Historical Fiction: Family History as Catalyst

Your family history—or someone else’s—may contain the spark for your next novel or short story. In this three-week workshop, participants will explore story-making by drawing from family history to explore questions from the past, such as: What did they hope for? What did they get? How did they feel about it? We’ll learn how to define time periods, research and identify historical pivot points, flesh out main characters and establish narrative arcs while developing our own works-in-progress.

Open to fiction writers of all levels. This is a 3-week workshop, with a 2-hour session each week. Please prepare for approximately 2-3 hours of work between sessions. Participants will receive written feedback on their final submission after the workshop concludes. 

This 3-week workshop meets on Saturdays from 2-4pm at LitArts RI on the following dates:

Sat, Oct 17
Sat, Oct 31
Sat, Nov 7
*Please note this workshop skips Sat, Oct 24

About Your Teaching Artist

Cynthia Elder‘s (she/her) new historical fiction novels in the Tales of the Sea series received Kirkus Review’s “Get It” designation. She is a poet and nonprofit leader with a background in journalism.