StoryLab, invites you to apply for a 5-week series of creative writing workshops and lectures with a special focus on non-fiction, by the end of which participants will have one piece of peer-reviewed writing ready for publication in the upcoming StoryLab zine.
MemoryLab’s program will focus on exploring memory as a literary and artistic device.
If you are passionate about memoirs, personal essays, reportage, criticism, fiction or graphic novels that use memory and true/personal stories, or some hybrid experiment that mixes them all, then MemoryLab is the place where you can write and refine your stories.
It is often said that memories are the raw material for all of our stories, art, and creative works. But, memories are not static and infallible, according to the latest studies, every time we remember something we risk modifying it. Yet, it is a collection of memories (among other things) that creates what we call consciousness.
So, memories – either real or imagined – are a great literary device for narrative, characters, setting, themes, etc. And most of all it makes the stories “true”.
Time and Place:
This 5-week program will feature creative writing workshops, lectures, and group discussions. Workshops and lectures will be held in person in Prishtina.
For the convenience of our international participants, we will also provide an option to follow the workshops online.
The program is expected to start in early September 2024 and end in mid-October 2024.
Format:
The creative writing workshop will be led by Artrit Bytyçi, M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the New School in New York City.
StoryLab will also organize a lecture series alongside the workshops, where we will cover topics related to exploring the ways we use memory in literature, the arts, society, culture, etc.
The program will span for around eight sessions total, with around 10-14 participants, and will meet twice a week.
What to Expect:
The first two weeks will focus on the art of nonfiction. They will feature discussions and lectures on the craft of writing, exploration of various authors, and their methods. For each class, participants will also be assigned readings and short assignments.
During this time, we will also have multidisciplinary workshops and lectures in conceptual art, sociology/anthropology, psychology, sciences, and other intersectional fields.
The last two weeks will focus on the craft, where for each meeting 2-3 students will submit their texts in advance, which will be workshopped by their peers through comments, suggestions, and constructive critiques.
Submitted texts can be in Albanian and/or English.
The texts from the workshop will be collected and published in the StoryLab zine.
Application:
This program is free for the participants.
Please make sure you apply before our deadline: 26 August 2024. The deadline is extended to 4 September 2024.
Click here to fill in the Application
If you have any questions please write to us at info@storylab.al or KosovoStoryLab@gmail.com
This program is made possible with the generous support of the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports of the Republic of Kosovo.