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Parts of the Whole:
From Sentence to Paragraph to Story
Seminar with award-winning author & lecturer,
Ilana Blumberg
July 4, 2019
10:00-15:00
Photo by Nick Morrison on Unsplash
All stories are made up of mere language: of sentences and paragraphs. So what makes a story powerful and memorable when we read it?
This workshop will slow down to focus on crafting our prose in ways that make our ideas and feelings memorable, evocative, powerful. Have no fear! Most first drafts cannot achieve this. So we will investigate the process in which we can refine our language, as we go. Looking closely at very different examples of inspiring prose, we will consider together how to build strong sentences, how to calibrate the force of a set of sentences that make up a paragraph, how to find the right rhythms for the stories we are telling, the right images, the right balance between everyday language and high language. At the same time, we will, as always, be thinking about the whole: the stories we want to tell, and perhaps even need to tell. Texts may include sections from Exit West, by Mohsin Hamid; The Last of Her Kind, by Sigrid Nunez; and the stories of Katherine Anne Porter. Details:Minimum/Maximum No. Participants: 10/15
Cost: 490 NIS by June 16, 550 NIS thereafter (if places still available). This includes light snacks and tea/coffee, bread & dips. Location: Katamon, Jerusalem (more details upon registration). Registration: Sign up below and we will be in touch about payment. Please note that your place is reserved only once payment is made. Cancellation policy: If you cancel within one week of the class and your place cannot be filled, you will forfeit the total cost of the seminar. If you cancel earlier than one week before the seminar and paid by credit card, then you will receive the amount paid less the transaction fees. |
Ilana Blumberg is the author of Open Your Hand: Teaching as a Jew, Teaching as an American (Rutgers Press, 2018) and the Sami Rohr Prize-winning memoir, Houses of Study: A Jewish Woman Among Books. She directs the Shaindy Rudoff Graduate Program in Creative Writing at Bar-Ilan University where she is a senior lecturer in English literature. She is widely published in Victorian studies and has won teaching awards from the University of Pennsylvania and Michigan State University.
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Previously taught by Ilana Blumberg - From Everyday to Dramatic Moment (2019) Blending Fiction with Memoir (2018) Intensity (2018), Putting it All Together (2017), How We Came To Be Ourselves: Writing Autobiography (2016), and Writing Memoir: Place and Person (2016).
Testimonials:
'I greatly appreciated Ilana's analytical approach both to the published literary excepts on which the workshop primarily focused and to the extemporary exercises that the students were prompted to produce in class. Her critical workshop method owes to the best legacy of American literary scholarship. As a result, she was able to engage all participants in enthusiastic, educated discussions, and to inspire pieces of writing building directly on the critical aspects assimilated in class. She is also a wonderful moderator, adept at channelling the potential of spontaneous, untutored textual interpretations into informed literary debates. I came out of the experienced with renewed motivation for my own writing endeavors. I would definitely recommend Ilana's classes to anyone aiming at quality writing.' - Sonia
'I highly recommend taking Ilana's workshops. She gives a great balance between looking at well-written and published pieces while encouraging the participants to discover and generate their own ideas.' - Anna
'I have had a lot on my mind these past few months and it was cathartic for me get a new perspective through the contributions and insights delivered in this seminar. Ilana is a marvelous moderator and without exception I believed in my fellow attendees' stories while empathizing and sharing tears and laughter.' - Lynn
'The choice of readings was so extraordinary - I had never encountered these writings or anything similar before, and I try to read all kinds of literature from known and unknown authors from all over the world. Now I’ve added Sri Lankan and Jamaican. The way Ilana handled the group of people who had not met before was quite remarkable. Everyone felt that they were important and she was interested in every sharing that the group felt free and willing to do. There was such empathy and understanding from everyone because Ilana moderated the group in such in a quiet but purposeful manner. We learnt a lot from her but also from others, which I think is ideally the way a workshop should happen.' - Mona
'As always, Ilana Blumberg’s recent writer’s workshop was wonderfully engaging, profoundly deep, and most enjoyable. The outstanding selection of readings she provided before the session made an excellent backdrop for the points she raised and the writing exercises she offered during the session. I came away feeling enriched!' - Jeff
Testimonials:
'I greatly appreciated Ilana's analytical approach both to the published literary excepts on which the workshop primarily focused and to the extemporary exercises that the students were prompted to produce in class. Her critical workshop method owes to the best legacy of American literary scholarship. As a result, she was able to engage all participants in enthusiastic, educated discussions, and to inspire pieces of writing building directly on the critical aspects assimilated in class. She is also a wonderful moderator, adept at channelling the potential of spontaneous, untutored textual interpretations into informed literary debates. I came out of the experienced with renewed motivation for my own writing endeavors. I would definitely recommend Ilana's classes to anyone aiming at quality writing.' - Sonia
'I highly recommend taking Ilana's workshops. She gives a great balance between looking at well-written and published pieces while encouraging the participants to discover and generate their own ideas.' - Anna
'I have had a lot on my mind these past few months and it was cathartic for me get a new perspective through the contributions and insights delivered in this seminar. Ilana is a marvelous moderator and without exception I believed in my fellow attendees' stories while empathizing and sharing tears and laughter.' - Lynn
'The choice of readings was so extraordinary - I had never encountered these writings or anything similar before, and I try to read all kinds of literature from known and unknown authors from all over the world. Now I’ve added Sri Lankan and Jamaican. The way Ilana handled the group of people who had not met before was quite remarkable. Everyone felt that they were important and she was interested in every sharing that the group felt free and willing to do. There was such empathy and understanding from everyone because Ilana moderated the group in such in a quiet but purposeful manner. We learnt a lot from her but also from others, which I think is ideally the way a workshop should happen.' - Mona
'As always, Ilana Blumberg’s recent writer’s workshop was wonderfully engaging, profoundly deep, and most enjoyable. The outstanding selection of readings she provided before the session made an excellent backdrop for the points she raised and the writing exercises she offered during the session. I came away feeling enriched!' - Jeff
