Class Description
In a sense, all stories are ghost stories. Words on the page will inevitably outlive their writer, while stories often revive moments, things, people, and relationships already lost. Many great authors, from Mary Shelley to F. Scott Fitzgerald, have excelled at ghost stories, while some—Edgar Allen Poe, Sheridan Le Fanu, M.R. James, and Stephen King—made this niche their empire. A number of minor lights, including A.M. Burrage, Rosemary Timperley, and Robert Aickman, have written classic tales which continue to haunt.
In this one-day workshop, we will trace the tradition of the ghost story: its gothic, uncanny, psychological, supernatural, and technological genesis. We will read and discuss the eerie short fiction of authors such as Henry James, Edith Wharton, Muriel Spark, Angela Carter, Jane Gardam, and Joe Hill, and do exercises to enhance your own ventures into this genre. Our focus will go to the critical ingredients of mood, voice, setting, pacing, suspense, and the telling detail.
Students are invited (but not required) to bring the opening or turning point in a ghost story they are writing to class. We will discuss magazines that welcome ghost story submissions, and I will offer a list of recommended reading in the genre. For a short piece on the evolution of the contemporary ghost story, see my post in Grub Daily: http://grubdaily.org/the-spirit-and-the-letter/.
Thanks to the excellent literary citizenship of our donors, scholarships are available for all GrubStreet classes. To apply, click the gray "APPLY FOR SCHOLARSHIP" button. In order to be considered for a scholarship, you must complete your application at least one week before the start date of a class. Please await our scholarship committee's decision before registering for the class. We cannot hold spots in classes, so the sooner you apply, the better. Scholarships cannot be applied retroactively.
For more detailed information about GrubStreet scholarships, including how to contribute to scholarship funds for other students, click here.
This class will take place using Zoom videoconferencing. About 15 minutes before your class is scheduled to begin, you'll receive an email from your instructor with a link to join the class meeting!
Zoom Participation:
Students are not required to turn their camera on, but are encouraged to participate any way they feel comfortable through functions such as the live chat, emoji reactions, and unmuting the microphone. Learn more about using Zoom here.
Zoom Accessibility:
We ask that instructors enable closed captioning and send a transcript of the session after class. You can also enable closed captioning at any time during the meeting. If your instructor forgets to send the transcript, just send ’em an email!