Taking Flight: Writing Beyond the Real [Jennifer Natalya Fink]

What is the purpose of imaginative writing? What are the pitfalls, and how can you avoid them? How can you write beyond the real without falling into the clichés of genre literature? How can your writing depart from reality in ways that feel plausible? We’ll explore specific techniques to help us to make the real seem extraordinary, and the extraordinary feel real. The politics and poetics of imaginative fiction will be explored. We’ll take our cues from writers ranging from Gabriel Garcia Marquez to Renee Gladman as we let our imaginations take flight.