Writing By Writers...

Pressure is at the heart of any great story, but sometimes we instinctively protect our characters from experiencing it. In this class we’ll look at how to apply pressure to our characters through interiority, setting, dialogue, other characters, and plot, taking guidance from examples in popular movies, TV shows, and fairy tales. We’ll practice together with in-class exercises and you’ll leave with prompts for applying pressure in your own work. 

Becky Mandelbaum is the author of THE BRIGHT SIDE SANCTUARY FOR ANIMALS, an Indie Next pick, and BAD KANSAS, which received the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction, the High Plains Book Award for First Book, and was a Kansas Notable Book. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, One Story, The Sun, The Missouri Review, The Georgia Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, The Rumpus, Necessary Fiction, Hobart, Prairie Schooner, Electric Literature, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, and has been featured on Medium. Arts organizations including Hedgebrook, Writing by Writers, The Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, Lighthouse Works, and the Washington Arts Commission have supported her work. She is the winner of a Pushcart Prize and was named a finalist for the Disquiet Literary Prize in Fiction, the Missouri Review Editor’s Prize in Fiction, the Nelson Algren Award, and the Joyland Open Border Fiction Prize. Originally from Kansas, she now lives in Bellingham, Washington.