Creating hands-on, provocative workshops is one of my passions. They are fun for both new and experienced writers!
Below are my most popular offerings. Send me a request for more information, and check back to see when I’m offering these workshops remotely and/or in-person.
“I loved exploring literature that was new to me in the company of other black women. In the past I have felt intimidated (or bewildered!) by some of the authors that we read, and this class helped me gain confidence in reading these powerful works. Candice, I liked how you said at the beginning that, although these authors are famous and considered “academic” now, what they set out to do was write their own stories and their communities’ stories, just like all of us in the class. Each class was very well-organized, and I thought you did a great job of choosing exactly the right amount of material. It felt rich and full because we had plenty of time to dive into the texts and freely explore ideas and trains of thought. It also made me so happy that you encouraged us to start our own workshop after the class. This is one of the primary reasons I wanted to take classes with m & i, and I was so grateful that you gave us a nudge to get started with that. The fact that you organized your class as a workshop, and spent a little time explicitly teaching how to workshop (like with the worksheet), was also wonderful. Thank you!!!”
“The teacher, just an overall intelligent and capable woman.”
“I connected very well to my classmates and this was because our instructor did a great job of giving us the floor by asking really interesting questions about our readings.”
“The readings for The Marriage of Speculative Fiction and Black Feminine Storytelling were on point. I’d had these texts lying around my house but our instructor gave us such good questions to ponder about each that I saw them with new eyes. This course truly helped me grow as a writer.”
This class explores the symbiotic relationship between the Afro-feminine experience and speculative storytelling. Historically mainstream storytelling has centered the humanity of white people, with the rest of humanity organized into flat side characters. In this world, Black women stand in what bell hooks refers to as the oppositional gaze. The Black woman, if she is to create anything that expresses the fullness of her humanity, is persuaded to speculate a world where that is permitted.
The tradition of Black women writers creating speculative fiction has greatly added to the genre, which in turn has created more space for the stories of Black women and other peoples.
This guided discussion-based course examines classic works with speculative aspects by both classic and contemporary Black women authors. We will read weekly passages to observe the techniques these writers used to allow their Black female characters complexity, and the relationships between the works themselves. Students will also be expected to read and critique each others’ work in order to develop community and practice of discussing of their own work.
This class meets for two hours over four meetings.
This workshop exercises the inner voice. Punctuation mimics the natural rhythms of speech, the breaks, and rises and falls of intonation, the patterns we speak in, and even volume. Our inner reader’s voice wants the same rhythms that are afforded to our speaking voice. It also changes volume and speech; it also wants to stop to take a breath. Using punctuation to surprise, fatigue, and even disorient the inner voice can invoke feelings that help us tell the story, or help readers to understand it better.
This guided discussion-based course examines the genre-bending works of three prosody-defying women. We will read weekly passages to observe the techniques these writers used to play with the inner voice of their readers, to fill in the gaps of language, and even to reassert humanity where it has been lost. We will also be looking for connections between the works themselves.
This class meets for two hours over four meetings.
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