Workshops & Groups: Emma Healey, Twisting the Tale

It's always a joy to welcome Nikki Moore to the blog with news about another writing workshop. What do you have for us this month, Nikki?

It’s been a mixed month so far, weather wise. One day it’s sunny and mild, the next day April showers are making us all take shelter! At least the daffodils are out in all their glory, and we have two bank holidays to look forward to in May... During that month, Writers’ Centre Norwich are also thinking about mixing, with a workshop about crossing genre and literary fiction. Why not check it out?

Workshop Title:

Twisting the Tale: Literary Crossover and Big Concept Writing with Emma Healey

Workshop Details:

Friday 6 May 2016, 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Writers’ Centre Norwich, Dragon Hall

£75 / £65 concession

Workshop Brief:

 Find new ways to transform your prose fiction, explore big concepts in your writing, and gain the technical skills to express them with this bold masterclass from critically acclaimed author of Elizabeth is Missing, Emma Healey. 

Using examples such as Mark Haddon’s Curious Incident, Michele Paver’s Dark Matter, Michael Frayn’s Headlong and Kate Atkinson’s Life After Life, you will examine the benefits of ‘literary crossover’ for the writer and reader, and how to successfully combine genre with literary fiction.

Next, you will discuss what is meant by ‘big concept novels’ and how to work on subject matter that may be difficult or controversial. The group will address the topics that are most important to you and how we might approach them more obliquely. 

After a day of writing exercises and structured group discussion, you will leave this masterclass with a clear plan of action for where to take your writing.

Aimed at:

Aspiring authors, prose writers, writers who want to tackle literary crossover or big concept writing.

Course Tutor Biography:

Emma Healey grew up in London where she completed her first degree in bookbinding. She then worked for two libraries, two bookshops, two art galleries and two universities, and was busily pursuing a career in the art world before writing overtook everything. In 2008, after the death of one grandmother and the decline of the other, she began to explore the idea of dementia in fiction, and she moved to Norwich in 2010 to study for the MA in Creative Writing at UEA. Her debut novel, Elizabeth is Missing, was published to critical acclaim in 2014, became a Sunday Times bestseller and won the Costa First Novel Award. 

You can find out more about Emma via her website at www.emmahealey.co.uk. She is on Twitter at @ECHealey

Booking details:

Tickets are £75 per person (£65 concessions) and are available from www.writerscentrenorwich.org.uk where more information about the course can also be found.

Why not treat yourself and your novel to a workshop that will take you to the ‘next step’? Happy springtime everyone, Nikki.

What a great workshop! Thank you, Nikki, have a great month.

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