How to Build a Haunted House (and Other Strange Structures)
This class is for architects of the weird wanting to hone their craft and construct a memorable place of living like the Overlook Hotel or the witch’s gingerbread house in Hansel and Gretel. First, we’ll study classic and contemporary examples of haunted houses and speculative structures; then, students will have the opportunity to apply what they’ve learned through in-class exercises and writing prompts. Students will leave this class with draft blueprints for the weirdest building, spaceship, or structure they can imagine.
Ruth Joffre
Ruth Joffre is the author of the story collection Night Beast. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Lightspeed, Nightmare, Pleiades, khōréō, The Florida Review Online, Wigleaf, Baffling Magazine, and the anthologies Best Microfiction 2021 & 2022, Unfettered Hexes: Queer Tales of Insatiable Darkness, and Evergreen: Grim Tales & Verses from the Gloomy Northwest. She co-organized the performance series Fight for Our Lives and served as the 2020-2022 Prose Writer-in-Residence at Hugo House. In 2023, she will be a visiting writer at University of Washington Bothell.
