Fall Craft Intensive: Natalia Sylvester

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Editor's Note

It’s Complicated: Writing Rich, Nuanced Relationships in Fiction with Natalia Sylvester
Thursday, December 8
2 – 5 PM PST / 5 – 8 PM EST
Online

Open to writers of all levels and across all categories of fiction (children, YA, adults) in this class we’ll delve into ways to develop character relationships—from the newly emerging to the deeply rooted, from the central to the peripheral, from the joyous to the estranged. Understanding not only who our characters are, but who they are to one another, can shape how an entire story begins and evolves. Using multi-genre excerpts across age categories, we’ll study glimpses into relationships and explore that of our own characters through generative exercises that embrace playfulness, fearlessness, and honesty. Taking into account power and cultural dynamics across varied lived experiences, we’ll look beyond those closest to our protagonists to more fully understand their sense of self and place amongst the world and people who surround them. Students will leave with written drafts and ways to turn to character relationships when asking the question: what now?

BIO: Natalia Sylvester is the award-winning author of several novels for adults and young adults. CHASING THE SUN was named the Best Debut Book of 2014 by Latinidad and EVERYONE KNOWS YOU GO HOME won an International Latino Book Award and the 2018 Jesse H. Jones Award for Best Work of Fiction from the Texas Institute of Letters. Natalia’s debut YA novel, RUNNING, was a 2020 Junior Library Guild Selection and a 2021 Rise: A Feminist Book Project List selection. Her most recent YA novel, BREATHE AND COUNT BACK FROM TEN, is out now from HarperCollins/Clarion Books. A MALETA FULL OF TREASURES, Natalia’s first picture book (illustrated by Juana Medina), will be published by Dial Books in 2024.