Contemporizing Ancestral Stories with Megan Kakimoto

Date/Time: Thursday, June 26th @ 6:30pm CST

Description: For writers working with inherited or ancestral stories, the material can feel like both an incredible gift and an overwhelming burden. How does one honor the past while making space for contemporary concerns and interests? How do we write into those blurred lines, embracing the mythology, folklore, superstitions, and cultural histories we’ve inherited, while a ording our passions and obsessions space on the page? I take both pride and pleasure in considering ancestral stories in conversation with contemporary ones, and this craft seminar will explore exactly that, as we discuss the responsibility of carrying forth these tales while inviting into the conversation both imagination as well as our own writerly obsessions. Through close examination of fiction and non-fiction by writers who are also working with ancestral tales, we will study their craft choices surrounding plot, point of view, character, and details, and…