Writing Historical Fiction
July 14 @ 9:00 am - 11:00 am
This is a three-day course focused on generating—rather than simply workshopping—historical fiction. Using writing prompts and exercises, assignments, readings, and self-directed research, participants will leave the course with the seeds for larger writing projects. We’ll discuss the purpose of and place for historical fiction today, and how stories can transcend time altogether.
The class meet from 1-3pm on Saturday and Sunday, July 12 and 13, and from 9-11am on Monday, July 14.
$225 – Email SPL to register. We will keep a short waitlist in case of any cancellations.
About the Instructor
Ben Shattuck’s most recent book, The History of Sound (Viking, 2024), was the winner of the Story Prize Spotlight Award and nominated for the 2024 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction and the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction. His first book, Six Walks: In the Footsteps of Henry David Thoreau (2022), was a New Yorker Best Book of 2022, a Wall Street Journal Best Book of Spring, a New York Times Best Book of Summer, a New England Indie Bestseller, and was nominated for the Massachusetts Book Award. He is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and winner of the PEN Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers and a Pushcart Prize. He lives with his wife and daughter on the coast of Massachusetts, where he owns and runs the oldest general store in America, built in 1793.