Begins Thursday, October 8, 2026

Class will meet weekly via Zoom on Thursdays, 7:30 PM – 9:00 PM ET

Note: We will skip Thanksgiving Week and finish on December 3rd.

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Instructor Bio

Instructor Dr. Emily Carr is a poet, educator, and author of four collections of poetry, including Whosoever Has Let a Minotaur Enter Them, Or a Sonnet— (McSweeney's) and Name Your Bird Without a Gun: A Tarot Novella (Spork Press). A self-described "beach witch, love poet, and ecofeminist," she writes across forms that braid speculative storytelling, ecopoetics, and the intimate mechanics of character. Emily was the founding director of the MFA in Creative Writing at Oregon State University–Cascades and the creator of the B.A. in Creative Writing at the New College of Florida. She currently serves as the first poetry professor on faculty at the Southern Illinois School of Medicine, where she brings creative practice into the problem-based learning curriculum. Emily holds an MFA in poetry from the University of North Carolina–Wilmington and a PhD in ecopoetics from the University of Calgary. Her work has been supported by McSweeney's, Spork Press, and a range of independent presses; she has taught writers at every level, from first-time poets to published authors, and is known for cross-pollinating art forms and audiences — bringing poetry to beer festivals, storytelling to medical schools, and speculative craft to writers hungry to break form.

Who is this class for?

This generative online writing workshop is designed for intermediate and advanced speculative fiction writers — and other curious makers — who want to build unforgettable non-human characters and explore what "being human" looks like from the perspective of animals, aliens, and other creaturely narrators. It's ideal for writers ready to play across forms while staying serious about character, world-building, and story. All skill levels welcome, provided you're up for genuine experimentation.

What to expect:

From beloved pets to mythic tricksters to animals caught in captivity, non-human beings offer a powerful lens for exploring what it means to be human — especially in science fiction and fantasy, where invented worlds and species put pressure on our assumptions about "the human." Whether through the intelligence of a genetically altered rat, the longing of a zoo-bound lion, the mischief of an animated mutant turtle, or the alien logic of a televised space invader, non-human narrators invite us to reimagine questions of home, love, instinct, captivity, power, identity, and belonging in worlds both recognizable and strange.

This online writing workshop is for writers and makers who want to break form, expand voice, and innovate across multimodal science fiction and fantasy, with a particular focus on character development. Over eight weeks, you'll read across culture and genre — from literary speculative fiction to pop-culture SFF — with an eye for how creators build non-human characters. You'll treat the animal gaze as both a craft tool and a mirror: a way to build unforgettable speculative characters and a way to ask bigger questions about humans, habitats, boundaries, and belonging.

Feedback in this creative writing course is framed as a tool for revision, experimentation, and critical awareness, rather than as a system of corrective evaluation. You'll receive formal written feedback from Dr. Carr on your final portfolio submission, along with written responses, in-class discussion, and small-group critique throughout the eight weeks. The course culminates in formal workshop sessions using Liz Lerman's Critical Response Process (CRP), a workshop model that centers the writer's intentions, invites reader questions rather than prescriptive advice, and supports ethical, non-hierarchical dialogue about the creative process.

What are the writing goals?

In this course, students will develop one fully realized non-human protagonist and draft a complete science fiction or fantasy story (or substantial chapter) that can only be told through that character's voice. Students will also complete several short "translation" exercises that move a single scene or character across different modes — including monologue, script, comic beats, and storyboard — deepening their sense of character, embodiment, and point of view. Students will receive formal written feedback from the instructor on their final portfolio submission, plus ongoing written and verbal feedback throughout the eight-week run.

Readings

Readings may include excerpts from:

Short stories — George Saunders, "Fox 8"; Ursula K. Le Guin, "The Wife's Story," "The Direction of the Road," "The Author of the Acacia Seeds," and "May's Lion"; Terry Bisson, "They're Made Out of Meat"

Novels — Marie Darrieussecq, Pig Tales: A Novel of Lust and Transformation

Theory and craft — Matthew Salesses, Craft in the Real World; John Berger, "Why Look at Animals?"; excerpts from Jacques Derrida, "The Animal That Therefore I Am"; excerpts from Ursula K. Le Guin, Steering the Craft and The Language of the Night; Dorothy Allison, "On Dialogue"

Films — Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH; Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

COURSE OUTLINE

Week 1 – Why the Animal Gaze? Focus: Why write non-human characters in SFF? Read/discuss: Ursula K. Le Guin's "The Wife's Story" and "May's Lion"; John Berger's "Why Look at Animals?"; excerpts from Jacques Derrida's "The Animal That Therefore I Am" Craft lens: Desire, constraint, and perspective when the narrator isn't human. Exercise: Introduce your creature-character in a one-page scene.

Week 2 – Bodies, Habitats, and Worlds Focus: Embodiment and environment as character. Read/discuss: Ursula K. Le Guin's "The Direction of the Road"; excerpts from Steering the Craft and The Language of the Night Craft lens: Sensory detail; worldbuilding through non-human perception. Translation challenge #1: Turn last week's scene into an interior monologue focused on the body and habitat.

Week 3 – Voice, Language, and Logic Focus: How your character thinks, speaks, and misreads the world. Read/discuss: George Saunders' "Fox 8"; Terry Bisson's "They're Made Out of Meat"; Ursula K. Le Guin's "The Author of the Acacia Seeds" Craft lens: Diction, syntax, humor, and estrangement. Translation challenge #2: Adapt a moment into a short comic script or storyboard, emphasizing voice in dialogue and captions.

Week 4 – Conflict, Ethics, and Power Focus: Captivity, domestication, experiment, alliance. Read/discuss: Marie Darrieussecq's Pig Tales: A Novel of Lust and Transformation; excerpts from Matthew Salesses's Craft in the Real World Craft lens: Stakes, conflict, ethical tension. Draft: Begin full story or central chapter featuring your creature-character in a pivotal choice.

Week 5 – Dialogue and Translation Focus: Revising through another mode. Read/discuss: Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH; Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles; Dorothy Allison's "On Dialogue" Translation challenge #3: Turn a key story scene into an audio script, clarifying beats and emotional turns.

Weeks 6–8 – From Creature to Canon Focus: Refinement and reflection. Week 6: Peer review and introduction to Liz Lerman's Critical Response Process Week 7: Workshop final story (or chapter) — 4 to 6 students Week 8: Workshop final story (or chapter) — 4 to 6 students Final portfolio: Revised story or chapter plus a brief craft reflection on how your non-human character illuminates human concerns.

COURSE TAKEAWAYS:

• A fully realized creature-character: one central non-human protagonist (or POV character) with clear desires, conflicts, and stakes, and a strong sense of voice, body, and world.
• A complete speculative fiction story that only works in this voice: one drafted (and partly revised) SFF story — or a substantial chapter — that could only be told through your chosen non-human perspective.
• A multimodal "translation challenge" portfolio: short exercises that move a single character across modes (monologue, storyboard, script, comic paneling, audio script), deepening your understanding of character, embodiment, and audience.
• Tools for writing ethically complex non-human POVs: techniques for analyzing and crafting non-human perspectives with attention to power, captivity, environment, and agency, plus a brief reflective statement on the ethics and aesthetics of your own project.
• A clearer, repeatable process for character-building in SFF: a practical toolkit — questions, structures, and experiments — you can reuse to build future speculative characters who feel vivid, specific, and emotionally resonant.

PAYMENT OPTIONS:

Tuition is $545 USD. You can pay for the course in full or use Shop Pay or Affirm to pay over time with equal Monthly Payments. Both options are available at checkout.

ONLINE COURSE STRUCTURE:

• Instructor: Dr. Emily Carr
• Begins Thursday, October 8, 2026
• Class will meet weekly via Zoom on Thursdays, 7:30 PM – 9:00 PM ET
• Note: We will skip Thanksgiving Week and finish on December 3rd.
• Tuition is $545 USD.