Event – Detail

We're often disconnected from place. Physically, we're in one space, but we're on our phones or meeting virtually. But good fiction needs defined spaces to keep our characters grounded and give our stories depth and heart. A place isn't just a setting; a place can be a character all its own, direct the plot, and inform the language. In this generative workshop, we'll talk and write all about place, so you leave with detailed spaces for your characters to inhabit. We'll use great descriptions of places written by critically acclaimed contemporary writers for you to model and work through prompts to bring out your best creative thinking about the world you want to show in your writing.

Camille Acker is a writer, teacher, and editor. She was raised in Washington, DC and is the author of the short story collection, Training School for Negro Girls, published in 2018 by The Feminist Press. A novel and short story collection are forthcoming from RandomHouse in 2026. She holds a B.A. in English from Howard University and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from New Mexico State University. Her work has received support from Tin House, the Djerassi Resident Artists Program, Millay Colony for the Arts, Voices of Our Nations Arts (VONA), the Norman Mailer Writers Colony, and Callaloo Writers Workshop. As a creative writing teacher, she has advised and mentored students across the United States including at New Mexico State University, Tin House Writers Workshop, Chicago Writers Studio, Haverford College, University of the Arts, and Blue Stoop in Philadelphia. She co-edited Dismantle: An Anthology from the VONA/Voices Workshop. In 2020, she was the recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship and in 2022 was named a Fellow by the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage. Her work has been published in The New York Times Book Review, Publishers Weekly, Electric Literature, as an Audible Original, and is in the anthology On Girlhood: 15 Stories From the Well-Read Black Girl Library.

Photo by Neal Santos, courtesy of The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage.

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