The Beauty and Peril of Friendship [Steve Almond]

As writers, we tend to focus on romance and family drama as subjects worthy of our work. What we often overlook are the intense friendships that we have over the course of our lives, friendships that can rescue and redeem us, and that can also break our hearts. In this workshop, we’ll look at the work of masters such as Margaret Atwood and Ann Patchett, in an effort to understand how certain friendships become both life raft and shark to us. We’ll also do an in-class writing exercise that will help bring the lessons home.