The Art of Fiction

This workshop is inclusive of everyone regardless of race, class, gender, age, religious beliefs, and or sexual orientation.

The Art of Fiction is a four week workshop that teaches writers, at all levels, key aspects of the craft of fiction with special attention to writing from under-represented environments in the literary landscape. Sessions will  include analysis of published text with an eye toward the understanding of point of view and point of telling, plot, narrative voice, and dialogue.  Students will learn how to analyze the craft of established writers with an eye toward adopting useful techniques and elevating their own work as well as how to discuss each other’s work in a constructive, generous and empathic way. Kindly note this is a special course offered free of charge to students accepted into a Summer 

Fiction Workshop for VONA 2021.

Meeting Times: Saturdays from 10am-12:30pm est.

Dates: September 11, 18, 25 and October 2.

About the facilitator:

Cleyvis Natera holds a Bachelor of Arts from Skidmore College and an MFA from NYU in Fiction. Cleyvis is a 2021 Peter Taylor Fellow in Fiction at the Kenyon Writers Workshop. Her past honors include writing awards and fellowships from PEN America, Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference, The Juniper Institute, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and Voices of Our Nation Arts Foundation. Her writing has appeared in Time Magazine, Gagosian Quarterly, The Washington Post, The Kenyon Review, Asterix and Kweli Journal, among other publications. She currently teaches Creative Writing to MFA students at the Writer's Foundry Program at St. Joseph's College in Brooklyn. Her debut novel, Neruda on the Park, is forthcoming from Penguin Random House Spring 2022.