This is an in-person workshop that takes place at Inprint House
If this workshop is full when you try to register, please sign up on the waiting list here so you receive priority registration the next time this class is offered.
First Pages
The first page of any piece of writing carries a lot of weight. It provides an on-ramp into the story and lays the foundation for a reader’s investment. In this intensive workshop, we will study the first pages of short stories, novels, and memoirs, discussing what these openings accomplish and how they establish momentum.
We’ll examine beginnings across genres through examples by Paula Hawkins, Trevor Noah, Elena Ferrante, Cheryl Strayed, Toni Morrison, Andy Weir, and others. Together, we will look closely at craft elements such as character, setting, point of view, and narrative voice. Through generative exercises, participants will write and revise drafts of their own first pages.
This class offers writers at any level a supportive environment to share a beginning of a work in progress. The goal is to leave with several openings that can launch new projects or strengthen existing ones.
Chaitali Sen is the author of the novel The Pathless Sky, the short story collection A New Race of Men from Heaven, and numerous stories and essays published by Catapult, Colorado Review, Copper Nickel, Ecotone, LitHub, New England Review, Texas Observer, and other print and online journals. She is a PhD candidate in Creative Writing and Literature at University of Houston, and a recipient of the Inprint J. A. and Isabel M. Elkins Foundation Fellowship.