General information
All welcome! These courses are designed to encourage exploration and discussion, while advancing your own writing. Classes are dynamic, with newcomers and experienced writers sharing a common, congenial space. We meet in Zoom; 2 hours each week for 8 weeks.
Intensive reading, writing and sharing!
Historical Fiction
Exploring the elements of historical writing, including building worlds and characters from the past, the idea of ‘truth’ in storytelling and links between research and creative writing. Closing the distance on the ‘then’ and opening up new space and light in the ‘now’.
Tuesdays, 6-8pm
Beginning 05 September 2023
Memoir: your voice, your story
Examining how to build your voice and create a story arc around material drawn from the past, whether documented contents (of any form) or memory – with special focus on the space needed to examine the (dis)connections between memory, reality and story. From long sequences to fragments or mere whispers: creativity is key.
Wednesdays, 6-8pm
Beginning 20 September 2023
Storytelling: from the novella-in-flash to short story and hybrid collections
For people interested in completing a collection of stories and teasing out the connective threads while exploring new forms, including the novella-in-flash, story-poetry combinations, haibun and other small forms. Experimentation is encouraged.
Tuesdays, 6-8pm
Beginning 31 October 2023
About Michelle
Michelle Elvy is an editor, manuscript assessor, writer and teacher of creative writing. Before arriving in New Zealand, she was a historian specialising in German History. Her work, and teaching, examines the line between real and imagined, analytical and creative, and her courses draw on her experiences as historian, editor and writer of various forms. Her anthology editing includes, most recently, A Kind of Shelter: Whakaruru-taha (MUP 2023), Breach of All Size: Small stories on Ulysses, love and Venice (The Cuba Press 2022) and Ko Aotearoa Tātou | We Are New Zealand (OUP 2020). She has been Reviews Editor at Landfall and takahē. Her books include the everrumble and the other side of better. She currently edits at Flash Frontier and AT THE BAY | I TE KOKORU.
