How to Turn Your Obsessions into Awesome Prose (A Workshop for Democracy)

Most good writing—fiction or nonfiction—arises from a writer’s obsessions. In this intensive session, we’ll discuss how to explore our obsessions on the page, without falling prey to self-absorption or sentiment. We’ll start by looking at the work of folks such as Joan Didion, George Saunders, and others, and then generate some work in class by confessing to our own obsessions. Check your inhibitions at the door.

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.