“Do you have a story you want to tell, but find it won’t fit into traditional structures? Do you want to challenge yourself creatively and try out new ways to explore narrative? Do you want to make your writing that bit different? Let acclaimed novelist and story writer Kirsty Logan help. 

This intensive 2-day workshop will help you to push your work in new directions and surprise yourself with your new grasp of narrative, character and prose. Whether you already have a habit of writing outside the box or would simply like to experiment more, this course will help you harness that energy and transform your texts in unusual ways. 

Across her 8 published books and many collaborative and cross-genre works, Kirsty Logan has written stories in the form of lists, footnotes, monologues, questionnaires and catalogue items. She will introduce you to texts by writers who have discovered new and exciting literary structures, including Claudia Rankine, David Eagleman, Emmanuelle Pagano, George Saunders, Mark Danielewski, Alejandro Zambra and Jennifer Egan. These will be examined through different exercises to support your ongoing development in writing. You’re welcome to bring prose and poems, fiction and nonfiction, singular texts and serial stories, as the example material likewise will be in different genres.

Whatever you write about, this class will help you to understand the mechanics of unusual stories. By the end of the course, it will be easier for you to experiment with your story and find the best structural fit for your expression. The workshop will be a mix of focused reading, group discussion, individual writing exercises and personal feedback. You will also receive course materials and audio recordings that can be used ahead of the sessions and after them, so you can continue to learn at your own pace. 

KIRSTY LOGAN’S latest book is Now She is Witch (Harvill Secker, 2023), a queer medieval witch revenge quest. Forthcoming is The Unfamiliar (Virago, 2023), a memoir of queer pregnancy and parenthood. She is also the author of two previous novels, three story collections, two chapbooks, a 10-hour audio play for Audible, and several collaborative projects with musicians and visual artists. Her books have won the Lambda, Polari, Saboteur, Scott and Gavin Wallace awards. Her work has been optioned for TV, adapted for stage, recorded for radio and podcasts, exhibited in galleries and distributed from a vintage Wurlitzer cigarette machine.”