Creating Nonhuman Characters
with Elizabeth Beechwood and Katherine Quevedo
Genres: Fiction, Poetry, Writing for Performance
Online
Online Open to all levels
Open to all levels 1 Session
1 Session Nonhuman characters bring depth to your story not achievable with human characters. By exploring four elements—point of view, intelligence, behavior, and "The Wilding" (the moment when the animal character becomes its most primitive self )—you can follow in the footsteps of Sofia Samatar, Caroline M. Yoachim, Brooke Bolander, and Garth Stein to create unforgettable nonhuman characters that readers identify with and love. This lively workshop explores not only animals but also landscapes, mythical creatures, and inanimate objects, such as toys and appliances.
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Registration dates:
August 22: Scholarship Donation Day (Learn more.)
August 23: Member registration opens
August 30: General registration opens
Elizabeth Beechwood
Elizabeth Beechwood is your typical scarf-knitting, bird-feeding tree hugger who lives on the western fringes of Portland, Oregon. When she writes, she starts with regular people with regular lives…but then something strange happens. Whether it’s fiction, fantasy, magical realism, or genre-bending, you can count on something just a little peculiar from her stories. Her Pushcart-nominated fiction has been published in Nightscape Press’s award-winning anthology Nox Pareidolia, Third Flatiron’s Hidden Histories, Not a Pipe Publishing’s The Year of Publishing Women’s Short Stories series, Crossed Genres, and Every Day Fiction. Elizabeth earned an MFA in Popular Fiction at the University of Southern Maine’s Stonecoast program and a Copyediting Certificate from UC San Diego Extension’s Copyediting Certificate Program. She’s a member of SWFA and ACES. You can keep up with her shenanigans at www.elizabethbeechwood.com
Katherine Quevedo
Katherine Quevedo was born and raised near Portland, Oregon, where she works as an analyst and lives with her husband and two sons. Her fiction appears or is forthcoming in Fireside Magazine, Nightmare, Best Indie Speculative Fiction Vol. III and IV, Factor Four, Flame Tree Publishing’s Christmas Gothic, and elsewhere. Her poetry has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and the Rhysling Award and received an honorable mention in the Helen Schaible International Sonnet Contest. Her mini-chapbook The Inca Weaver’s Tales is forthcoming from Sword & Kettle Press, and her poems have appeared in Heroic Fantasy Quarterly, Coffin Bell, NonBinary Review, Eye to the Telescope, and elsewhere. Her articles have appeared on the official websites of Writer’s Digest and the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA). She holds an MBA from Portland State University and degrees in Economics and English from Santa Clara University. Find her at www.katherinequevedo.com.
FAQ
Complete FAQMost classes are offered at a general and member tuition rates based on instruction hours, with Hugo House members receiving a 10% discount on classes fewer than six sessions.
Early bird discounts are available during the first two weeks of registration and apply to both general and member tuition rates.
To help provide financial accessibility to our class offerings, some classes each quarter are offered with a sliding-scale tuition model, allowing students to pay what they can for the class. For these classes, tuition increments starting at $5 and going up to 125% of the standard pricing will be listed on the page.
Hugo House will only process refund requests that are submitted 5 business days or more before the class start date. To request a refund, log in to your account, go to “My Account,” select the “Orders” tab on the left-hand side, click the appropriate order, and request a refund for your specific class. Administrative fees apply. Please see our full refund policy here.
Class sessions may be recorded if a session falls on a holiday, or if a student has access needs. Class recordings are not guaranteed.
We do not tolerate racist, sexist, homophobic, ableist, transphobic or any other oppressive behaviors, regardless of who commits them. Please check out our full community guidelines by clicking here. If an instance of community guidelines are violated and not resolved within the classroom, students may let us know by filling out the student incident report.
Classes may be cancelled if less than the minimum number of students are enrolled within ten days before the class start date. If Hugo House needs to cancel a class for any reason, students can choose between receiving a full credit toward future classes or full refund.
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