About the Workshop

This generative workshop explores how persona shapes narrative, intimacy, and authority in both fiction and nonfiction. Each day begins with a guided discussion of voice alongside complementary craft elements such as structure, pacing, and characterization, followed by prompts and in-class sharing. We’ll experiment with distance, tone, and the masks we wear in prose, developing a voice that feels both deliberate and alive. Writers are encouraged to apply daily exercises to ongoing projects or new material. By week’s end, you’ll leave with several fresh drafts and a clearer sense of how to let voice lead your storytelling. A printmaking collaborative opportunity will also be available during the week.

About the Instructor

Garrard Conley is The New York Times bestselling author of the memoir Boy Erased (Riverhead/Penguin 2016) and the novel All the World Beside (Riverhead/Penguin 2024), as well as the creator and co-producer of the podcast UnErased: The History of Conversion Therapy in America (Limina/Stitcher 2018). His work has been published by The New York Times, Oxford American, Time, and Virginia Quarterly Review, among others. Conley is a graduate of Brooklyn College’s MFA program, where he was a Truman Capote Fellow in fiction. He currently serves as Associate Professor of Creative Writing at Kennesaw State University and on the nonfiction faculty of the Bennington Writing Seminars.