A Wrinkle in Time: How to Embrace Your Chronology and Tell the Story Straight (A Workshop for Democracy)

One of the central struggles in storytelling is that human beings are, in essence, time travelers. We live in the past of our memories and the future of our hopes. Thus, when we tell stories, we often shuttle around in time. This can be exciting, but more often it winds up confusing the reader, and (in my case) the writer. In this seminar, we’ll unravel the mysteries of chronology and help writers figure out how to tell their story in a way that thrills their readers.

This is a Workshop for Democracy. For each Workshop for Democracy, instructor Steve Almond will contribute 100% of his teaching pay to the organization Black Voters Matter (www.blackvotersmatterfund.org/donate/). The instructor asks that students pay Hugo House a discounted fee for the class and then consider contributing to a local cause of their choosing. The suggested donation is $100, though students are free to contribute what feels right to them. Before class, we will briefly discuss what being active participants in democracy and citizens of good faith means to us in this vital moment.

Registration dates:

August 22: Scholarship Donation Day (Learn more.)

August 23: Member registration opens

August 30: General registration opens

Steve Almond

Steve Almond is the author of twelve books of fiction and non-fiction including The New York Times bestsellers Candyfreak and Against Football. His novel All the Secrets of the World, will be published in 2022. His short fiction has appeared in the Best American Short Stories, the Pushcart Prize, and Best American Mysteries. His essays have appeared in The New York Times Magazine and elsewhere. Almond teaches at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism and Wesleyan University, and lives outside Boston with his wife, three children, and considerable anxiety.