Annie Kirby
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Short Story Boot Camp |
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Short Story Boot Camp: Shorter, Leaner, Meaner
June 7-13, 2010 (Mon-Sun)
Closed - Reserve List
Just because they’re shorter doesn’t mean they’re easier. Short stories present special challenges of their own. If ever a form needed some boot camp treatment, the short story is it.
As short-story writer Annie Kirby puts it “the degree of risk is inversely proportional to the word count.” But so are the rewards. Bring your story ideas or works-in-progress and each morning Annie will guide you through a series of exercises and techniques that will help you trim, shape and make your story zip along.
Novels are tidal, requiring ebb and flow, but a good short story functions like an electric charge and supports an intensity that would be exhausting in a longer work.
- Annie Kirby for The Guardian
In the mornings you’ll talk components of successful storytelling including point-of-view, tone, structure (beginnings, middles and endings), narrative techniques, characterization, indirection, back-story and plot vs. story. Annie will share examples and strategies that work for her and will show you how to apply them to your own work.
After lunch, you’ll work on your story, with time set-aside for questions, feedback and sharing work and ideas with the group and the course leader. You’ll also have an opportunity for a one-on-one tutorial with Annie.
Annie and Wayne Milstead will present a special session on the current market for short stories, with emphasis on Europe and North America. Discussions will include: literary magazines, general interest magazines, contests, radio and other outlets. They will cover how to analyse publications to determine if your story is a good fit, how to approach editors, format your work, and submit stories.
We’ve designed the week to enable you to complete a solid draft of your story. We emphasis a helpful, supportive and inspiring environment that gives you the tools you need to develop your writing. But you know what they say about all work and no play, so we’ve allowed plenty of time for you to relax with a glass of wine, walk through the countryside, take a tour of chateaus and vineyards, or learn about local cuisine during a short sampler of our culinary courses.
Closed - Reserve List
Kirby describes sublime moments with careful precision and evokes the brooding power of buried trauma.
- Nicholas Royle Time Out
Biography
Annie Kirby was born and grew up in Dorset, and has been writing since she was five years old. She is a graduate of the University of East Anglia Creative Writing MA, and was once told she writes “like Anita Shreve on acid,” which she decided to take as a compliment.
Her short stories have received numerous accolades. “Orchid, Cherry-Blossom,” was adapted for broadcast on Radio 4 as part of their Writers to Watch series; “Revelations of Divine Love,” was selected for publication in Comma Press’s annual showcase of new writers, Bracket: A New Generation in Fiction, and “The Wing,” won the 2005 Asham Award for women’s writing.
Annie has also published a number of academic articles and has written for The Guardian. She recently completed her first collection of short stories.
She’s currently working on a novel, Blood Hands Moon Snow, but often finds herself returning to short fiction. Annie currently lives in Hampshire with her husband and two moggies.
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