Malinda McCollum

Biography

Malinda McCollum is the author of The Surprising Place, winner of the Juniper Prize for Fiction. Her stories have appeared in The Paris Review––which awarded her the Plimpton Prize––McSweeney's. ZYZZYVA, Epoch, and elsewhere. A graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, she has taught at the University of Iowa, Johns Hopkins University, and Stanford University. She's currently an assistant professor at the College of Charleston, where she teaches in the MFA and undergraduate creative writing programs.

Events

Malinda McCollum photo

New Suns: A Surreal & Speculative Fiction Workshop

When
-
Event status
Scheduled
Presenters
Short Description
There’s nothing new
under the sun,
but there are new suns.

––Octavia Butler

In this workshop, open to writers at any level of experience, we’ll focus on fiction that breaches the parameters of strict realism by incorporating the supernatural, the surprising, and the absurd. We’ll consider why writers invent alternative realities and discuss the challenges of constructing imagined worlds. We’ll also examine how surreal narratives can illuminate real-life issues and tensions by framing them through a different lens. How do the altered realities portrayed in our fiction intersect with the reality we’re living in now?

In our first meeting, you’ll submit a short story or novel chapter you’ve previously written that includes surreal or speculative elements. This might be a piece influenced by sci fi, fantasy, fairy tale, or horror, or a narrative that skews reality through exaggeration, experimentation, or satire. Throughout the week, we’ll have in-depth conversations about each writer’s submission, in unsilenced workshops guided by the writer’s questions and aims. We’ll also complete generative writing exercises when we meet, inspired by the pieces workshop members submit. By the end of the week, you’ll have concrete feedback to fuel revision of your work-in-progress and a portfolio of strange scenes and sketches you might expand in the future.

In this workshop, we will critique writing you bring from home and generate new writing through exercises and assignments.
Malinda McCollum photo

Out of the Box: Experimenting with Narrative Form

When
-
Event status
Scheduled
Presenters
Short Description
In this generative workshop, open to writers at any level of experience, we’ll explore writing that breaks from conventional narrative forms. We’ll read pieces framed as letters, logs, multiple-choice tests, eBay listings, and syllabi, by writers such as Evie Shockley, Doug Dorst, Daniel Orozco, and Kathy Fish. Inspired by these readings, you’ll complete writing exercises that provide you with a prescribed form and then ask you to discover what characters, images, and tensions emerge to fill that shape. Throughout the weekend, you’ll let form come first, to open up unexpected paths for your writing and make room for spontaneity and surprise.

Read more...
Malinda McCollum photo