Distance, Intimacy, and the Page: On Longing in Fiction Zoom Seminar with Alyssa Songsiridej on Sunday, July 27th, 2025
Live Seminar Via Zoom Sunday, July 27th, 2025
Class will meet 12PM - 2PM Eastern
Any questions about this class? Use the Chat Button (lower left) to talk with us.
What is desire, and how does it manifest in fiction? Is it born from the character, or is it a force that acts on the character? What are its qualities? And why does the depiction of desire in fiction matter?
Instructor Alyssa Songsiridej is a National Book Foundation 5 under 35 honoree and the author of Little Rabbit, a finalist for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and the PEN/Hemingway Award and, according to Carmen Maria Machado, “a love letter to bottoming and being an artist and following yourself to the end of everything.”
A former managing editor at Electric Literature and an instructor in Temple University’s MFA program, she has worked on both sides of the editorial relationship and edited stories that went on to be included in Best American anthologies. But before all of this, she moonlighted as an editor at an erotic e-book company. Through this experience of working in genre with new writers, and in her later writing and editorial life, she’s come to realize that one of the most important parts of a sex scene is all of the stuff that comes before it: the creation of longing on the page.
In this generative craft talk, we’ll discuss the qualities of longings and techniques for building tension between characters by breaking down works by Garth Greenwell, Solvej Balle, Elif Batuman, and Miranda July. Informed by Eros the Bittersweet, by Anne Carson, we’ll also work together to generate scenes and scenarios of longing, and discuss the important of narrative tension, imagination, and interiority into the creation of desire.
Can't Make It Live?
No problem! The session will be recorded and available to watch after the seminar concludes.
Course Takeaways:
- Think strategically about how emotion drives the narrative meaning of intimate scenes.
- Learn how to create emotional tension between characters.
- Generate new scenes that could lead to future drafts.
Course Prep:
Reading “The Metal Bowl” by Miranda July and “The Frog King” by Garth Greenwell, both published in The New Yorker, will be helpful. Also, Little Rabbit.
ONLINE COURSE STRUCTURE:
Live Seminar Via Zoom Sunday, July 27th, 2025. Class will meet 12PM - 2PM Eastern.
PAYMENT OPTIONS:
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Instructor: Alyssa Songsiridej
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Live Seminar Via Zoom Sunday, July 27th, 2025.
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Class will meet 12PM - 2PM Eastern.
- Tuition is $75.
Contact us HERE if you have any questions about this seminar.