Join us for a 4-week virtual workshop, co-taught by Meng Jin, author of LITTLE GODS, and Shruti Swamy, author of THE ARCHER
[This is a Virtual Ruby event, a 4-week workshop that will take place on Tuesdays, October 26, November 2, November 9, November 16, from 7 to 9 PST. Attendance at each meeting is expected. An optional Thursday workshop with fellow students is available too; please specify your interest with your ticket purchase. Zoom info and more details to follow with registration. We have discounted scholarship rates of $75 available for a BIPOC/LGBTQ nonmembers unable to pay the full fee; please email staff@therubysf.com by October 19.]
Does the word "craft" confuse you? You're not alone. In this workshop, Shruti Swamy and Meng Jin present a series of four master classes that turn traditional craft concepts on their heads, considering technical topics like "character," "dialogue," "exposition," "scene," "voice," and "tone" from an intuitive framework that reflects the organic, fluid, mysterious ways fiction is actually made. We will examine how to make a character feel real on the page, the powers of telling versus showing, how to listen to and deepen a story's voice, and the lexicons, languages, and codes that make dialogue come alive. Classes will meet on Tuesday on Zoom and include (reading, questioning, discussing, and) guided generative writing. On Thursdays students will have the option to meet to share work and further discuss.
About Meng Jin
Meng Jin is the author of the novel Little Gods. A Kundiman fellow, she is the recipient of a Steinbeck Fellowship, Elizabeth George Foundation grant, David TK Wong Fellowship, and Pushcart Prize, among other honors. Her narrative prose has appeared or is forthcoming in Vogue, The Threepenny Review, Ploughshares, Best American Short Stories 2020, and elsewhere.
About Shruti Swamy
Shruti Swamy is the author of the story collection A House Is a Body, which was a finalist for the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize and the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction, and was longlisted for the Story Prize. Her work has been published by the Paris Review and McSweeney’s, and anthologized in the O. Henry Prize Stories. Her debut novel, The Archer, was published by Algonquin Books in September 2021. She lives in San Francisco.