Return to Summer-head
I'm teaching some classes + stay tuned for the reboot
Dear friends,
Though always ice cream season in my heart, summer is almost upon us which means it is my prime time — for ice cream, for generating new words, and for teaching. This free newsletter is a little tease for things to come later this summer, a reboot of a whole new Frump Feelings.
I’m teaching a class this summer, my final hurrah for Blue Stoop before I step down as director, called Writing Novels Together. It’s on Zoom so you can take it from anywhere in the world, though financial aid is available just to folks in the greater Philadelphia area. It will be a class for generating, for finally writing that novel of yours, as much as it will be about learning. Also check out the excellent other offerings from Blue Stoop:
More details on my class:
Tuesdays, 3-5PM over Zoom, plus 1 additional hour asynchronous instruction per week
6/7, 6/14, 6/21, 6/28, 7/5, 7/12, 7/19, 7/26
$400 with financial aid available to residents of Greater Philadelphia (Bucks, Camden, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, and Philadelphia Counties)
Apply by May 16th
Writing a novel is hard, but writing one in a community of other people also trying to write one is easier. Plus, there are some real and practical steps a writer can take to demystify the process and get their story onto the page. In this 8-week class for writers involved in writing a novel, we will study the mechanisms through which novels are made.
Come with a project in mind and at least a few pages of your novel-in-progress, but the class will be built to facilitate the creation of new pages as much as to shape the pages you already have. We will read the first chapters of novels by writers such as Lore Segal, Carson McCullers, Jade Sharma, Melissa Broder, Pik-Shuen Fung, and Zinzi Clemmons and plumb them for craft lessons on character, structure, plot, voice, and POV to guide the creation of new material. We will also take an examined look at how these successful novels manage to lay the foundations in their opening chapters and thereby set the novel up for success. Each student will have the chance to workshop the first 30-50 pages of their manuscript and will be an engaged participant while their submission is being discussed. Writers should have the time and space to make substantial written progress between each class, and will leave this class with the first 100 pages of a draft of a novel as well as the necessary tools to finish a full draft of the book they hope to make.
A selection of juicy, steamy, rich, creamy, feelingsy, pleasurable books, media, and more I’m consuming right now:
Marcy Dermansky’s newest novel Hurricane Girl about a weird woman whose house, lost to a hurricane, sets off a chain of bizarre and moving events. Funny & devastating. I’m reviewing it for the Boston Globe right now and eating it right up. Pre-order here.
Mieko Kawakami’s novel Breasts and Eggs. Sisters, trying and failing to be an artist, living in Japan under capitalism. Pure tasty immersive complicated characters. Get it here.
Kim Kelly’s Fight Like Hell: The Untold History of American Labor. From the jacket copy: “Freed Black women organizing for protection in the Reconstruction-era South. Jewish immigrant garment workers braving deadly conditions for a sliver of independence. Asian American fieldworkers rejecting government-sanctioned indentured servitude across the Pacific. Incarcerated workers advocating for basic human rights and fair wages. The queer Black labor leader who helped orchestrate America's civil rights movement. These are only some of the working-class heroes who propelled American labor's relentless push for fairness and equal protection under the law.” Plus Kelly is a local Philly pal! Get the book here.
Gabi Fresh’s new summer collab with Fashion to Figure. From cute swim to sophisticated balloon pants to—my favorite—kaftans, this collection is my song for summer.
Showing my basic white woman side, I’m living for Get Organized with the Home Edit on Netflix right now. It’s spring cleaning on over drive and it’s giving me that light, super productive feeling that’s spilling over into my writing. Strong recommend.
That’s all for right now! Stay tuned for more Frump Feelings soon.
xx
Emma