova will be published in Fall 2022. She is the author of the best-selling novel The Clover House. Her short work has appeared or is forthcoming in publications including ELLE, Forge, Narrative Magazine, Salamander, New England Review, The Millions, The New York Times, and Pangyrus, and has won her a Massachusetts Cultural Council Artist Grant. Having taught English at Harvard, she now teaches at GrubStreet in Boston. In the summer, she runs the Krouna Writing Workshop in northern Greece.
SESSION: The Motivated Writer
If you’re the rare writer who hasn’t ever wrestled with motivation, confidence, and time-management skills, then stop reading right now. But if you’ve had trouble sitting down at the desk, or staying there, or concentrating on your own words, or if you’ve been struck by a bad case of the impostor complex, then this class is for you. You’ll spend the session learning about motivation-boosting techniques every writer can borrow from a seemingly unlikely source: sports! No matter what your experience with exercise, you’ll learn how to use an athlete’s tools, like interval training, periodization, and the concept of training zones, to help you embark on and complete your writing project. No need for sweats and a water bottle. We’ll spend the time in a combination of informal lecture and discussion, and you’ll leave the session with a plan for how to accomplish your short-term and long-term goals.
SESSION: Writing While Multilingual: How to Leverage Your Languages for Strong Fiction
The circumstances of our growing up, colonization, immigration, and belonging versus otherness all influence how we feel about and use our languages. We will explore how our relationships with our languages influence what and how we write, and address the challenges of incorporating elements of foreign languages and cultures in fiction for audiences who are not familiar with them. Using excerpts by writers such as Aleksandar Hemon, Oscar Casares, Edwige Danticat, and Amitav Ghosh, we will identify some practical techniques for when and how to use different languages to craft the strongest, truest fiction.
CO-PRESENTER: Anjali Mitter Duva