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Freeing Your Characters

A Writing Workshop with Alexandra Teague

Award-winning writer and University of Idaho professor Alexandra Teague discusses the art of liberating characters on the page. This is a 'Novel Day' event.

Happy Novel Day! Novel Day is a celebration of the craft of writing novels, featuring workshops and panels presented by some of the most beloved novelists in our region.

About the workshop: For many writers, what's most fascinating and rewarding about writing a novel is spending many years and pages getting to know our characters. But sometimes characters can also start to feel like pawns that we're just trying to move through our scenes. How do we create conditions and scenes in which our characters can surprise us? How do we appreciate and use the moments they get “out of hand”? How can we let characters infuse scenes with their own perspectives? In this generative workshop, we’ll briefly discuss these questions, look at a few short samples, and do some writing ourselves in response to a prompt. 

About the presenter: Alexandra Teague is most recently the author of the poetry collection [ominous music intensifying] (Persea 2024) and Spinning Tea Cups: A Mythical American Memoir (Oregon State University Press 2023). She is previously the author of three books of poetry and the novel The Principles Behind Flotation. She is currently at work on her second novel, and is a professor of creative writing and the chair of English at University of Idaho.

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We strive to make events welcoming for people of all abilities. To request accommodations (i.e. hearing assistance, ASL requests, or other ADA inquiries), email sday@spokanelibrary.org.

For all event information inquiries, email telref@spokanelibrary.org or call 509-444-5300.

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