Class Description
Welcome to GrubStreet's Contemporary Craft Series, in which we bring you low cost opportunities to learn from some of the most influential voices in contemporary literature. More seminars in the series will become available throughout the year – subscribe to our newsletter to be the first to know when new authors will be teaching with us. Please note that sessions will not be recorded.
Both of Hernán Díaz's novels, In the Distance and Trust, focus on blind spots in the American canon. The first concerns the territorial establishment of this nation: although many accounts glamorize the brutal expansion west, it took inordinately long for these narratives to coalesce into a genre—and once they did, they were largely marginalized. Not much later, America engaged in another sort of pursuit: a quest for economic supremacy. And though numerous books deal with class, conspicuous consumption, and manners, almost none addresses how money is actually made.
In conversation with GrubStreet's Senior Education Director, Erin Weiss, Hernan will examine what makes these narratives so identifiable — on what traditions they rely, how subverting genre subverts history, and what role voice (and voicelessness) plays on the page. Through our discussion, we will come to see the way that blind spots have everything to do with point of view.
Hernan will also respond to pre-submitted attendee questions, offer a writing prompt, and close with a live Q&A.
Thanks to the excellent literary citizenship of our donors, scholarships are available for all GrubStreet classes. To apply, click the gray "APPLY FOR SCHOLARSHIP" button. In order to be considered for a scholarship, you must complete your application at least one week before the start date of a class. Please await our scholarship committee's decision before registering for the class. We cannot hold spots in classes, so the sooner you apply, the better. Scholarships cannot be applied retroactively.
For more detailed information about GrubStreet scholarships, including how to contribute to scholarship funds for other students, click here.
This class will take place using Zoom videoconferencing. After registering, a yellow Resources tab will appear in this section containing a link to join class. Please note that you will need to be logged into view the Resources tab.
Zoom Participation:
In our experience, the intimate nature of a writing workshop benefits from on-camera participation. Students are of course welcome to turn their camera off whenever they need to, but it is a community norm for cameras to be on most of the time. You can learn more about using Zoom here.
Zoom Accessibility:
You can enable closed captioning at any time during the meeting by clicking the CC button at the bottom of the screen. If you'd like to access the transcript after class, please make sure to let your instructor ahead of time that you'd like a copy.