Make Your Dialogue Work Naturally with Xhenet Aliu
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WINSTON-SALEM—We may pen lush descriptions and plots that move at breakneck speed. But at some point, our characters are going to need to talk to one another.
No matter our genre, dialogue should never appear just because it's probably time for our characters to say something. Instead, dialogue has a whole lot of work to do...and not a lot of room to do it in.
On Wednesday, May 20, at 7:00 pm, author Xhenet Aliu will lead the online class "Revealing Character Through Dialogue."
Registration is closed.
The cost for the class is $35 for NCWN members, $45 for non-members. Space is limited.
Writers are articulate, but our characters may not be. So how does one write compelling, natural dialogue that communicates meaning and intent when our characters evade, lie, stammer, and suppress? In this class, we'll work on methods to implant context and subtext into our characters' conversations while respecting their natural language patterns and psychologies.
Xhenet Aliu’s novel, Brass, was awarded the 2018 Georgia Author of the Year First Novel Prize, was a Barnes & Noble “Discover Great New Writers” selection, was long-listed for the 2018 Center for Fiction First Book Prize, and was named a best book of the year by numerous outlets, including Entertainment Weekly, The San Francisco Chronicle, Real Simple, and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Her debut fiction collection, Domesticated Wild Things, won the Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Fiction. Aliu’s writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, Glimmer Train, Hobart, American Short Fiction, Lenny, LitHub, Buzzfeed, and elsewhere, and she has received fellowships from the Bread Loaf and Sewanee Writers’ Conferences, a grant from the Elizabeth George Foundation, and a fellowship from the Djerassi Resident Artists Program, among other awards, including a special mention in the Pushcart Prize anthology. She is an assistant professor of Creative Writing at the UNC-Greensboro and has previously worked as an academic librarian, private investigator, waitress, and secretary.
"Revealing Character Through Dialogue" is the North Carolina Writers' Network's first offering in their 2020-2021 series of online classes.
"The Network has offered online programming since 2016," said NCWN communications director Charles Fiore. "We're proud to already have the educational framework in place that allows us to continue to serve the writers of North Carolina, and beyond, during this time of social distancing."
The online class "Revealing Character Through Dialogue" is available to anyone with an internet connection, or who even owns just a telephone. Instructions for accessing the online class on Wednesday, May 20, will be sent to registrants no less than twenty-four hours prior to the start of class. The class will be archived and made available to registrants for repeated viewings.
The nonprofit North Carolina Writers’ Network is the state’s oldest and largest literary arts services organization devoted to writers at all stages of development. For additional information, visit www.ncwriters.org.
NCWN Cabin Fever Conference 2020
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- Category: Network News
ONLINE—The North Carolina Writers' Network is proud to present its first-ever entirely online Cabin Fever Conference, April 16-18, 2020. This event offers 630 minutes of high-quality, socially-distant instruction in the craft and business of writing.
Registration is closed.
Attendees may sign up for the full conference (7 classes); half conference (4 classes); or quarter conference (2 classes)—or even just one single class. The weekend will conclude with an Open Mic reading for conference registrants and readings by conference faculty.
Classes include:
- Make a Scene: Emotional Building Blocks of Fiction with Quinn Dalton
- Public Speaking for Writers with Cameron Kent
- Writing Your Life: Turning Personal Stories into Universal Narratives with Bridgette A. Lacy
- Narrative Medicine: Stories of Illness & the Power of Reflective Writing with Aimee Mepham
- What a Long Strange Trip: From Manuscript to Finished Book with Robin Miura and Lynn York
- More than Meaning (poetry) with Timothy O’Keefe
- The Art of Writing Memoir with M. Randal O’Wain
Classes will take place online using Zoom. Participants may attend the classes using a laptop or mobile device, from anywhere they happen to find an internet connection.
Attendees can even attend using just a telephone!
Instructions for accessing the conference classes will be sent to registrants no less than twenty-four hours prior to the start of the conference. The class will be archived and made available to registrants for repeated viewings.
Also during the conference, "exhibitors" will offer special pricing on select titles through our Virtual Exhibit Hall. These exhibitors represent NC-based publishers and literary organizations that rely on handselling their products in-person at physical events. Attendees are encouraged to spend time over the weekend poking around the exhibitor sites and purchasing a few things to read during this time of quarantine.
"No pandemic can disrupt the Network’s mission, or its importance: to connect, promote, educate, and serve the writers of this state, and beyond; and to nourish our remarkable literary tradition and community," said NCWN Executive Director Ed Southern. "This Cabin Fever Conference is just a different way of doing what we’ve always done—bring writers together for excellence, opportunity, and community.”
The nonprofit North Carolina Writers’ Network is the state’s largest literary arts organization devoted to writers at all stages of development. For additional information, visit www.ncwriters.org.
We hope many of you will join us...at a safe, non-contagious distance.