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Meet THe Team
Kick off your Southern Festival of Books weekend with The Porch on Friday, where you’ll have a unique opportunity to learn from celebrated authors as they pass through Nashville before the festival officially begins! Stick around for the rest of the day to take more writing classes with Hannah Pittard, Jeannie Vanasco, and Sheree Renée Thomas.
The great science fiction writers of the 20th century, from Ray Bradbury to Philip K. Dick, were masters of the short story. Ruben Reyes Jr. will give a presentation focusing on the central challenge of the speculative short story: building imaginative, epic worlds in just a couple thousand words. Writers will learn strategies for blending macro ambitions (high-concepts, world-building, magic systems) with micro craft skills (characterization, voice, tension). This course is for anyone interested in science fiction, fantasy, or genre-bending short stories.
• In-Class Writing Lift: Light
• Homework: None
• Workshopping Drafts: None
Ruben Reyes Jr. is the son of two Salvadoran immigrants and the author of There is a Rio Grande in Heaven, which was a finalist for the Story Prize, the Aspen Words Literary Prize, and longlisted for the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. He is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and Harvard College. His writing has appeared in The Boston Globe, The Washington Post, Slate, American Short Fiction, and other publications. Originally from Southern California, he now lives in Queens. Archive of Unknown Universes is his first novel.
Ruben is new to The Porch. Welcome!
