Five Kinds of Wildness: On Young Narrators
with Kimberly King Parsons
Genres: Fiction, Nonfiction, Memoir, Novel, Short Story, Essay
Online
Open to all levels
1 Session
Part of our visiting writer series.
"Sure, children can be boring, intensely boring even—but plenty of adults are boring too, and fewer adults, I’d wager, dazzle as often with their unvarnished insights, unhinged imaginations, and intricate systems of dream logic." —Laura van den Berg
Children can teach us a lot about writing—their curiosity and quiet observation, how they lurk and spy and misunderstand, their dark inquisitiveness and blunt, unnerving honesty. A convincing child narrator is not simply a small adult—they have a fundamentally unique point of view and a position that grants them a particular, if limited, access to the human condition. This 2-hour generative course will cover various approaches to writing from this unique perspective.
This class is suitable for fiction and nonfiction/memoir writers aiming to employ more bold, resilient, audacious and wonderful (as in full of wonder!) techniques in their prose and/or write convincingly from the perspective of a child.
TEXTS MENTIONED/DISCUSSED:
- "Strays" Mark Richard, Ice at the Bottom of the World
- Stories in Another Language by Yannick Murphy
- "Blue, Blue" and "Child" William Tester, Darling
- A Complicated Kindness by Miriam Toews
- "Somewhere Near Sea Level" Dawn Raffel, In the Year of Long Division
- "My Lucy Friend Who Smells Like Corn" Sandra Cisneros, Woman Hollering Creek
- We the Animals by Justin Torres
This class includes:
- Generative Writing: students create new work during class or from assignments.
- Work outside of class: No writing or reading outside of class.
Kimberly King Parsons is the author of We Were the Universe (Penguin Random House, 2024) – a Dakota Johnson Book Club pick – and Black Light (Penguin Random House, 2019), a story collection longlisted for the National Book Award and Story Prize.
Read/listen to her interviews here:
- 🌈 "Kimberly King Parsons Wanted to Read Book About Queer Motherhood, So She Wrote One" (Vanity Fair, paywall)
- 💖 "Fuckups Are My People" (Southwest Review)
- 🌑 "Dark Thread" (the Paris Review)
- Listen to ✨ "Kimberly King Parsons Takes Us On a Deep Dive On the Craft of Writing" ✨ on the Debutiful Podcast on Spotify/Apple
Registration Dates:
- June 25: Member registration opens at 10:30 am PT
- July 2: General registration opens at 10:30 am PT
- July 9: Last day of early bird registration
Kimberly King Parsons
KIMBERLY KING PARSONS is the author of the debut novel We Were the Universe. She won the 2020 National Magazine Award for Fiction, and her short story collection, Black Light, was longlisted for the National Book Award and the Story Prize. Her fiction has been published in The Paris Review. She lives in Portland, Oregon with her partner and children.
Parsons is the recipient of fellowships from Columbia University, Yaddo, Hermitage Artist Retreat, the Oregon Arts Commission, Regional Arts and Culture Council, and the Sustainable Arts Foundation; her fiction has been published in New York Tyrant, Black Warrior Review, No Tokens, Kenyon Review, and elsewhere. Parsons’ collection Black Light was a finalist for the 2020 Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction, the 2020 Texas Institute of Letters Best Work of First Fiction Award, and the 2020 Oregon Book Award.
Born in Lubbock, Texas, Parsons earned a BA in English and an MA in Literary Studies (emphasis on the works of William Faulkner) from the University of Texas at Dallas. She later moved to New York, where she earned an MFA in fiction from Columbia University and served as the editor-in-chief of Columbia: A Journal of Literature and Art. Parsons’s book reviews and interviews have appeared in Bookforum, BOMB, Time Out New York, The Millions, and elsewhere. She has been awarded residencies from Yaddo, Hermitage Artist Retreat, Tasajillo Writers Residency, Dairy Hollow, Baltic Writing Residencies, San Ysidro Ranch, the Gullkistan Center for Creativity, the Lillian E. Smith Center, Hypatia-in-the-Woods, and PLAYA. She received the Indiana Review Fiction Prize, placed second in the Joyland Open Border Fiction Prize, and was runner-up in both the Black Warrior Review Fiction Contest and the Kenyon Review Short Fiction Contest.
FAQ
Complete FAQEach class description includes a breakdown of what you can expect in terms of in-class activity, feedback, and homework (if any).
Generative means you’ll be generating new writing, either in class or at home between classes.
Workshop means you’ll be sharing work to be read and critiqued by your instructor and classmates and that you will also be critiquing the work of your peers.
Reading means you’ll be doing close reading of a work with an eye toward craft.
Craft discussion means you’ll be looking at the tools writers use to do that thing they do so well and then trying it out yourself.
Class levels are designed for various stages of the writing journey. Simply self-select the level that sounds best for where you’re at.
Introductory: This is your first creative writing workshop, first writing class since high school, or first foray into a new genre or form. You’re looking to try something new, kickstart your writing, and/or establish yourself in the fundamentals.
Intermediate: You have a strong understanding of writing fundamentals and are eager to deep dive into craft. You’re honing your writerly identity and voice through independent projects. In workshop, you look for constructive feedback and are ready to do writing and reading outside of class.
Advanced: You’ve written a significant body of work and have taken it through several stages of revision. You’re getting ready to publish or are in the early stage of publishing, and you’re interested in refining the skills that will take you to the next level in the literary industry.
All Levels: You are any of the above and are looking to play with new possibilities.
You’ll get your class information, including Zoom link if applicable, three days before the first day of class.
Write With Hugo House is our free monthly write-in program, operated in partnership with the Seattle Public Library. Two take place onsite at SPL locations, one takes place online.
Sliding-scale classes are offered every quarter. Find them in our Class Catalog.
We announce flash sales, early bird periods, and special deals through our e-newsletter; sign up at the bottom of this page.
At this time, we offer payment plans on classes 8 sessions and up. Email education@hugohouse.org with the name of the class you’re interested in to set up a payment plan.
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We charge a 5% nonrefundable administrative fee for all payment plans.
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Extended payment plans up to 8 monthly installments and 16 semi-monthly installments are available upon request.
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We are unable to hold seats for prospective payment plan students. Students will be enrolled once their first installment has been paid.
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If you need to cancel, Hugo House will issue refunds according to its cancellation and transfer policies. Your 5% nonrefundable admin fee will not be refunded.
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If you withdraw from a class after it begins, you will not receive a refund and are still responsible for paying the full course tuition.
Asynchronous classes are perfect for students that need flexibility!
During an asynchronous class, instructors release new lessons once per week. Students then have one week to complete that lesson and any accompanying coursework. You’ll learn as much as you would in a traditional class but with the flexibility to work at the best times for your schedule!
While there are no live sessions, asynchronous classes are still a lively and rigorous experience. Async classes are not static lessons but an adaptable and energetic community space. Be ready to work in a collaborative environment, giving and receiving feedback on your writing, participating in discussions, and growing your writing practice in a way that works best for you.
Asynchronous classes take place through the website Wet Ink. Students receive an invitation to the class and to set up a Wet Ink account on the start date of the class. Each week of the class, a new lesson will be available through the Wet Ink portal. Classes close two weeks after the end date, and students receive an email containing their content from the class when it closes.
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.
In general, we do not record classes. However, an exception if a student has specific access needs.
We encourage students to only sign up for classes that fit with their schedule.
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.
If Hugo House needs to cancel a class for any reason, you’ll receive a full refund.
You can apply for a scholarship by clicking the red “Request a Scholarship” text on class pages. The scholarship request text is located at the top of each class page, underneath the “add to cart” button.
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