Please Join Us For...

Reading Like A Writer

A Living The Writer's Life

Workshop

Saturday, May 16th, 10:30 am - 12:30 pm

I know many readers who don’t like to write, but I know of no writers who don’t love to read. 

We read for pleasure first, for story, for the power books have to transport and transform us. But as writers, books are also our first, and perhaps best, teachers. And it is only by reading a lot of them, and reading carefully, that we learn the ways in which language is manipulated in support of character, setting, plot, and theme.

Francine Prose calls this close reading, a way of reading that gives attention to the micro-elements of story, to words and sentence structure, to repetition and rhythm. Books, after all, are arrangements of words, and it’s this deliberation arrangement that creates meaning and emotion, both on the page, and in the hearts and minds of readers.

In this workshop we will look at the purpose and practice of “close reading,” using examples from E. B. White, Eudora Welty, Harper Lee and others, talk about the writers that influence us, and ways to apply the practice of reading to the practice of writing.  

This is a hands-on workshop. Please bring a writing sample from your favorite writer and be prepared to share.   

Suggested Reading:

Reading Like a Writer: A Guide For People Who Love Books and For Those Who Want To Write Them, by Francine Prose. 

Hollis Shore is a co-founder of the Seven Bridge Writer's Collaborative, and graduate of the Vermont College MFA in Writing For Children and Young Adults program. She was the 2012-13 Boston Public Library Children's Writer in Residence, and a winner of the PEN New England Discovery Award for her novel, The Curve of The World, out for submission shortly. Contact her at Hollisplus@gmail.com.