$45
9 a.m. to noon
State Library

This seminar explores the defining crises of literature and how crisis functions to unify plot structure, worldbuilding and character development. We will get into the nitty-gritty nuts and bolts of plot and touch on wider questions of art and politics in literature.

Consider how crisis plays out across our daily newsfeeds -- problems that have been going on for decades suddenly explode into national consciousness because protest or politics brings it to the forefront, usually employing narratives of crisis. In crafting narrative arcs, our job is to launch our characters head first into crisis, a turning point. These can be giant and earth-shattering or intimate, an apocalypse or a break-up and everything in between.

To register for a 2016 Louisiana Book Festival WordShop, complete this form or call 225.219.9503.

Daniel José Older is the New York Times bestselling author of the Bone Street Rumba urban fantasy series from Penguin’s Roc Books and the Young Adult novel Shadowshaper (Scholastic, 2015), a New York Times Notable Book of 2015, which was shortlisted for the Kirkus Prize in Young Readers’ Literature, the Andre Norton Award, the Locus, the Mythopoeic Award, the International Latino Book Award, and named one of Esquire’s 80 Books Every Person Should Read. He co-edited the Locus and World Fantasy nominated anthology Long Hidden: Speculative Fiction from the Margins of History. His short stories and essays have appeared in the Guardian, NPR, Tor.com, Salon, BuzzFeed, and the anthologies The Fire This Time and Mothership: Tales Of Afrofuturism And Beyond, among others. Daniel has guest edited at Fireside Fiction, Catapult, Crossed Genres, and Fantasy Magazine, and served as a judge for the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, the Burt Award for Young Adult Caribbean Literature, and the PEN American Award. He has taught at St. Johns University, Voices at VONA, Boricua College, and Rikers Island among other sites. You can find his thoughts on writing, read dispatches from his decade-long career as an NYC paramedic and hear his music at http://danieljoseolder.net/, on youtube and @djolder on twitter.