Community News: Writing Workshop

WW Member and author of the YA Novel THE APOLOGY BOX, Naomi Ulsted teaches “Writing in the Child’s Voice” through Oregon Literary Arts. August 26th, 10:00am – 1:00pm. Literary Arts 925 SW Washington, Portland, OR.

Register here: https://literary-arts.org/event/writing-in-the-childs-voice/

This course will take a close look how to effectively use the child narrator when writing personal narrative or fiction. Using textual examples, we’ll look at what kinds of situations or scenes are best told from the child’s point of view and examine how to keep the child’s voice authentic.           

“Writing from the child’s voice can be an effective tool for fiction and non-fiction, helping us get truths that can otherwise be difficult to expose. The child’s voice can also be tricky. In this one-time, 3-hour workshop, we’ll experiment with how to ease between the child’s viewpoint and the adult narrator looking back. Using prompts, we’ll practice writing the same scene from different viewpoints and write some of our childhood memories, paying attention to some of the techniques we’ve studied in the texts.

Among other texts, we’ll use LONG LIVE THE TRIBE OF FATHERLESS GIRLS by T. Kira Madden, SOLITO by Javier Zamora, and THE PART THAT BURNS by Jeannine Ouellette to demonstrate successful uses of the child narrator. Participants are encouraged to share their textual examples of writers using the child’s voice. In this three-hour workshop, we’ll learn from the texts and from each other and see if we can use our inner child to reach some truths in our own writing.

Naomi is the author of the young adult novel THE APOLOGY BOX, published by Idle Time Press in 2021. It was selected as a finalist in the Next Generation Indies Book Award and a runner-up in the Indies Today competition (literary category). She writes both narrative non-fiction and children’s fiction. Her work has been published in MUD SEASON REVIEW, THE FORGE, and THE NEW GUARD, among others. She was the recipient of a Literary Arts Fellowship in 2018 for drama.

The workshop will be held at Literary Arts, 925 SW Washington, Portland, OR, on August 26th, from 10:00am to 1:00pm.

Follow Naomi at her website or here.