The Writer's Studio: Writing the Other

The Writer’s Studio is a free workshop series open to all students from all majors. Come study the art of writing in intensive, fun, hands-on workshops with dynamic faculty from the Creative Writing program, the Stanford Storytelling Project, and others. You will leave with an expanded understanding of what your writing can do.

Our imaginations are not entirely our own. They have a cultural context; they have a history. What are the ethical nuances and concerns of representing the other in our fiction? What is it about this figure that troubles, frustrates, and enlightens us? How do we create culturally diverse fiction without falling into familiar and outmoded themes? Those identified by Claudia Rankine as: I traveled to another country, state, or borough, and met race there. Or: race is racism. Or, more candidly: I met an other and it was hard! These tropes posit race primarily as an occasion to encounter or project one's own feelings, one's self. In this workshop we will look at selections from Paul Beatty, Leilani Raven, Ben Lerner, and Ta-Nehisi Coates, to explore the singular vicissitudes of power and race, self and other, as we work together to craft culturally inclusive scenes.

Nicole Caplain Kelly is a current Stegner Fellow at Stanford. She holds a MFA from Columbia University, where she was nominated by the faculty for the Henfield Prize. She made her professional start at Jazz At Lincoln Center, where she came under the mentorship of Wynton Marsalis, Stanley Crouch, and Albert Murray. She has received support for her work from Faber & Faber in the UK.