Mystery is the heart of all narrative, its pulse the fine tension between question and perception, wonder and suspense. For the purposes of this workshop, our prose need not hinge on a crime, a culprit, or a private eye. We will build inquiry into fictional ecosystems and discuss how the mechanics of mystery (the structural and craft-oriented choices) can haunt, provoke, or fuse one’s prose. This workshop invites writers working in prose genres such as memoir, fiction, and nonfiction, and will benefit participants who have a vision for a project but don’t know where to begin as well as those who have a work or works in progress. The goal is to find the heart of the mystery in your project and deepen, develop, or pursue it—or to begin from a question or an inquiry and allow a world to blossom around it. Each day we will investigate a different strategy for enhancing mystery, such as the uncanny coincidence, incongruous details, and repetition. We will analyze excerpts from mysterious works that demonstrate these techniques, generate new work modeled on these examples, and receive feedback in class. 

In this workshop, we will generate new writing through guided exercises and prompts; offer feedback/first impressions on writing you produce in our week.