Come to San Miguel this February!

Concurrent Workshop, Session #1: Thursday, February 14  9:00 – 10:30 AM

CRAFTING STORIES FROM REAL LIFE: Literary Nonfiction

Literary or creative nonfiction is the fastest growing literary genre.   The telling of facts in a creative manner entertains readers, surprises them, and teaches them something about real life in the process.

Creative nonfiction walks a fine line between fiction and truth with style and confidence.  Create stories that read like fiction but are based on real life.

In this workshop you will learn how to write a gripping opening sentence, how to use dialogue and bring characters alive, how to incorporate research to add depth to your writing, and the essential techniques of successful and interesting creative nonfiction writing.

We will also look at examples of creative nonfiction from an array of authors and study them to learn about voice, style, and structure as we produce our own essays by the end of the session.

Beatriz Badikian-Gartler’s publications includeMapmaker Revisited: New and Selected Poems; Old Gloves: A 20^th Century Saga; travel essays in The New York Times, The Winfield Post, New Directions in Travel Writing, and others. She has also published short stories, film reviews, poems, and personal memoir essays in journals and anthologies in the United States and abroad.

Badikian-Gartler holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of Illinois at Chicago and has been teaching for the last 25 years at various institutions of higher learning, such as, Northwestern University, Loyola University, Roosevelt University, Columbia College, University of Wisconsin, Newberry Library, and others.

Her writing has won several awards, including a nomination for a Pushcart Prize in 1993, a Time Inc. fellowship, and grants from the Illinois Arts Council and the Chicago Office of Fine Arts.  She is a popular performer in the Chicago area and lectures often on women’s issues, art, and literature.

In 2000 Badikian-Gartler was selected as one of the “One-Hundred Women Who Make a Difference in Chicago” by Today’s Woman magazine.  She is also an Illinois Humanities Council Road Scholar.