Writing the Epiphany [Nicole Hardy]

Oprah may have made the a-ha moment mainstream, but James Joyce first talked about the epiphany in literature. We’ve all had them: those “sudden spiritual manifestations” that changed our minds (or our lives). Joyce wrote that they are “the most delicate and evanescent of moments,” and that it’s a writer’s duty to record them. So if it’s in our nature to have epiphanies, and our duty to write them well and with care, we’d better figure out how and where to begin. In this workshop, we’ll study models lifted from fiction and memoir, dissect them, discuss them, and try our best to emulate them, with the goal of making our (or our characters’ ) most important moments resonate.