There is no right way to tell a story, but there are many possibilities to make it stronger, punchier, urgent, weirder and still accessible.

In this one-day workshop we will look at different ways to do that by experimenting with themes, structure, style, tone, POV and temporal order. We will look at how to fuse the surreal, fantastical, magical and horrific, to relay more original versions of stories that move away from traditional (in anglo-western culture) methods of story-telling.

Through a series of short writing prompts and by looking at works by authors such as Megan Milks, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, Sayaka Murata, and Anne Garréta participants will familiarize themselves with different literary genres to understand how elements of each can be incorporated into their own work. Participants will also have the opportunity to experiment with their own writing and are welcome to discuss how they would like their writing to interact with the world around them. Who are we writing for? And why? In this class we will explore how writing can be revolutionary.

Participants will be encouraged to push the boundaries of their own styles through discussion and playful exercises. Writing isn’t just about writing, but about taking everything in from all around us and then re-formatting it onto the page in any way that we choose.

This workshop is suitable for writers of all levels.

AMBIKA THOMPSON is a Canadian writer and musician based in Berlin. Their short stories have been published in Electric Literature, Joyland, Plenitude, forthcoming in Pank, and many other publications. They received an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Guelph, Canada in 2019, and a grant from the Canada Council of the Arts in 2021 for a book-length project. They were the managing and fiction editor of Leopardskin and Limes and are currently one of the fiction editors of SAND.