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Writers Workshops

Non-Fiction/Memoir 2022-407/In Person

Course #2022-407
Mondays Starting October 10 6:00 pm–9:00 pm running 6 weeks
Cost: $315 Instructor: Chris Flakus
This workshop is full

Where

Inprint House
1520 W Main St
Houston, TX 77006 United States
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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.

This workshop will cover non-fiction writing, autofiction, autobiographical writing, the Roman-a-Clef (auto fictional novel), and of course, memoir. I’m a strong believer that every person has a book inside of them. Just as Michelangelo said that within every block of stone he heard the spirit of a sculpture waiting to be born, I see in every storyteller a potential book. But how can one turn the raw experience of their life into a working story? This takes structure, an eye for patterns, architecture, and more than anything–Voice. The unquestioned master of memoir, Mary Karr (author of Art of the Memoir, one of the primary texts we will be using in this intensive six-week workshop) once said that with a strong enough voice, a voice that reflects an authentic and unique perspective (which belongs to each and every one of us, the subjectivity that is our lives and how we view them). Getting this abstract quality out of our souls and onto the page need not be the daunting process it seems. Through generative exercises, readings, and workshopping of each other’s work, we will delve into the art of non-fiction writing. The ethics of non-fiction (what can I write without hurting or putting someone in danger?) and much, much more. My goal is for each participant to find their “voice” by the end of the workshop and be on their way to projects of their own. The potential bestsellers of tomorrow, who knows? Everyone has a story in them. Stories enough for a thousand books.

About the instructor

CHRISTOPHER MIGUEL FLAKUS is a writer and poet living in Houston, Texas. He’s published work in The Huffington Post, Akashic Books: Mondays are Murder Noir Series, Misery Tourism, Outlaw Poetry, Glass Mountain Magazine, In Recovery Magazine, Glass Poetry, Black Heart Magazine, and elsewhere. His short story, “The Jazz Somnambulist,” was nominated for a Pushcart prize by New Square Magazine in 2021. In 2017 he was awarded the Fabian Worsham Prize for fiction. He’s been a featured reader for Glass Mountain Magazine and Public Poetry’s library reading series as well as for Gulf Coast Magazine. Christopher is the author of the chapbooks Bear Down Into Hell With Me (As Only a True Friend Would), and Thirst, and Other Poems through Iron Lung Press, as well as the chapbooks Christiana, and Dialogos: Mexico City Poems from Analog Submission Press. His most recent chapbook, Hurricanes, was published in 2021 by Between Shadows Press. Christopher was the recipient of an Inprint C. Glenn Cambor Fellowship in August 2019 and a co-founder Defunkt Magazine, a Houston-based literary magazine that also showcases visual art, performance art, and music. Christopher received his MFA in Fiction from the University of Houston. He grew up in Mexico City and writes in both English and Spanish. He is currently finishing edits on a final draft of his first novel which he hopes dearly will find a home soon with the right publisher.

Please note that the registration fee and tuition for online workshops are nonrefundable. By registering for an Inprint Writers Workshop you are agreeing to Inprint’s registration policies. For details and a schedule of all the current workshop offerings, click here. 

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