Saturday, May 10th we'll meet live--and via Zoom--and hear from the director of The Writers Studio here in Tucson about writing horror.
Philip Ivory will examine methods by which carefully honed narrative voices — persona narrators as they are called in The Writers Studio — can elevate dark material to entertain and unnerve readers. Literary horror can traffic in the supernatural or in gritty real-world terrors and can arise from an external force (Dracula) or the human psyche (The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde). By focusing on passages from renowned horror writers, this lecture will highlight techniques such as unreliable persona narrator, physical description to evoke ominous mood, and matter-of-fact style used to lure readers toward a disturbing truth.
About Our Speaker
Philip Ivory studied literature at Columbia University and serves as director of the Tucson branch of The Writers Studio, a creative writing school founded in 1987. Philip teaches in-person classes in Tucson as well as virtual classes including Online Writing Literary Horror and Online Writing About Childhood. His short fiction appears in Menacing Hedge, The Airgonaut, Ghost Parachute and the anthology, The Writers Studio at 30. In 2016, he was a winner of Bewildering Stories’ Mariner Awards for his eerie novelette, The Yellow Man. He’s working on a novel that explores the dreams, darkness, and danger of childhood and maintains a blog at www.writeyourselfsane.com.
About The Writers Studio
For over three decades The Writers Studio has been helping students become stronger, more resourceful writers — with more craft at their disposal, more knowledge of what makes a piece of creative writing satisfying to a reader, and more access to the full range of their emotions and imagination.
The Tucson branch operates like our flagship New York City school—with the same workshop model designed to help students discover and nurture their own voices by “trying on” many approaches to fiction and poetry. The Writers Studio Tucson welcomes students at all stages, from those who have only dreamed of writing fiction or poetry to those with MFAs hungry for additional serious, ongoing instruction. Students provide the desire to write and the willingness to learn, and we provide the structure, the technical know-how, the professional feedback and the nurturing community to enable them to reach their full potential. Tucson offers four levels of workshops, as well as readings and other public events. Branch teachers receive the same rigorous training as our New York City and Online teachers. Students who travel frequently or have irregular work schedules are welcome to move back and forth among any of the on-site branches and the online workshops.
Philip Ivory has spoken to our group before...to great acclaim!
Get your questions ready for an informative and lively session!
We'll meet LIVE at The "L" Offices, 1840 E. River Road. More below. (See here for a map and directions.) We meet upstairs, but there's an elevator. We'll provide coffee and treats, you provide the questions.
The meeting will run from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., with time for catching up from 11:30 to noon.
Costs for members is $10, $15 for non-members to offset the rental space expenses, and you can pay in advance online with Paypal or Zelle sent to amwtreasurer@gmail.com, or at the door with cash or check.
