Back-to-Back Prose Workshops with Steve Almond & William Giraldi
 
WORKSHOP #1: Funny Is the New Deep
Instructor: Steve Almond
Time: 11:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Cost: MWPA Member $65 | Nonmember $110
 
WORKSHOP #2: Tragedy is the New Norm
Instructor: William Giraldi
DateTime: 2:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Cost: MWPA Member $65 | Nonmember $110
 
BOTH WORKSHOPS
Location: USM Glickman Family Library (Seventh-Floor Events Room)
Level: Open
Maximum Attendees: 18
*SAVE 15%: Take both workshops!
*Both workshops for members $110 | Both workshops for nonmembers $187
 
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THE WORKSHOPS
 
Funny Is the New Deep
Contrary to popular belief, writing funny doesn’t mean sacrificing depth. On the contrary, for most literary writers the comic impulse is inextricably linked to tragedy. We’ll look at the work of Lorrie Moore, George Saunders, and others in an effort to learn how to loosen up and let your sense of humor inform your sense of humanity.
 
Tragedy is the New Norm
In the wake of the recent massacres in Aurora, Newtown, and Boston, how do literary writers incorporate such calamitous events into their fiction without resorting to cliche and sentimentality? We’ll examine tragic scenes from some masterpieces of world literature—including Homer, Sophocles, Shakespeare, and Flannery O’Connor—to understand better how the greats handled the tremendous challenge of tragedy. We’ll also look at the quieter, personal tragedies of everyday living—the death of a loved one, the destruction of a marriage—in stories by such American greats as Raymond Carver and Richard Ford.
 
THE INSTRUCTORS
Steve Almond is the award-winning author of ten books of fiction and nonfiction, three of which he published himself. His most recent book is the story collection God Bless America. Almond’s fiction has appeared in the Best American Short Stories 2010, McSweeney’s, New England Review, Playboy, Tin House, and many other publications. He has also contributed articles to the Believer, Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, GQ, Poets & Writers, The Sun, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and countless other magazines and newspapers. stevealmondjoy.com
 
William Giraldi is the author of a novel, Busy Monsters, published by W.W. Norton (2011), is a Senior Editor for the journal AGNI, and is a regular contributor to The New York Times Book Review. He has been a finalist for a National Magazine Award in the category of Essays and Criticism, and has been a recipient of a Pushcart Prize. His nonfiction and fiction have appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, Dissent, Commentary, The Daily Beast, Georgia Review, Bookforum, Salon, Southern Review, The Believer, Kenyon Review, Ploughshares, Yale Review, The American Scholar, The New Criterion, Salmagundi, and The Wall Street Journal, among others. williamgiraldi.com