Hawaii Fiction Writers Events: August thru October 2016

Saturday, August 20, 2016:

10:00 a.m. to noon - Aina Haina Library

Guest Speaker: Craig Howes

Craig Howes, UH professor and director of the Center for Biographical Research at UH Manoa, on “How do you turn personal experience or factual material into fiction?”:

There are huge debates about this at the moment, with people talking at length about “biofiction,” which is sort of the equivalent of a film’s claim to be “based on a true story.” And more and more, you’re hearing novelists and short story writers saying things in interviews like--“Of course, my work is based on my own experience--but I add unicorns and alien lovers.” And of course, in other cases, short stories and novels draw extensively on historical or contemporary events--DeLillo, Martin Amis, Hilary Mantel, etc. etc.--but place fictional characters at the center. (It used to be called “historical fiction”) Iʻve actually written about this, and talked about what constitutes a “fictobiographical pact” with the reader.

Saturday, September 17, 2016:
10:00 a.m. to noon - Aina Haina Library
“Opening Lines” - Workshop led by Michael Little

As Glinda the Good Witch says in The Wizard of Oz, “It’s always best to start at the beginning.”  Twenty opening lines from literature to amuse and inspire, first drafts of a dozen opening lines to familiar stories and novels, and a chance to write opening lines for a snippet of monologue overheard on a Honolulu street.

Saturday, October 15, 2016:
10:00 a.m. to noon - Aina Haina Library
“Poetry Skills for Fiction Writers” - 

Workshop led by Ann Inoshita

Ann Inoshita, who teaches at Leeward Community College and has published both poetry and fiction, shares her insights on how fiction writers can draw on elements of poetry to enrich their stories.