Writing Creative Non-Fiction (Auto-Fiction)
with Alice Pung
In this series of four online workshops, Alice Pung will help you transform stories from your own life into literature, from the personal essay to the short story. We will be focusing on working with true stories, breathing life into our characters, seeing those we know best from different perspectives, and finding our own narrative voice.
Registration closes: 2 December 2022, Friday, 5 PM.
Registrations for this course are now closed but do join our mailing list here to be updated on future courses like this.
Summary
Course code: AP1
4 online workshops of 2.5 hours each
For Intermediate to Advanced Writers
Limited places available
Selective entry – we’ll offer places to writers based on writing samples sent on application
Dates
4 online workshops on:
9, 16, 23 & 30 January 2023, (Mondays)
9am to 11:30am SGT
No partial sessions accepted
Venue
Workshops will take place online via Zoom
Successful participants will receive a private link to the workshops.
Overview
This series of four workshops with Alice Pung will help you transform stories from your own life into literature, from the personal essay to the short story. We will be focusing on working with true stories, breathing life into our characters, seeing those we know best from different perspectives, and finding our own narrative voice.
The following topics will be covered:
Week 1: CHARACTER
We do not see things as they are. We see things as we are.
“Ah, but I was so much older then. I’m younger than that now.”
– Bob Dylan
What does it mean to be you and how do you bring to life those around you (particularly those who are still alive and may read what you write)?
Week 2: DIALOGUE
“Each writer is born with a repertory company in his head. Shakespeare has perhaps 20 players. … I have 10 or so, and that’s a lot. As you get older, you become more skilful at casting them.”
— Gore Vidal
Week 3: PLOT
“The reader must feel that he/she is making contact with a real human being, not simply with arguments and opinions. If the poem feels like it has sifted and arranged received ideas, then it will fail. The poem has to feel, I think, as if there is a real person struggling with real experiences that will not yield some handy lesson, but nevertheless are not entirely without meaning. The voice that convinces will always be the voice of an individual who the reader experiences as an individual and not as a spokesperson for this or that idea.”
– Professor Robert Cording, poet.
Week 4: VOICE
“Truth in her dress finds facts too tight. In fiction she moves with ease”
– Rabindranath Tagore
“To gain your voice, you have to forget about having it heard.”
– Allan Ginsberg
Learning Outcomes
- realistic characterisation
- the convincing use of dialogue
- writing a compelling narrative plot
- finding their distinct non-fiction narrative voice
Please note participants are required to attend all 4 online sessions.
By the end of the workshops, students should be able to adapt a true event in their own lives into a memoir narrative piece or an essay. There is also scope for transforming their life writing into a radio/theatre play, a film script or fiction.
Alice Pung’s mentoring sessions here will then assist students to work on and revise their pieces.
Who should register?
- Intermediate Writers — Writers who have chosen to pursue writing as a full time or part time career with a serious, professional intent but who are not yet published with a mainstream or recognised independent publisher.
- Advanced Writers — Writers who have published at least one book with a mainstream or recognised independent publisher, and/or published in at least one literary journal and/or anthology.
Participants will be selected by the Visiting Writer with assistance from the Asia Creative Writing programme. A waiting list will be maintained.
Registration and Pricing
To sign up, please register via the link above with the following documents:
- A 300-500 word writing sample (your writing sample does not have to be from the genre of the course nor your current writing project; it will be an assesment of your standard and style of writing)
- A short summary of your writing project or writing interests of ~100 words
- A short biography of 50-100 words
Course Fees
- For 4 workshops of 2.5 hours each:
- $125 for adults
- $50 for students, unemployed, low income migrant workers
- Free for undergraduates from Singapore tertiary institutions
- Non-refundable if cancellation 2 weeks or less before course starts
- Please email us if financial assistance is needed
About Alice Pung
Alice Pung OAM is an award-winning Australian writer, editor and lawyer. Her books include the bestselling memoirs Unpolished Gem (2006) and Her Father’s Daughter (2011), and the novel Laurinda (2014). She is the editor of the anthology Growing Up Asian in Australia (2008), and created the Marly books for Penguin’s Our Australian Girl series (2015). Her latest book is the novel One Hundred Days (2021), shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award. She is a graduate of the Iowa International Writing Program, and has guest-lectured at Vassar College, Brown University, the University of Milan and the University of Bologna, as well as Peking University. She is the current Artist-in-Residence at Janet Clarke Hall, the University of Melbourne. In 2022, she was awarded an Order of Australia Medal for her services to Literature.
Other Courses & Events with Alice Pung
Writer to Writer with Alice Pung
Book a one-on-one mentoring session with our Visiting Writer to discuss your writing project. Our Visiting Writer will provide guidance to help your creative practice and support your writing life.